When You Allow Others To Tell Your Story

There is a saying that goes like "if you don't stand for something you will fall for anything". this is similar to the other saying "if you don't value what you have, you will lose all"  I guess that explains why we have all the resources yet are  poor (well majority ). We've given up everything of ours for theirs; our clothing, food, market etc and yet we wonder  why there is brain drain. Have you watch the news lately, how do you feel when they tell the story of the event that happened behind your backyard?  How did they describe you, how did you feel and  are you going to do something about it?.

 How long are we going to let others tell our story ?. We allow people who have little or no understanding of our way of living to tell our stories and yet we are surprise at how the world views us. I must admit, not all of  these stories are in bad taste. Like the book, titled “The Hiplife In Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip Hop” written by Dr.Halifu Osumare. The book talks about hiplife with Reggie Rockstone as the originator. My question is, where are all the researchers, historians or writers who could have pen this down? wait! let me guess, they thought it was un-important as compared to all those petty politics that they will be writing about to gain attention and pesewas. Such a shame!

 To gain the best awards and honours in journalism, all  one has to do is to write a horrible stories about some isolated incident in some  part of Africa. These stories are usually told in an ignorant view that seek to portray or distort the main reason of the said incident. The riot that happen in Benghazi, Libya that was blow out of proportion to start a full scale war to oust Brother Quaddafi was in no different from the riot in London that saw days of looting and vandalizing. Yet the world did not cry out for NATO to descend with their artileries. Why ? because they told their own story. They knew exactly how to portray that event to make it seems as if it just a minor incident. but that is not the case with us, and even if for some reason we do, we let our personal feeling cloud our reportage. If only we could focus on the things that are around us, those that portray us as civil and brings out our rich culture and way of life, we can stop this negative perceptions portrayed by foreign medias about us.

African stories should be told by Africans and not by foreigners. So, the next time you hear someone making some ridiculous or stereotyping  remarks about you, just know you contributed to his or her ignorance. Africa is mostly seen by Europeans as a single country rather than a continent and as much as this may seems funny, sadly, it is the perception out there. This should tell you, there is demand for education on Africa hence you should learn a bit more about first, your country, then Africa as a whole so as to educate more.

This articles was inspired by the video of Chimamanda Adichie titled "The danger of a single story" the video is from one of TED programs. I could identify with most of what she talked about. Personally I don't know  Chimamanda Adichie  but having watch this video i think she is one of those few ladies that going to change the world around us. keep up Chimamanda!.

 Let this video inspire you to take action and change the perceptions out there.

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