The media’s view of Africa

Ignored, underrepresented, underestimated

Text Claus Stäcker, Director, Programs for Africa

In a spectacularly beautiful section of the Sahara in the border region between Libya and Chad, I was once again promptly made aware of my ignorance: After hundreds of grueling desert kilometers, I thought nothing would amaze me again so soon on our expedition. We had discovered hippo bones and Stone Age settlements, tasted desert truffles and met rebels with machine guns. And French soldiers with velcro strips on their uniforms, on which they could pin the flags of France or Chad, depending on the situation.

But when we suddenly came across a gigantic tank graveyard, we were taken aback: a steel scrapyard stretching for several kilometers, in the middle of this deserted wasteland. Several dozens of tanks, as if just parked. Some were shot up, but well preserved by the sand. Artifacts of an immense desert battle sometime during the Cold War that I had never heard of. In the German media, there was at best a headline about a “LibyanChadian border conflict.”

For nearly 20 years, world powers and regional interest groups fought bitter battles in the quiet splendor of the Aouzou Strip. Proxy battles and battles of conquest, East-West protection powers, pariah states and inscrutable militias even the former East German state, the GDR, got involved in the Sahara.

The conflicts of the time continue to have an impact today: As recently as 2021, not far from the battlefield, Chad’s president Idriss Déby was attacked and killed by rebels. They had advanced from Libya and were carrying Russian weapons.

The Muhacaona tribe collecting water in Angola.

Western media reported very little about it. Chad is almost always at the top of the list of most ignored countries in the world. DW journalist Eric Topona registers the media’s lack of interest with incomprehension. Chad is the fifth largest country in Africa, surrounded by unstable countries and threatened by jihadist groups. It hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring countries and is security-relevant for Europe. “Surely the world must have an interest in supporting Chad on the road to democracy,” doubts Topona, who was imprisoned there for several months without charge on false accusations. Today, in safe exile, he fights against the silence. “As a journalist in an international media company like DW, I now have more leeway to inform people about the political, social and economic situation in Chad. We can spread the truth without fear of being persecuted by the regime for doing so. That’s where I see my role to educate the public about what’s really happening in Chad.”

It is not just from Chad that little is heard in the West. When the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) lists ignored refugee crises worldwide each year, African countries are always in the lead. In addition to Chad, those affected in 2022 included Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Burundi and Ethiopia, which the world media were particularly indifferent to. Most disregarded is the Democratic Republic of Congo the second largest African country. “DR Congo has become a textbook example of neglect,” states Jan Egeland, secretary general of NRC. “It is one of the worst humanitarian crises of this century, yet those inside and outside Africa who have the power to bring about change turn a blind eye to the waves of brutal and targeted attacks on civilians that are destroying communities.”

The under-reporting is absurd the aid organization Care compares the media coverage of the legal dispute between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, (ca. 217,000 published online articles) with the worst drought in 40 years in Angola (only 1,800 published reports). Four million people there are suffering from hunger and more than 100,000 children under the age of five are malnourished.

Angolan constitutional and human rights scholar Professor Fernando Macedo of Luanda University has long observed this media aversion: “Angola and Africa as a whole receive little attention, especially in the Western press. This slows down a speedy and positive integration of Africa into the progress of humanity. Africa and Angola represent important markets with large numbers of consumers and natural resources that should be reported on in a fair and balanced manner. The issues should be the same as those covered for Western societies reminding rulers of their accountability, accompanying peaceful transformation. These issues from Africa deserve as much attention in the world press.”

It has been almost a quarter of a century since I stood in front of the tank battlefield in the Sahara. Not much seems to have changed in the public consciousness. Little is known to this day about the history, borders, country structures,

The media of the Global North also have a duty of care and completeness.

peoples, customs, political structures of African countries. Complex crises whether self-inflicted or not are ignored just as much as positive, dynamic developments.

How often did I have to explain as a correspondent before the 2010 World Cup that South Africa has a diversified economy and modern hotel facilities, and that the football stadiums were planned by modern construction companies and would be completed on time. How much things have gone downhill in South Africa since then belongs in the media just as much as the joie de vivre and innovative power of the country, of the entire continent.

Hunger, droughts, floods or cyclones trigger compassion and sympathy, and there is nothing wrong with that. But our responsibility as media makers goes beyond portraying African crises. It does not end with triggering stereotypical aid reflexes, highlighting grievances and bad governance. The media of the Global North also have a duty of care and completeness. They distort reality when they describe only risks but not opportunities. Conveying the positive dynamics of the continent does not mean omitting criticism. Painting a multicolored picture is by no means a whitewash.