The role of Humanitarian Communication in Africa

Afro-pessimism to Afro-positivism: The new age of media?

After the black-lash of constant negative stereotyping of Africa, there became a new approach to reporting on Africa, Afro-positivism! Comparing The Economist’s 2000 and 2011 cover show there has been a clear shift in the way the media report and portray Africa. Africa is seen as an optimistic continent that is proud of its “Africans”. Articles like the the Guardians “return to the Middle Ages”, which suggests a 12hours flight takes them back 700years has been heavily condemned and no longer appropriate when reporting of Africa .

The New Review is an example of the afro-optimism that has emerged as a black-lash of Afro-pessimism. It rejects negative stereotypes and “victim mentality”, instead focusing positivity, optimism, economic growth, progress and celebrating ‘Africanness’. The black colour points to the blackness and darkness of the continent while giving salience to the white text. The most salient words communicate stereotyped images of Africa: poverty, HIV, drought, disease and corruption. The dominant red background with yellow words evokes the communist flag and the bloody African conflicts of the cold war era (Nothias, 2014).

The New Way?

The many decades of Afro-pessimism left many ignorant and stereotypical of Africa. While stereotyping was/is common the constant negative stereotypes of Africa brought about huge black-lash to western media. This led to the emergence of Afro-positivism, which celebrates, not frowns, for being African and embraces African culture.current period of western media’s portrayal of Arica. While critiques may say that it glosses over what Africa actual looks like and in some cases fantasies Africa, all can agree that it’s an improvement and should be furthered!

Bibliography:

Wainaina, B., 2005. How to write about Africa. Nairobi: Kwani Trust.

Franks, S., 2005. Reporting Africa: Problems and Perspectives. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 2.

Mahadeo, M. and McKinney, J., 2007. Media representations of Africa: Still the same old story. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 4(2), pp.14-20

Ako-Adjei, N.B., 2015. How Not to Write About Africa: African Cuisines in Food Writing. Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, 15(1), pp.44-55.

Nothias, T., 2014. ‘Rising’,‘hopeful’,‘new’: visualizing Africa in the age of globalization. Visual Communication, 13(3), pp.323-339.