We often hear political and business leaders and Africanists talk about the need to "tell the African story." For us, "tell the African story" means nothing. In other words, it is a cliché of no value. We don't know what it is supposed to mean. It may be that the idea of a definitive "African story" gains traction as a response to bigoted representations of the continent that have been influential in Western journalism and thinking. But like the idea of the need for "positive stories about Africa", it's facile and unhelpful. Our suspicion is that political and business leaders say that when they feel uncomfortable with airing real problems that ordinary Africans experience. The phrase also assumes--as our blog title mockingly suggests--that Africa is a Country. African journalists rarely think or talk about their vocation in these terms. In most cases, they lack the continental consciousness to think or write in this way. The national trumps any continental solidarity or focus. So does the local. Their focus is very different from their counterparts in the West who report on "Africa." Journalists are also under stress and lack resources to travel between or report from elsewhere in Africa. News organizations mostly republish wire stories or cut and paste reports from Western media. In South Africa, for example, it is not unusual for prominent newspapers to take their "international" and continental coverage straight from Western publications, often ones that stereotype Africans. For example, the Independent Group's newspapers republish copy from Britain's rightwing "Daily Telegraph" and the tabloid "Daily Mirror." The worst is the Sunday Independent, where copy from the New York Times and Washington Post make up whole sections and the Mail and Guardian which reposts UK Guardian copy in bulk on its world news pages with very little edits. There's a few homegrown networks (e.g. SABC Africa, which may not be operating anymore) or subsidiaries of "global" or US networks-like CNBC Africa, ABN News-which attempt a continental bias, but can't help themselves in parroting cookie-cutter Western storylines, tone or foci. That said, most African journalists, like their counterparts in the West, are connected to social media which means there is now no limitation to their stories being read by Western mass audiences and elites alike. One thing to do, especially online, might be to talk back to Western media about these stereotypes. We see that space opening up more and more. We are reminded of a piece written a while back by a former New York Times correspondent in India writing at the end of his tenure about how he had to get used to the idea that the subjects of his reporting read what he wrote and could now write back in real time. At the same time, it should be noted that most of the time a Western foreign correspondent's articles are of almost no interest at all to people in the country he or she is reporting from. The domestic news agenda is completely different -- so that domestic media scandals are completely ignored by foreign correspondents. Western media organizations tend to assume that their foreign reporting is taken much more seriously overseas than it really is. Ask someone in an African country what they think about Nicholas Kristof's reporting, and invariably the answer will be: "Who?" So what should be the role or contribution of the African press in Africa's transformation? Report stories. Investigate malfeasance. Get out of the newsroom. Produce compelling media. Give readers proper historical context. No PR stories. Using the vernacular can be helpful for meaningful reporting. Lots of the journalism in Africa is not properly edited or thought through. Without being prescriptive, if a continental consciousness has to develop, it should be akin to a non-essentialist pan-Africanism that is suited to this time that challenges and broadens received wisdom about the African continent and its people in Western media, countering ahistorical and decontextualized images of the continent and its people. With the web that is now not that hard to do. Without doing "development" journalism, journalists need to reinvent the narrative and visual economy of their African locales. Global media, with few exceptions, have shown themselves time and again to be utterly unable to cover the continent in the depth and detail it demands, still less with any appreciation for Africa as a site of astonishing cultural and artistic productiveness. The imperative of journalists in Africa should not be to produce patronizing 'positive' news stories or PR-style neoliberal boosterism, but sustained daily work of presenting and engaging critically with the cultural and political life of Africa and Africans wherever they are and, crucially with its diaspora, now only a click away. People need to stop taking this "potential investors" mumbo jumbo seriously. Governments are accountable to citizens, not investors. The idea that "potential investors" will be scared off by accountability journalism exposing corrupt practices is ludicrous. Look at Angola and the work of Rafael Marques de Morais through his site Maka Angola. Marques has exposed scandal after scandal, but big oil companies still seem to want that Angolan oil. Some of the world's most notoriously corrupt countries are also the most attractive to investors -- not that their investment is of much good to ordinary people. A major challenge for all journalists is to think independently of the very pervasive neoliberal ideology of institutions like the IMF and World Bank, and media like The Economist magazine, according to whom all government policy must be dictated by the needs of "potential investors". As the Malawian researcher and writer Jimmy Kainja quipped to us presidents like to do this supposedly very important thing called "talking to investors," but nobody's ever quite sure what the result is.

Soyinka turned 80 this year. We learn this in an interview a Nigerian newspaper did with his wife, Folake:

He cooks and he is quite good at it. He even cooked about two days ago. When the boys were really little, one day in California, he called us all to the kitchen and said he wanted to have a family meeting. They were so young I don’t even think they had any concept of what a family meeting was. He lined all three according to their heights and asked me to sit. He said he has something to tell us and he was only going to say it once. He whipped out some cooking utensils, moved them around noisily inside the pot, threw some up, caught them, performed a few tricks and then told us to listen up. He said there were only three people in the world that can cook pasta like he does: one is dead, the other lives in Sicily, Italy, and he is the third one and he is going to cook something the likes of which we had never eaten. He cooked pasta that day and we truly enjoyed it.

Source.  

We published "Neymar and the Disappearing Donkey" (to coincide with the World Cup in Brazil) on June 17th. The story included a list of race-colors from a 1976 study done in Brazil. On June 22 the big-time news agency AP published a "story" which basically consisted of the list. That story's been repeated /shared / published / syndicated in a lot of places. Here's the problem: the AP list is our list: it was originally translated by Lilia Moritz Schwarcz from University of Sao Paulo (who has done lots of work on race in Brazil) and edited by Achal Prabhala (who wrote our piece) and published by AIAC. It's the same list, down to the last word, including Lilia’s very specific language (‘burro quando foge’ translated as disappearing donkey, for instance) and Achal's editing--he changed some of the original entries for brevity and clarity. So it's interesting the AP's editors think they can turn an AIAC essay into an “original” AP article without any attribution whatsoever. We're just a small website that runs on zero money, and we guess AP thinks it's fine to take our stuff. Though, of course, it's not at all fine if you take their stuff (reference: Shepard Fairey). UPDATE: The AP, after a silence of a few days, published an apology at the top of the "story." Basically, they just can't acknowledge that they took the post from us. The apology reads: "These English translations were published by the website Africa Is A Country, which says the translations were by Lilia Moritz Schwarcz of the University of Sao Paulo and edited by Achal Prabhala." So we said, not it is the case. The AP knows what's up, so we'll leave it there.   * Image Credit: Screengrab from CBF video of Neymar after he was injured. That's what we feel like right now.

We're shortening the name of Africa is a Country Radio. From now on (save for when we slip up) the show will be known as Africa is a Radio! This month's show dives fully (rather than the toe dip of last month) into World Cup fever with a show that features 16 songs for the 16 teams from 16 countries that made it to the tournament's knock out stages (we're down to 8 today).  Enjoy the music and read Chief Boima's updates from Rio on the blog!

Africa is a Radio: Episode #4 by Africasacountry on Mixcloud

Singing or rapping off key in an expensive or sometime low budget music video is now a cottage industry in the rabbit hole that makes up Youtube.   The African diaspora have not been spared. The pioneer of this subgenre was Bangs, the Sudanese-Australian rapper (see here for an "archive" of his exploits), then came the American IceJJFish, and last month we met Kwality (he's from Nigeria, it seems). Some of these are the products of slick marketing campaigns (IceJJFish most definitely; Kwality maybe), but some are just people with lots of gumption and no self-awareness.  Which brings us to Nigerian "Youtube sensation" BERENICE, who does covers of pop songs. Like John Legend's "All of me."  Get earplugs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gyB0Bwl8cY She's also done a cover of Beyonce's "Drunk in Love." We're being kind BTW. Just read the Youtube comments on her videos.

Episode 3 of Africa is a Country Radio is live on Groovalizacion and the AIAC Mixcloud page. Brazil being on much of the world's minds these days we had to open the show with a dedication to the World Cup host country. A special post-show big up to the Brazilian people -- who stay challenging the status quo of global mega events!

Africa is a Country Radio: Episode #3 by Africasacountry on Mixcloud

Just in time for the weekend, episode 2 of Africa is a Country Radio is here! (It went live first on Groovalizacion last week.) This month's episode opens with a dedication to Suriname, and ends with an audio accompaniment to Sarah Ladipo Manyika's blog post: "News from Nigeria." There's lot's of fun stuff in between as well, check it all out below:

Africa is a Country Radio: Episode #2 by Africasacountry on Mixcloud

Stories shift quickly in our 24-hour news cycle. The sensational tale of Rwanda’s gospel-singer-terrorist is no exception. Authorities have attempted to shape the narrative and control the headlines. For better or worse, Rwanda’s embrace of social media allows us to see how a most clickable story unfolds, and changes, over a few weeks. Kizito Mihigo has long been a face of popular reconciliation in Rwanda. But after he wrote a song that offended the wrong people--and after he allegedly connected with some shifty people--Kizito found himself in a world of trouble. American journalist Steve Terrill is known for keeping a watchful eye on Rwanda’s opaque twitterati. He put this Storify together and shared it with Africa is a Country. Steve says he’ll be updating the Storify as new elements emerge. He invites you to send him suggestions and feedback. Just click through:

"He said, 'Hunni nobody can do this, you're the only person here who can do this. You're always the queen bee, and fabulous, and over the top, so there's nobody else here who can do an African tribal dance. You're the only black girl here.' I thought that was creative and awesome and I was like whaaaat?! I've only been to Africa one time I don't know what they do over there, but let's try it!"

Listen to Africa is a Country Radio every month on Groovalizacion. March's episode was the first one, and it features music from Sierra Leone, Angola, Colombia, Brazil, Portugal, Nigeria, Ghana, and more! Old episodes will be archived on the site here, and via our new Mixcloud account. Last month's show is streaming below. Look out for the next one coming soon!

Africa is a Country Radio: Episode #1 by Africasacountry on Mixcloud

On Groovalizacion. The host is Chief Boima, from his new base in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil (check out his first post from there). The format is a monthly round up of audio treats from around Africa and its diaspora with occasional commentary from the community of writers from Africasacountry.com. The first episode went out this afternoon.