In
the focus on Africa in 2005, it has often been hard
to find African voices as opposed to European “experts”,
while self-proclaimed saviours like Bob Geldof have
been all to quick to declare, for example, that ‘a
great justice has been done’ by the G8 meetings.
A recent report by Ligali, an organisation that campaigns
for social, economic and cultural equality on behalf
of the African community in Britain, highlights these
contradictions and concludes that the solutions to Africa’s
problems do not reside in the corridors of Westminster
or the White House but will come from African people
themselves.
Africa is helpless. Africa is poor.
Africa is, according to the song, a ‘world of
dread and fear’ (Do They Know It’s Christmas?
(Feed the World) written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure)
These myths have pervaded the British
psyche and its media for decades. The ignorance, racism
and misinformation that inform these culturally and
politically constructed illusions were particularly
prevalent earlier this year preceding the G8 Summit
at Gleneagles. The Summit and the subsequent rowdiness
stirred by its supporters - the most boisterous and
arrogant of who was the musician, Bob Geldof –
ensured that people throughout the British Isles were
forced to confront one of the greatest injustices perpetrated
by humankind on their fellow human; the reality of how
centuries of economic and human exploitation that has
resulted in the people of the Continent of Africa facing
poverty, malnutrition, disease and ultimately, cultural
disempowerment.
Unfortunately, the opportunity to seriously
and intelligently discuss the issues and solutions that
relate to Africa’s development and empowerment
was lost as an overtly racist motivation informed the
media agenda and ensured that not only were the same
old myths propagated about Africa but that new ones
were added to the mix. In addition, the guilt complex
that inhabits the British psyche was easily pacified
by white wrist bands or, as in the case of many a right-wing
newspaper editor, by attempting to dissolve any sense
of responsibility that people in the West might feel
for repairing the damage their politics and economies
have inflicted on African countries.
As an organisation whose primary work
currently involves monitoring the media for offensive
representation and actively challenging the inaccuracies
and inequality inherent in that representation, we have
noted the flourishing trend of myth making and the equally
prevalent tendency to actively silence informed African
voices who talk about African affairs in favour of European
experts who talk from a eurocentric perspective about
African affairs, ultimately to the benefit of their
respective nations. This becomes increasingly problematic
when the solutions that the so-called European experts
want to instigate are in direct contradiction with what
African people themselves want and need.
Even as a media organisation, we have
found it challenging to say the least, to find African
voices in the mainstream media talking about African
affairs. And so, the Making of an Impoverished History
was written. Initially, it was to be a brief article
summarising the media’s approach to Africa but
we soon realised that ‘brief’ was perhaps
not the way to go about this. We had to contextualise
the matter, historically and globally, and so embarked
on making this a more comprehensive but accessible report
that provides a more joined up picture of the politics
behind the G8 Summit, the Live 8 event and its figure
head, Bob Geldof, and the British media debate about
Africa.
In highlighting these issues, came
the inevitability of dealing with the notion of giving
charity versus the responsibility of encouraging justice
and how the British media have fought against the latter
with strategies of defence and denial. This gave rise
to headlines including ‘Why I wont be squandering
any more money on Africa' and documentaries such as
Channel 4’s ‘Living with Aids’ which,
along with a barrage of other media outputs reinforced
the notion that Africa’s current situation is
the fault of African people and therefore people of
the West need not feel a sense of responsibility about
African issues. Of course, when you look into the instances
of corruption, fraud and commercial exploitation that
occur on the Continent, a European, American and most
recently Asian corporate or indeed governmental influence
is not far behind. From the rampant practice of selling
cheap and second-hand rifles to just about anyone who
will pay the right price, to the contemptuous reluctance
of Western banking institutions to relinquish the financial
benefits they get from holding the accounts of a small
number of corrupt African leaders, corruption and exploitative
profit making has proved to be a very Western affair.
The Make Poverty History campaign,
the Live 8 concert and the Geldof agenda also pervaded
the media reporting. Here, the media found an apparently
liberal guise behind which they could conceal their
prejudices and racist presumptions. Bob Geldof, far
from being the liberal saviour of Africa as many referred
to him as, displayed his utter contempt for African
opinion in the way he actively ignored it and ensured
that his voice, his agenda and his vision of Africa
was viewed as the definitive stopping point. At the
time, this was hard enough for African people to bare
but following the redundant exercise that was the G8
Summit and the way in which its seemingly laudable objectives
have subsequently fallen, and some would say been pulled
apart, Sir Bob’s announcement that ‘a great
justice has been done’ is not only arrogant but
disenfranchising and frustrating for the African people
who know that his ridiculous assertion could not be
further from the truth. Of course, now the media are
suffering from Africa fatigue and therein sets the apathy.
In researching this report, it became
obvious that for African people, the solutions to Africa’s
issues are multifaceted and originate not in the corridors
of Westminster or the White House but from African people
themselves. The stories that we will rarely if ever
hear about in the media are some of the success stories
of African development, the workable solutions designed
for and by us, examples of good governance and the revolution
needed to overturn trading injustice. Some of these
are addressed in our report but in truth, because of
its specific remit, it is something that will have to
be covered in depth at a later date. However, we have
always been a solutions orientated organisation and
therefore ended the report with ways in which we can
continue to aid our own progress and the rebuilding
of our great Continent. The British government clearly
have responsibilities including the enforcing of anti-corruption
legislation and stemming its drain of skilled African
people from the Continent. However, we also focused
on some of the ways in which the African Union, African
governments and African people in Diaspora can develop
Africa through self-determinate means.
* This is a summarised version of a
report produced by Ligali (pronounced lee-ga-lee), entitled
“The Making of an Impoverished History”.
Ligali is the African British Equality Authority. African
British is the term now used to describe the community
previously mislabelled as Afro Caribbean, Black British,
UK Black, Coloured and Black. It embraces all British
nationals with antecedents originating directly from
Africa or indirectly via African diasporic communities,
such as those in the Caribbean and South America.
Ligali actively campaigns for social,
economic and cultural equality on behalf of the African
community. Ligali is a non profit voluntary organisation.
Through investigation and monitoring, we aim to challenge,
identify and recommend workable solutions to current
social issues that refuse to recognise the equal and
inalienable rights of African people in the UK. Our
main objectives are to turn talk into action and apathy
into productivity.
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