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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Jan 11 2010 - 08:14:00 EST
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Analysis-Clichd-reporting-does-nothing.5970389.jp
Analysis:
Clichéd reporting does nothing to help Africa's cause
*Published Date: *11 January 2010
By Rob Crilly
THERE was something achingly familiar about the news that filtered out of
Angola late on Friday: a long-forgotten war had claimed three more lives as
separatists fighting for a land called Cabinda had ambushed a coach.
Three deaths in an obscure conflict would not have merited much attention
had it not been for one fact: the coach was carrying the Togolese football
team to their opening fixture of the Africa Cup of Nations.
What came next was also all too familiar – a series of clichéd attempts to
join the dots between unconnected events.
"World Cup Threat: Fears after Togo Bloodbath" is how one tabloid summed up
the mood.
The attack in Cabinda, we were told by a plethora of experts, would have
profound implications for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The Africa that emerged from the stories was a dangerous place, where
maniacal gunmen roamed the jungles with AK-47s. Some commentators even
talked about the "frenzied" nature of African football, as if the natives
had corrupted our beautiful game with their witchdoctors and drums.
Missing from the headlines and commentaries was any real understanding of
Africa.
The continent is vast; its peoples are different. And the problems faced by
one nation are different to the challenges faced by another.
Gaze upon the tropical forests of Liberia, feel its sticky heat, and you
could be on a different planet to Ethiopia, with its cool mountain
highlands. The bustling souks of Morocco could not be more different to the
Latin rhythm of life in Mozambique. For every conflict, such as Sudan, there
is a place of peace, like Botswana.
In the same way, Cabinda is not Johannesburg. One is a desperately poor
province in the centre of the continent, battered by decades of war. The
other is a booming, cosmopolitan city at the heart of Africa's largest
economy. And little of the coverage pointed out that the two places are
separated by more than 1,500 miles.
Of course, South Africa has its problems. The country has wild extremes of
poverty and wealth, a divide that manifests itself in the epidemic of
violent crime. But that is not the same as Cabinda's problem with terrorism.
Nor did the security risks spoil the British and Irish Lions rugby tour to
South Africa last year, or England's current cricket series. And it is not
as if Africa is the only place where attacks can happen – any major sporting
event must protect itself from a repeat of last year's assault on the Sri
Lankan cricket team in Pakistan.
That shooting was reported in the correct political context – of tensions
between India and Pakistan, the unsolved status of Kashmir, and the creeping
influence of Islamic extremism.
No such luxury when it comes to Africa. The entire continent is simply
written off as hopeless, filled with machete-wielding genocidaires,
bloodthirsty dictators and skinny refugees.
Until we challenge those outdated stereotypes, then coverage of such a
beautiful and captivating place will bear the patronising echoes of the
Victorian explorers.
A successful and spectacular World Cup will be the best way to start that
process, by displaying the continent's rich history of arts, culture and
commerce while highlighting the diversity of countries that just happen to
inhabit the same landmass.
• Rob Crilly reported for The Scotsman from Africa from 2004 to 2008. His
new book, Saving Darfur, is due to be published by Reportage Press in
February.