Week 10 Hopeless Africa? Globalization and the media

Key Issues Are Africa’s present troubles a result of the failed project of re-imagining themselves? On balance, has the media played a predominantly positive, or negative role in imagining Africa? Should the media be held solely responsible for the image of Africa today?

Outline 1. To what extent has Africa been re-imagined through the process of globalisation? a. The return of the ‘Dark Continent’? b. Imagining Africa in the era of globalization c. Making up our mind? 2. Africa and the media a. Media as a form of imperialism? E.g. The Nation group in Kenya b. Mandela ‘the messiah’ and the media c. Media agoras: media as an empowering project? 3. Conclusions for the course a. What is Africa? Who is African? b. What forces have driven African-origin peoples to continue to identify with Africa?

To what extent has Africa been re-imagined through the process of globalisation? Contraditions and paradoxes: The impetus for the global institutions of the UN, IMF and World Bank The source of raw materials that drives the technological revolution Driven by the ‘local’ interests of ‘tribalism’, deep and complex local allegiances that make it outside globalization in socio-cultural terms. Kevin Dunn, Imagining the Congo: the International Relations of Identity (2003) Congo lacked access to ‘discursive spaces’ in order to re-imagine themselves outside the ‘Dark Continent’, this is why their national project failed. “No more the ‘hopeless continent’”, New York Times (2007)

Media Media as form of imperialism? Two sides of debate. 1) technology as reinforcing economic and cultural imperialism 2) need to look at audience manipulation and interpretation of media Mandela as messiah Has the icon of Mandela been healthy for the country? For opinions of Africa? Has his heroization really changed opinions of Africans, or simply made one man remarkable?

Media agoras Media agoras – ‘thought of as discursive spaces where social groups and communities are represented by “the media”, but which at the same time allow these groups and communities to self-represent themselves and to struggle for acceptance or for other political aims.’ What is important about this communication, this movement? It is the fact that African, West Indian, and African-American stories are being told together, that ‘the news’ in each paper included the stories of black people across oceans being told as part of a daily narrative absorbed by the literate and retold in homes, fields, and factories.

The black press in the diaspora 1827 Freedom’s Journal, first black press in US, founded in NYC 1864 New Orlean’s Tribune, became first black daily in US Associated Negro Press, first black press service, founded by Claude Barnett. 1930s-50s as apex of power of black press in US. 1945, black press circulation was 1.8 million, by 1954, over 2 million. Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, New York Amsterdam News, Baltimore Afro-Am, Atlanta Daily World 1958 Claudia Jones launched the WIndian Gazette

Summing up the course Historically situated analyses of the construction of African identity, that understand the locality and temporality of imagining Africa. What is Africa? Home. A place with history, communities, families, a way of life (Equiano, Horton) Zion. A place of return for those of African descent who had endured slavery and the Middle Passage. Adventure. An exotic place of mystery, wilderness, natural wonder. Opportunity. A place of vast resources that could be harnessed to develop the world economy. Who is African? Is ‘African’ a historically constructed racial signifier? This would include all those of African-descent. Or can it be all those who live now in Africa, including white people descended from Europeans? What forces have driven African-origin peoples to continue to identify with Africa?