Whenever friends complain to me that Western press coverage of Africa is unduly negative, I point out that perhaps that's what the Western journalists see. We all notice what is different about new places that we travel to so, perhaps, that's what the foreign journalists see when they visit us. I further point out that if we want our story to be told from our perspective, we must tell our own story. Al Jazeera has done so for the Middle East and, perhaps, Islam but we don't necessarily need such a network. Cameron Duodu has argued passionately from his perspective as an African in the Western press time and again, and a new generation (eg Komla Dumor) have the opportunity to do same.
In a recent Time article, Andrew Rusigara, a Ugandan coffee exporter compared Bono telling us what to do to Amy Winehouse advising the USA on the credit crunch. Dambisa Moyo suggests that such celebrity Aid champions are detrimental to Africa. It helps that she's quite pretty and telegenic so she gets a lot of airtime to argue her case which she does intelligently. Bill Easterly, who is not an African, suggests that Bono and Geldof are a waste of time.
Bill Easterly brings me to the point. I recently received a book entitled 'Africa - The Good News' (ISBN: 0-620-42379-X). It comprises contributions from 43 different authors; Bill Easterly and Ken Ofori-Atta are 2 of the contributors. It's one of a growing number of publications mostly out of South Africa that seek to counter Afropessimism. To quote the editorial team, their objective is to "present Africa positively without ignoring it's challenges".
At http://www.africagoodnews.com, one can get updated news on Africa in the same vein.
It's one perspective of Africa but a very important and often overlooked one. We mostly get news on our own continent from Western media. They give an outsider's view, which is also important. Our own stories often lack quality so this is an admirable effort. For all of us, wherever resident, this should improve our perspective.
