Africa is a boiling pot. And journalists should tell it

The "Mediated Africa" report by Amref and the Pavia Observatory was presented. The activists Bitania Berhanu and Coumba Aw also spoke about it with the Dire agency

ROME – “Attention to the Mattei Plan is also a bit like looking at our navel” says Guglielmo Micucci, director of Amref Italia. The “Mediated Africa” report is presented in the spaces of Binario F. How much, when, why and how the continent ends up on the news or in Italian newspapers. It then turns out that compared to a few years ago there is a little more of Africa. But also that the focus is on ourselves, not on the continent that is close to us. Starting with the Mattei Plan, an initiative born in Italy that looks first and foremost at the interests and needs of Italy. And during the presentation there are also those, like Jean Leonard Touadì, international relations expert and author, of Congolese origins and former Italian parliamentarian, who makes it clear how he thinks: “The Mattei Plan”, he says, “concerns the countries where we take strong> gas and oil“.

THE NUMBERS OF THE REPORT

But let’s go back to news programs and newspapers. According to the study, commissioned by Amref and edited by Pavia Observatory, in 2023 the number of news stories on Africa in the “prime time” newspapers and television news programs of the seven major national broadcasters increased. In the six main newspapers, an average of 16 news stories appeared per month, three more than in 2022, the year of the worsening of the armed conflict in Ukraine. It is also true, however, as highlighted in the report, that media coverage prevails on migrations and news events in the Western context and “on the intense institutional activity” of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, including visits to African countries and initiatives such as the Mattei Plan. In any case, here are the voices of the presentation, starting with the guests arriving from the continent.

BITANIA BERHANU (AMREF): TELLING YOUNG VISIONARIES AFRICA

Tell the story of the “young visionaries” of Africa: this is the appeal to Italian and European journalists made by Bitania Lulu Berhanu, 29 years old, of Ethiopian origins and a life in Kenya. The activist is one of the faces and voices of Amref Health Africa, a civil society organization based in Nairobi and committed first and foremost to the right to health. With the Dire agency, Bitania speaks in Rome, at Binario F, on the sidelines of the presentation of the 2024 edition of the ‘Africa Mediata’ report edited by the Pavia Observatory. “I believe that the continent is described above all for the challenges it faces, for poverty, migration or famine, but I believe that instead it is above all a place of hope” underlines the activist. “Africa has the youngest population in the world and today it has many innovators: ‘storytelling’ should take this into account and actually start from this fact”.

It is therefore an invitation from Bitania, who in Kenya directs an Amref program against gender violence called Y-Act, an acronym for Youth in Action for women empowerment and against gender-based violence. “It must be young visionaries and innovators who write the history and future of the continent,” says the activist. “The media have the task of describing this new era of innovation, vision and proposals for sustainable development”.

THE SENEGALESE COUMBA AW: ACTIVISM NEEDS OF THE MEDIA

Proud to be committed against gender violence, happy to be able to make the perspective of Senegalese activists known in Italy: this is what Coumba Aw, voice of the civil society organization Amref Health Africa, says today . The exchange with the Dire agency takes place in the spaces of Binario F, on the sidelines of the presentation of a report that analyzes journalism trends in Italy. The title is ‘Mediated Africa’, the intent is to try to understand if and how the continent is followed and reported by the media. At the center of the study is the risk of a vision that does not give space to the voices, protagonists and new actors of Africa. Aw starts from here: “Today”, she says, “I am happy to be able to highlight the work of activists on the continent and to make our perspective as Africans known”. In Senegal, the Amref representative is particularly involved in projects to combat female genital mutilation (FGM), gender violence and early marriages.

THE TOUADI EXPERT: AFRICA IS ONE POT THAT BOILS, WRITE IT

Africa as “a boiling pot”: the quote, by the Cameroonian theologian and sociologist Jean-Marc Ela, is re-proposed during a debate on what journalism does or fails to do today in Italy. The phrase is pronounced by Jean Leonard Touadì, author and international relations expert. “Africa is a boiling pot, where 70 percent of life is informal”, says the scholar: “Many people talk about dictators, presidents or democratic governments but no one focuses on instead on vernacular Africa, animated by nuclei of resisters, who continuously innovate and create new forms of sociality”. Toaudì’s is a provocation or simply an observation. “Imagine if Italy were described only by the program Porta a Porta“, underlines the expert, “while instead there is a people who live, fight and innovate every day”. Touadì intervenes in the spaces of Binario F, at the presentation of the 2024 edition of the ‘Mediated Africa’ report, a study commissioned by the Amref Health Africa organization and edited by the Pavia Observatory.

“IT IS TELLED BY GAZA, WHILE THE SILENCE IS ABOUT SUDAN IT’S DEAFENING”

In Sudan, in the Darfur region, “there is an ongoing genocide”; However, there is “absolute silence” regarding this violence, despite the fact that the Gaza Strip, which is rightly being talked about, is just 1,800 kilometers away: Jean Leonard Touadì, author and international relations expert, said this today. The occasion for his reflection was the presentation of the ‘Mediated Africa’ report, commissioned by the civil society organization Amref and edited by the Pavia Observatory. On Sudan, Touadì denounces a lack of attention. According to the expert, who cites data on the humanitarian crisis relaunched by the World Food Program (Wfp/Pam), “in this country 18 million people risk death and in < strong>Darfur genocide is taking place.” The expert continues: “Sudan is only 1800 kilometers from Gaza, which we are rightly reporting, while there is absolute silence about Sudan.” In Darfur, in the west of the country, on the border with Chad, clashes between army units and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have intensified. The alarm in recent days concerns in particular the city and the refugee camps that have arisen in El Fasher. A civil conflict has been ongoing in Sudan since April 2023. Gaza has been under fire from Israel, following incursions by the Palestinian organization Hamas, since last October.

NATALE (RAI): HERE IS THE ANTI-STEREOTIPI PODCAST ON AFRICA< /strong>