Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

Section 4: Access to Information
Time to get beyond stale stereotypes
By Suzanne Franks
Suzanne Franks was formerly a
journalist with BBC Television on
programmes such as Panorama and
Newsnight. In 2008 she moved to
work at <strong>the</strong> University of Kent. She
has written several books and many
articles. Her research interest is on
<strong>the</strong> coverage of foreign news and
<strong>the</strong> relationship between media and
humanitarian aid.
If <strong>the</strong> international media reported
American news <strong>the</strong> same way as
<strong>the</strong>y do Africa’s, this is what we
would we would know about <strong>the</strong>
USA in <strong>the</strong> opening <strong>years</strong> of <strong>the</strong> 21st
century:
• In 2000 <strong>the</strong>re were dodgy
elections which were contested
and in which <strong>the</strong> presidency was
eventually seized by a candidate
who had gained fewer votes
than his rival.
• A year later <strong>the</strong> centre of
a major American city was
reduced to rubble by a massive
terrorist attack.
• Then in 2005 ano<strong>the</strong>r important
city was flooded, with its homes
destroyed and a thousand
dead, and in <strong>the</strong> <strong>after</strong>math <strong>the</strong>
dominant tribe left <strong>the</strong> minority
tribe to rot.
• More recently a candidate from
<strong>the</strong> minority tribe finally got to
become president – but many
members of <strong>the</strong> majority tribe
continue to be angry about
this and vociferously doubt
his au<strong>the</strong>nticity as a US-born
citizen.
If this was all we knew, <strong>the</strong>n surely
<strong>the</strong> USA would qualify as <strong>the</strong> ‘dark
continent’? But of course this is not
all we see and hear because <strong>the</strong> news
that is reported from <strong>the</strong>re is far
more nuanced and comprehensive.
Yet Africa in 2011 is still covered by
a series of stale stereotypes. Some
<strong>years</strong> ago Binyavanga Wainaina
wrote a brilliant satire in Granta
about <strong>the</strong> stream of clichés inspired
by writing on Africa. “In your
text, treat Africa as if it were one
country. It is hot and dusty with
rolling grasslands and huge herds
of animals and tall, thin people who
are starving. Or it is hot and steamy
with very short people who eat
primates. Don’t get bogged down
with precise descriptions.” Alas, <strong>the</strong>
caricature continues to ring true.
So, for example, when sporadic
fighting broke out in Kenya over
<strong>the</strong> disputed election results in
2007/8, many in <strong>the</strong> press dusted
off <strong>the</strong>ir tired old “tribes fighting
each o<strong>the</strong>r” line to report what was
mainly a politically-based conflict.
The word ‘tribe’, evocative of those
spear-carrying ‘natives’ from <strong>the</strong> old
Tarzan movies, has become racially
loaded shorthand. It says, basically:
<strong>the</strong>y’re savages, <strong>the</strong>y’re irrational
and <strong>the</strong>y’ll fight over anything. So
<strong>the</strong>re is little need to explain <strong>the</strong>
details, or <strong>the</strong> often complex history,
of a particular issue.
“The word ‘tribe’,
evocative of those
spear-carrying
‘natives’ from <strong>the</strong>
old Tarzan movies,
has become racially
loaded shorthand.”
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