For over a century, the continent of Africa has been described in the West as a continent full of savages, misery, wars, famine and any other negative thing you can think of. “Africa Bashing” refers to all the negativity about Africa that is often circulated in Western media, in academic work and literature and increasingly more in the PR and Marketing communication output from many NGOS working in Africa.
Even though today Africa is one of the fastest growing economic regions in the world, any small issue in one or two countries in the continent often is quickly reported with a lot of exaggeration. It looks like there is still an insatiable hunger in Western countries to continue to see Africa as a pathetic case.
Many international NGOs have no hesitation to paint Africa in a negative light as means to instigate guilty conscience in people’s minds and get donations to fil their coffers for their work. While the work they do is often commendable, but the negativity they help to circulate on the global stage end up hurting Africa more than it helps it.]
Barry Moustapha is a senior telecom engineer and a community activist. He recently received an email from UNHCR seeking donations for famine in Somalia and South Sudan. Upon reading the email, Barry noticed that the wording of the message was giving the impression that pretty much of the whole continent of Africa was experiencing famine. Barry was not impressed and decided to take action. For Barry enough is enough, action must be taken in Australia an around the world to stop the unnecessary, unjustified and many times unethical misrepresentations of Africa and its people.
In this interview, Barry talks about his story with UNHCR’s National office in Sydney and he discusses what needs to be done to take action and stop Africa Bashing in Australia and around the world.
