My last blog entry was actually written for a column in the Daily Monitor. It was published on their Web site and got a few interesting comments. This one from "Nyanzi" is my favorite:
"A mzungu taking pictures in Africa means that he or she is going to report negatives,lies about Africa.That has been the order of the the day ever since.No wonder people do not want that no more.
With your experience, do we have any thing good in Africa?.
-Do Africans laugh?
-Do Africans have names?
-Do Africans reason?
Africa deserves a better represantation."
This comment expresses a prevailing attitude that I've heard a number of times. The media that is given to Western [read mzungu] audiences often portrays the starving, nameless African child or the widow dying of AIDS or the mobs of angry black men killing each other with machetes.
This is precisely one of the reasons I'm studying journalism. Journalists are mediators, as an elderly man told me yesterday, and I want to illustrate a different side of Africa. When I'm here, I know there is poverty and corruption and all that, but I don't see it in the people around me. I see smiles. I hear joking. I meet passionate people who are striving to report the truth and work for peace.
Yes, Africans laugh. A lot.
Yes, Africans have names. Awesome ones.
Yes, Africans reason. Reason with intellect and passion.
And yes, Africa deserves better representation.
16 June 2009
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