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Dr Gift Gwindingwe

“IN our consumption-oriented, mediated society, much of what comes to pass as important is based often on the stories produced and disseminated by media institutions.

Media are central to what ultimately comes to represent our social realities.” (Brooks and Herbet 2006:297).

Media are therefore the pinnacle of the images that we desire.

Africa needs media that represent her social realities, media that represent a distorted culture, economy and political landscape that Africa is navigating.

We have an Africa that is dressed in borrowed robs at two planes, literally and epistemologically.

Literally, the dress code of most Africans is moulded around trending Western designer fashions; the physical built, clothes, hair dress etc that African youths desire are all an envy of the Western culture.

Africa has been beating other people’s drums for too long, neglecting her own potentialities.

Marking the African Union (AU) Day commemorations must be an occasion to trace our footsteps, to trace our roots.

Media are the pathfinder in this endeavour.

Epistemologically, we are made to believe to know is to think like whites; our curricula in institutions of learning are moulded around Western designs; our (international) channels of communication are either English, French, Portuguese or German.

Culturally, we satisfy the cultural contours of the West, for example, our concept of beauty (beauty pageant competitions, music/arts), our overall philosophy or world outlook is that things are not good unless they meet the so-called international best practices (IBP), practices whose inception have no African input.

Theory travel and funding is determined and guided by the West and any discourse is meaningful and becomes of international relevance at the judgment of the funder.

Corruption is determined and viewed through the Western lenses (international looting is trade though the centre/buyer determines the price and terms to give the seller/periphery!).

The world systems are skewed in favour of the centre where technological advancements mean an enlarged chasm between the centre and the periphery.

Africa, arise! Africa, self raise!

We have 59 years of self introspection for AU!

Where are we going and where are we coming from as AU?

Indeed, “…much of what comes to pass as important is based often on the stories produced and disseminated by media institutions.”

Media and media institutions must take a leading role in re-imaging and projecting Africa that benefits Africans.

It is high time we come out of the shell; we extricate ourselves from the jaws of neo-colonialism by creating a new centre that grows inwards from the periphery.

Schools of journalism in Africa should be mandated to train and ingrain knowledge of self love and not self hate in journalists.

This is the time to demonstrate integration of knowledge and wisdom:

Knowledge from the global technological systems that have become part of us; wisdom from the indigenous knowledge systems that are part of our cultural fabric, that are our cultural heritage.

Media and journalism institutions have a mammoth task to imbue ethics and values that prioritise unity in diversity among Africans; patriotic/nationalistic journalism that has a unifying objective; journalism that speaks for Africa and not about Africa. Patriotic journalism must be solution based.

Africa needs more of home-grown solutions than imported ones.

Needless to say, we must carve our own niche in this global village.

Journalism is the engine room that drives development in Africa; political, economic and cultural development as well as social cohesion.

African journalism must define the Africa that Africans want and can identify with.

When art is captured, culture is under siege.

We need journalism schools that teach our art of reporting; that teach our art of representation and the result is a liberated culture.

In the reality of a global village, let us distinguish ourselves as an able race that gives life to the union called AU.

AU should not be a silhouette of the giant that Africa is.

The media in Africa is challenged to reconstruct that giant and its dwellers and all its signs and symbols that have a signifying value to the giant that Africa is.

The maxim of a sleeping giant is a metaphorical death of Africa.

Let us talk about the awakening giant that Africa is.

The awakening process is originated in the newsroom, a citadel of democracy, African democracy that identifies with the giant and her resources.

Where definitions are provided, understanding about democracy and development varies immensely.

Imported conceptions of development take Africa to the backyard of Europe and the West.

Africa cannot be positively visible if she waits for outsiders to tell when and where she is beautiful, important and vice-versa. Creativity has to do with weaving through thickets of confusion and coming out with lucid and distinctive definitions.

Schools of journalism across Africa have the responsibility to construct identities that suit Africa and deconstruct those that dwarf our image.

Integrating Africa with the rest of the world and yet distinguishing her as an economic potential is what African media should be grappling with.

Media institutions need funding to capacitate them and influence research.

As Heads of States gather year in and year out in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, let it dawn on them that the media are at the centre of every form of development.

It is more than essential that African countries invest immensely in lubricating the area that experiences the interplay between media, development and democracy.

It is that point of intersection that leads to a viable progression towards self-reliance.

There is a need to invest heavily in our own institutions so that they reflect the needs and wants of funders.

Reliance on external funders is an invitation to foreign and external ethos and values that replace the Africanness of Africans.

A media practitioner or journalist should be equipped and capacitated to navigate in the thick forest that the world has become, to navigate between the global and the local and come up with a hybrid yet unique representation of the Africa that Africans dream of.

The global village is a village in competition.

He whose identity emerges or towers above the rest occupies the centre and the dwarfed identities occupy the periphery and bear the brunt of marginalisation and economic suffocation.

We want the pen, the mic and the camera that function well to illuminate the giant in Africa.

The heritage that Africa is proud of should be the light on a bushel and never under (as are the most cases!)

In a world with competing journalisms, African nations are called upon to invest immensely in their own media institutions to facilitate media constructions of Africa that paint the Africa that we want and are proud of.

l Dr Gift Gwindingwe is a lecturer and media specialist in the Department of English and Media Studies at Great Zimbabwe University. He writes in his personal capacity.