I am generally not surprised this is happening but it still does not make me feel less infuriated. After Obama’s historic victory had dominated the news agenda for several weeks, the Western media giants ensured Africa dutifully took its usual place at the top of the news agenda….for all the wrong reasons as usual. The usual images of dying children with flies gallivanting all over their chapped lips.
Reports in the media about Africa in the pasts weeks has been all about Mr. Mugabe and his cholera ridden Zimbabwe, reinforcing the widespread negative image of Africa. It makes it seem all we Africans do, from the moment we rise from our straw mats in our mud huts to the minute the sun sets, is to kill each other. These reports erroneously portrays Africans as a bunch of backward and barbaric people who kill each for fun. Its as if nothing good ever happens in Africa.
So I was hoping, only hoping that for just a fraction of a moment the media cameras and the pens will slip from Mugabe’s Zimbabwe onto Ghana. Just a bit of positive reportage on Africa! That’s all I was hoping for. But I guess that’s not sensational enough for the Western media. “Ghana peacefully elects a new President”… that’s not headline stuff! It simply does not sell. But “Bloodshed as Ghana goes to the polls” rather strikes a familiar bell in their ears. They would gleefully show images of soldiers beating up voters with the butt of their AK47s rather than show Ghanaians lined up to cast their vote in a peaceful and civil manner. Why?? Images of peace and civility just does not fit the African stereotype!! That’s what it is and its sad really sad.
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