Joel
Netshitenzhe
Speech:
African Renaissance Conference
- Session 6
28
September 1998
The
media in the African Renaissance
I.
Introduction
It
was required that the presentation
should be on the complex issue:
Africa’s media in the
global community - past, present
and future. The topic is quite
involved and requires the kind
of detail that would be out of
keeping with the generic nature
of the Conference. It would be
a travesty of the objectives of
this Conference, and the very
stage of discourse on the issue
of the African Renaissance, if
we were to veer into the woods
and get mesmerised by the magnificent
detail of the individual trees,
at the expense of appreciating
the category of the forest itself.
In
time, it will be necessary to
exchange researched views on the
detail of media and communication
policy on the continent; the history
of Africa’s media and the
circumstances that have spawned
current realities; the trends
in structures of ownership and
their implications; the levels
of technical media of communication;
and how this state of affairs
relates to the global community.
This
brief and general input seeks
merely to identify the pointers.
And much more emphasis is placed
on the content of the message
in the renaissance paradigm. A
good part of the discussion will
be on the interrogation of the
very concept of the African renaissance:
is it a "feel-good"
phenomenon spiced from time to
time with a beautiful speech by
the Deputy President; is it a
collection of cross-border projects;
is it, to paraphrase the activists
of yesteryear, a way of life -
an attitude of mind!
Especially
with regard to the media, these
are the issues that we need to
grapple with at this stage. For,
in the final analysis, how we
report on the renaissance; how
we assess its progress or lack
of it; our understanding of the
vision, philosophy and programme
of the renaissance, will impact
not only on how we carry out our
day-to-day work, but also on the
mass of the African people who
are at the receiving end of our
wisdom or lack of it.
II.
Media in the current global conjuncture
If
there were any doubts about the
existence of the global village,
the current turmoil in the world
markets has brought out in bold
relief the profound interdependence
that has come to characterise
both economic relations and global
discourse. A certain President
of dubious sobriety in a far away
country resolves to challenge
the majority in an elected parliament
in the appointment of a cabinet
and on policy issues, and a house
of a South African citizen, who
is saddled with interest rates
that have shot through the roof,
has to be repossessed as a result.
This
shrinking of time and space in
global affairs would not have
been possible without a communications
revolution. As the demands of
world trade and capital flows
precipitated the need for speedier
communication means, so has the
autonomous qualitative leaps in
information technology fed the
process of globalisation. Everyone
is punished for everyone else’s
sins; but of course, the market
so dictates that the benefits
of virtue are enjoyed by a few.
In
a sense, technology has created
the possibility of world freedom
of information and freedom of
expression. Islands of self-indulgence
are well-nigh impossible save
through the Taliban option. There
is essentially nothing wrong with
this. In fact, as part of the
development of world productive
forces, there is everything correct
with the right of people to access
information that they need for
education, development and entertainment.
One
of the greatest advantages of
the communications super-highway
is that information about at least
the wrongs that we commit to one
another, and the crises that our
inter-relations cause, can no
longer be swept under the carpet.
The ease of multifaceted global
interaction goes with responsibility.
If the mighty who can bankrupt
economies at the push of a button
gain trillions in their escapades,
when they beggar whole regions
and consequently the world, we
are all forced to sit up and question
the international policy framework
that guides capital flows. And
the Bretton Woods "holy of
holies" are at last questioned.
If as Africans we starve children
to bones, so debilitated that
they cannot fend off flies from
their eyes and noses, simply because
they are of a different religion
or race, we cannot hide this from
the world: we are either shamed
into collective action or forced
to carry an embarrassed conscience
wherever we go.
The
question, however, is: what main
content courses through the global
communications arteries; what
are the hearts and minds of the
consumers fed; what agenda is
pursued - consciously and sub-consciously!
The answer is simple: the agenda
of the most powerful - militarily,
politically and economically.
Thus most Africans with access
to global information will rattle
the latest details of yet another
President’s escapades of
the mundane kind; we will know
of Kenya and Tanzania when Americans
are targeted and when the FBI
descends on the "dark continent"
- not about these countries’
growth rates, or their education
policies, or the main issues of
debate in their parliaments.
As
a result, a utility that contains
within it the potential to fundamentally
transform the human condition
for the better is utilised as
a pastime of a tiny minority.
One of the immediate challenges
that arises from this, in the
context of the African renaissance,
is how - to borrow an overused
phrase - we can leapfrog various
stages of development to hitch
onto the communications highway
in our own interest. And the interest
that we refer to is the promotion
of socio-economic development:
education, health, involving communities
in development, facilitating internal
and external trade, promoting
collective self-determination
and human rights, etc.
The
recent Africa Telecom Conference
created the platform for great
advances in the development of
African telecommunications. Yet
we might require to initiate further
discussion about more than just
the technology of communication,
but its content. This is the first
proposal that one wishes to make:
we need further interaction on
continental experiences in development
information, and together to set
the agenda of the content of such
communication on the continent.
There is a wealth of experience
in many African countries; but
it is not sufficiently shared,
and each one of us wishes to invent
the wheel.
III. Drivers of the African Renaissance
The
premise from which one moves,
therefore, seeks to bring to the
fore the interests of those most
in need of information; those
to whom information for development
can be a matter of life and death.
This is because, in dealing with
media and the renaissance, our
methodology should derive from
an appreciation that the driver
of this renewal is and should
be the people themselves. They
are the motive force without whom
talk of an African renaissance
will be sheer rhetoric on the
lips of a self-indulgent elite.
Who
are these "people"!
They are the peasants, workers,
entrepreneurs, intellectuals,
artists, traditional healers,
professionals, religious leaders
and others. They are made up of
various nationalities within and
across boundaries. In my opinion,
there is no abstract African,
imbued with a mythical virtue
called "ubuntu". We
are made up of classes and strata,
nationalities, religious affiliations
that have absorbed virtually everything
from the globe, races, gender
and age and other differences.
These
attributes do lend themselves
to social contradictions. An African
entrepreneur and a worker are
bound to fight over wages and
working conditions, and perhaps
even about socio-economic systems.
An African Moslem and a Christian
are not expected to relate to
one another much differently from
those in other parts of the globe.
Women of Africa have all the right
- and the power - to demand their
place in the African sun. Nations
and nationalities are tempted
to pursue a narrow sectoral agenda.
Aggravating
these contradictions in Africa
is the fact that nations were
formed artificially by the carving
knives of the European surveyor
in the boardrooms of Berlin when
the conquerors had tired of shedding
blood over us. Class formation
was distorted by the colonial
system, often creating the kind
of extremes that even the "metropoles"
- in whose image we were made
- do not have. Because of a class
formation that had not matured
at the point of independence,
new trends set in, such as using
political office as a personal
ladder out of poverty, with the
attendant temptation to be corrupt,
to desperately cling to political
office for economic sustenance,
to be enticed to become cronies
of the former colonial or other
masters.
As
such, the tendency towards conflict
is not a uniquely African phenomenon.
There will always be the danger
of social upheaval, conflict and
wars among nationalities and nations,
among class, religious, gender
and other groups. The overriding
question is how these centrifugal
tendencies are managed to attain
the collective interest. In other
words, a successful African Renaissance
project does not mean that Africans
will cease to have narrow sectional
interests.
The
conflictual expression of these
interests should not frighten
us; lead us to throw up our hands
in exasperation and pronounce
dead the idea of an African Renaissance.
Rather we should together seek
to understand the causes of conflict,
and act in a new and decisive
way in search of lasting solutions.
If anything, one of the overriding
characteristics of the current
period is the decisive manner
in which Africans have started
to find solutions to such conflict:
Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Lesotho … these
are not bad omens against an imagined
heavenly renaissance. They are
the rough patches on the path
to renewal, now being better negotiated
by the travellers.
Our
capacity to resolve these conflicts
- both internal and international
- will have lasting meaning if
we fully appreciate their causes.
Above all, we should always seek
that common thread which ties
these variety of classes, religions,
nationalities and other categories
together; that common interest
which makes a joint endeavour
for renewal potentially a shared
commitment. Be it for better and
more legitimate conditions to
make profit or for sheer survival,
most of us wish to see Africa,
among others:
- uplifted from being at the lowest rung
of human development;
- liberated
form the crippling debt burden;
- enjoying
the kind of internal and external
trade that improves its comparative
advantage and creates new
possibilities;
- affording
its children and population
quality education, health
care and housing;
- allowing
the creative spirit of its
artists, natural scientists,
philosophers, and others to
have free reign;
- ensuring
that its population enjoys
democracy, a culture of sharing
ideas, freely expressing views
and enjoying other basic human
rights.
Now,
there will be a minority to whom
these objectives may be a threat.
If the individual or group thrives
on the subjugation of others,
if the condition for their positions
of power is tyranny, if they are
leeches who prey on the public
purse through corruption, if they
are agents of someone else but
their own people, this minority
will seek to undermine the renaissance.
Thus, an element of the African
renaissance has to be a rebellion
against the relations which negate
its objectives. And when such
rebellion plays itself out, it
is not the death-knell of, but
a necessary condition for, the
renaissance.
The
gist of the second proposal that
I would therefore like to make
is that African intellectuals,
the media and others should start
a serious discussion about the
various elements of the renaissance
and the overriding consensus that
should bind and inspire this social
movement. This is not as easy
as it may seem. On the one hand,
there may be little that separates
people on the issues of development,
but what in actual practice do
governments and various classes
and strata do to attain it! We
may agree on collective national
self-determination, but what are
the concrete expressions of democracy
and human rights! What kind of
broad front should be formed to
pursue the African renaissance:
do we exclude others because they
may differ with us on some of
the fundamental questions, or
do we work with them on issues
where there is agreement!
IV. Traders in ideas
It
follows from the above that the
African Renaissance is a continental
initiative that should find expression
in a united continental resolve
and programme. But it must, by
definition, also play itself out
within countries, among sectors,
and within the individual African
him-/herself. One sector which,
because of its work, transcends
virtually all these divides are
"the traders in ideas".
The media forms an important part
of this stratum.
Perhaps
it is critical to underline, on
a broader plane, that the middle
strata, all over the continent,
have been the most immediate and
visible beneficiaries of the post-colonial
transformation. Except where extreme,
ludicrous policies were pursued
to suppress them, the act of independence
opened up possibilities for these
strata to become the expression
of the national aspirations for
development and collective self-determination.
This was attained within the context
of being part of the emergent
ruling blocs or in opposition
or revolt against them.
The
major battle that had to be waged
all these years, particularly
with regard to the media - and
becomes even more central in the
context of the Africa renaissance
- is one of shifting paradigms.
As the new started to take shape,
old ideas asserted themselves
with greater force. But there
have been instances in which,
in the struggle against these
old ideas, we gradually started
to ignore the beam in our own
eye. The African renaissance is
meant, among others, to undo this:
to acknowledge the opposition
to our self-determination, but
also to reverse the tendency to
portray ourselves as hapless victims
of plots by powerful foreign forces.
Critical
in this regard is the balance
that needs to be struck between
media as a public utility and
the position of many establishments
as commercial undertakings. It
is not unusual in those areas
where the commercial establishments
are developed, that journalists
view their role not as public
interest professionals with profound
responsibility for the direction
that our countries take. Rather
some see it as a mere stepping
stone to public relations work:
the value system is to make money
and advance oneself on the ladder
of material benefits. A related
issue, which is common in South
Africa, for instance, is that
few black professionals accept
public service because of minimal
pecuniary gains compared to the
private sector: few students want
to be lecturers and professors;
few doctors want to do primary
health work; few legal practitioners
are prepared to serve as judges…
There
is nothing essentially untoward
in surviving and advancing in
the market-place. But it is critical,
especially for the media, to ensure
that the ideas and values which
inspired the forces that brought
about liberation become the dominant
ideas in each of our countries
and on the continent as a whole.
African journalists, whatever
their political affiliation, should
become passionate advocates of
Africa’s renewal. I would
therefore make yet another proposal:
that the media fraternity should
have a discussion on this issue,
and this should include harmonising
the training of cadet journalists
at least to appreciate the interests
of the continent and how to promote
them.
At
a broader level of the intellectual
environment, one simply needs
to examine the "expert comments"
on the Lesotho crisis, to cower
in shame: not a single black African
called upon to give views - either
because of the attitude of the
media or perhaps because those
in a position to do so, have not
established themselves as authorities
on profoundly African matters.
The latter is raised because often
we complain of discrimination;
yet we are not seen and heard
in the market-place of ideas giving
proactive leadership on issues.
One hopes that this Conference
will help speed up the process
of setting up truly African institutes
or "think-tanks" - truly
African because they have the
interest of Africa at heart.
V. Media and property relations
All
these matters cannot be attended
to without a reflection, among
African intellectuals, journalists
and others, around the vexed question
of property relations in the media
industry. Of course structures
of ownership in this industry
do in many of respects mirror
relations in other areas.
On
the one hand, there was a skewed
colonial capitalism with enterprises
owned by huge foreign monopolies.
On the other, at the advent of
independence, elements of this
remained in place; or especially
with the media, the state took
over media houses or set up new
ones. In some instances, foreign
ownership was transformed into
local ownership by powerful forces
with close links to the ruling
blocs. In recent years, there
has been the emergence of "independent"
publications, many earning this
mantle simply because the orientation
is to oppose everything the government
of the day does.
This
area requires rational investigation
unmediated by the emotions that
go with political affiliation.
Among the elements of consensus
that we should seek in this regard
is the principle of as much diversity
of ownership as possible. This
means among others encouraging
African entrepreneurs to take
an interest in the media industry.
It means convincing and struggling
to ensure that the powers-that-be
appreciate that a free exchange
of views is in the interest of
sustainable development. It also
means a maturity in the journalism
profession to objectively and
dispassionately reflect reality
and promote the true interests
of individual countries and the
continent as a whole.
The
PANA privatisation initiative
is one indicator that a new paradigm
is emerging on the continent on
this issue - not with regard to
privatisation per se, for it is
not the panacea to all ills, but
on the important principle that
the determination of news content
and analysis can be undertaken
independent of governments and
still serve the interests of the
continent. Much interest has been
expressed regarding the latest
initiative of the SABC to start
continent-wide news and entertainment
channels. Definitely a step in
the right direction: but of course
questions remain about their reach
given that these will be pay channels;
and related to this, whether the
PANA initiative, hand-in-hand
with the SABC and other national
broadcasters can in time venture
into the airwaves.
However,
diversity means more than just
private or public ownership of
media institutions. In fact, in
respect of all other industries,
the question needs to be posed
about encouraging what can be
referred to as "social capital".
Scores of millions of Africans
are savers; they contribute billions
of Rands worth of savings in large
financial institutions and sometimes
in small community initiatives.
Yet little interest among economists
and the media is paid towards
unravelling this myriad of ownership
and examining how it can be utilised
to promote the interest of these
savers, many of whom belong to
the lower rungs of the economic
ladder.
Further,
the question of community media
needs to be pursued on a continent-wide
basis. Needless to say, it is
in the profound interest of communities,
especially in rural and other
disadvantaged areas, to have means
of communication, among others
for purposes of development; and
to become part of national discourse
and international information
flows. As such, in addition to
the need to examine broadly the
question of forms of ownership,
and how to take the PANA and SABC
initiatives to a higher plane,
another proposal that one wishes
to make is that a campaign needs
to be launched across the continent
to promote the development of
community media.
VI.
Conclusion - Some reflections
on international perceptions
One
of the major questions regarding
the African Renaissance is the
issue of international perceptions
of the continent. Much has been
said about disabusing the world
of the malaise of Afro-pessimism;
interacting with all kinds of
international forces including
the media so they appreciate the
moment of opportunity that Africa
has reached at the turn of the
new millennium. Many of the journalists
and analysts in the international
media are African. And it is not
seldom that some among them revel
in undercutting this search for
a new continental identity. Many
of these are foreign journalists
based in our countries; and deliberate
integrated strategies have to
be worked out to ensure that the
message gets through.
But
does this really matter? At one
level it is crucial. In The
Sunday Independent of 27 September
1998, Sam Kiley of The Times
(London) writes:
"Africa,
now in its dark age, most certainly
is a basket case. President
Mandela’s dreams of an
"African Renaissance"
and its supporters are involved
in a mass act of self-delusion.
The "New breed" of
African leaders I thought I
had found two years ago have
proved as idiotic and incompetent
as their predecessors".
Perhaps
the immediate anger of having
been wounded in Maseru; but certainly
a case of someone who needs to
understand that historical movements
such as the African Renaissance
are more than the sensation of
the week’s story.
But perhaps Africa also needs to guard
against reducing itself to a "beauty
queen" on a catwalk, intent
on impressing judges! There is
a great deal of this in the current
world. Given market fluctuations
and the fickleness of short-term
investors, a tendency sets in
for us not to be ourselves but
to look over our shoulders all
the time: what will the European
and American investors say! In
South Africa, this sub-consciously
translates into: what will the
whites say! And of course, having
pronounced them Gods, they will
mete out judgement and punishment
that we deserve in our self-flagellation.
We will be punished even when
we do what we assume the Gods
believe is right.
This is not to say the markets and
whoever else do not matter - and
their weaknesses are at last being
properly interrogated on a global
scale. But what is critical for
the African Renaissance is that
our primary concern should be
what we do among ourselves and
to ourselves. Africa needs to
put in place massive programmes
for its renewal - economic, political,
social and intellectual. It needs
to accept its weaknesses to itself
and set out collectively to correct
them. It needs to communicate
with itself first and foremost.
Is the universal saying not true
that God helps those who help
themselves!
Joel
Netshitenzhe
CEO, GCIS
Issued by Government
Communication and
Information System
(GCIS)
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