Mr. Kachingwe has a point. But he has to realise that the media is own by certain interests. It may be in the interests of the owner to portray Africa the way they do. The onus is on us to correct their views when warranted.
One the other hand, almost uniformly, African governments have yet woken up to the value and utility of fundamental data that is readily and "predictably-regularly" available. As such, even well-meaning donors may put out estimates that are way off the mark -- especially in stuations in which it behooves one to err on the side of caution, e.g. overstating the extent and intensity of food-shortages.
Lack of data & familiarity with the situation also allows inexperienced 'expatriates' to make recommendations that can have terrible consequencies.
E.g. If my annual income is, say, US $3,000 what would say if you found me cruising around in the latest BMW; given that theire is nothing inherently wrong in owning such an auto?
By the same token, aid agencies, sometimes make recommendations to African governments that are in and of themselves good in, say UK, but possibly disastrous of the economy, etc in say Chad. African countries sometimes have no choice but try to implement such 'Don Quixotic' schemes -- especially since often those same donor hold the purse strings to grants to get things going.
Ex: Kenya's Moi one day simply announced that the govt was going to supply all primary school children in the nation with milk with near-immediate effect! Did he consult the min. finance? min. agric? how was the milk -- a perishable commodity -- going to be distributed in Northern Kenya or elsewhere?
Later our fearless, leader was to announce, on the advice (insistence?) of Paris-bound UNESCO -- only he told the rest of us it was his wise vision ...: Let there be UPE! And shazam! it was... One can get an idea of how UNESCO remote-controls, world-wide, this white-elephant through its 'Education For All' (EFA) program at: http://www2.unesco.org/wef/countryreports/home.html -- be sure to check out Uganda's report.
Aside from the obvious fact that, Uganda not having a shotrage of primary school dropouts -- the fate of the majority of participants-- and that the moneys could have been more cost-effectively used to build, furnish & support at least one technical school to cater for A-Level & O-Level leavers not bound for higher education --- the main beneficiaries of this boondoggle are likely to be the careers & lifestyles of Paris-bound bureaucrats who oversee, coordinate and administer it.
Since, almost to an individual, African rulers could care less about the interests of their respective countries, these white-elephants aren't going to die anytime soon.
My guess is that, such bait-and-switch operations will continue to bleed Africa for at least one century.
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Subject: ugnet_: Are Africa Needs Exaggerated?. Food for Thought
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 14:03:47 +0000 (GMT)
Are Africa Needs Exaggerated?
The Times of Zambia (N’Dola)
OPINION
By KELVIN KACHINGWE
January 23, 2004
http://www.times.co.zm/news/viewnews.cgi?category=8&id=1074836080
RECENTLY, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that a group of leading charities in the United Kingdom overstated the seriousness of the African food shortages in 2002 and 2003.
According to auditors Valid International, some fund-raising campaigns had talked of famine or a crisis of biblical proportions, which was an exaggeration.
Apart from using misleading and emotive language, the audit said some charities involved in raising US$29 million did not consult local people enough and did not therefore fully understand their needs.
As a case in point, the audit cited one charity that provided an expensive diesel pump to irrigate a small field where a foot pump would have been sufficient.
However, a spokesperson for the charities’ umbrella Disasters Emergency Committee, Richard Miller says they would in future pay more attention to what the people needed exactly.
The BBC’s Stephanie Irvine says the report does not question the validity of charities running campaigns for disaster prevention, but rather suggests ways in which those campaigns could work more effectively.
That said however, the revelation that some charities overstated the grimness of the food crisis in Southern Africa only goes to raise questions about the validity of most information coming from the West about Africa.
For a very long time now, Africans have expressed worry at the Western media for sensationalising the negative side of Africa.
Most Africans have complained at what is seen to be biased reportage of African issues by the Western media in that most of them only concentrate on the wars and poverty pirating the continent.
It is this kind of scenario that has led to some African governments contracting some foreign agencies to help in image building abroad.
One David Moyo, a Zimbabwean resident in Lusaka’s Libala township for instance cites the coverage of the wars in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone as cases where the Western media has gone to town in their reporting thus creating a picture as though the whole continent is in an armed conflict.
He says the Western media will only take an interest in Africa if there is something negative happening.
“I remember that before Robert Mugabe started his land reform programme, there was very little news about Zimbabwe in the Western media, and probably very few Westerners knew the exact location of Zimbabwe on the world map.
“But because the land reforms created controversy, the Western media shifted its focus from elsewhere to Zimbabwe and thus contributed to the current impasse between Mugabe and the opposition, for the opposition feel encouraged to be in the international media, and that is what fuels conflicts.
“Therefore, because the international media, which is mostly Western concentrates on the negative side of Africa, what most Westerners know about Africa is that it is a continent full of wars and poverty and that you can’t have peace anywhere,” he said.
And Humphrey Mulenga also cites the coverage of the DR Congo which pitted Rwanda, Uganda and the rebels on one hand and Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and the Congo government on the other as one case in which the Western media overwrought in their reportage.
“They tried to create an impression as if the whole continent was at war, and yet even within Southern Africa, only three or so countries had sent troops in the DRC to help the government fight the rebels who were being aided by Rwanda and Uganda.
“Countries like Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and South Africa had all taken a neutral stand. But they were saying in their reports that the conflict is threatening the stability of the whole continent and that more countries are expected to join in the war,” Mulenga says.
He further says because the West has always exaggerated about African issues, the image that most Westerners have of Africa is a continent deep in abject poverty with almost everyone living with HIV/AIDS.
Mulenga could certainly have a point here, for one remembers seasoned politician Vernon Mwaanga’s account in his autobiography; An Extraordinary life.
Mwaanga recounts that on his first visit to the United States of America way back in 1963, part of his itinerary was that he stays for a couple of days with a white family that was involved in some commercial farming.
And because this white family did not know what to exactly expect from this African who was visiting them for the first time, they went to extremes such as reading some material on the Masai to have some rough idea of what an African is like.
VJ says from the look of things, this white family did not expect him to know any English word let alone to have gone through some formal education.
And because of that, they did not utter anything to him when they went to welcome him at the airport until VJ himself realised what could possibly be going through his hosts mind.
With that VJ took the initiative to say something in English much to the amusement of his host who later confessed that he did not expect a black person from Africa to know how to communicate in English.
And as if that was not enough, his host was so delighted to learn that his visitor could converse and effectively communicate in the Queen’s language that he openly told his wife and neighbours that their problems were lessened after all, for their African guest can speak English.
Within no time, VJ found himself giving lectures to these whites who because they were supposed to be well read and educated, should have had much information about Africa and its people than an African like him about America and its people.
And yet more drama followed. As VJ who also served as minister of Foreign Affairs and Zambia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York continued with his sponsored programme, he was alarmed at the high levels of ignorance among Americans as regards Africa.
One white man asked VJ to convey his greetings to his friend a Mr something resident in Lagos and working as an engineer for the city council there.
The white man was under the illusion that Lagos and Lusaka are in the same neighbourhood not knowing that Africa is a big continent and as such it is not always possible to know everyone living within your neighbourhood, let alone in another country, especially as far apart as Zambia and Nigeria.
But such are the levels of ignorance among many Westerners that one American told a visiting Zambian student in the United States that thought former South African president Nelson Mandela was the president of the whole African continent.
But just who would you blame for this lack of accurate information among many Westerners about Africa? The media or the education system?
For VJ, he blamed the Western governments for not doing enough to educate their people about other people’s way of life.
But in this age where the mass media has become so influential, the international media would not entirely escape the blame.
Would you therefore blame American Secretary of State Colin Powell for seeking a heavenly intervention by asking the pope to convince the Zambian government to accept genetically modified food at the height of the food crisis two years ago?
Food for thought
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