The Africa we choose to ignore

IN Media Practice | 22/01/2009

          Reprinted from the New Indian Express, January 17, 2009

Why would one mention that Ghana has a new President or legislature, both won by the erstwhile opposition? Well, news published on Africa is invariably doom-and-despair. Meaning wars, coups, drought, sickness and other things like that. It is the only continent to be invariably so depicted, as though its 50-odd and diverse countries are incapable of much else. This has always been nonsense; what is worse is that the stirring efforts in country after country to build a modern and pluralist system are largely unknown. A pity for our sakes; there is actually much to learn from quite a few of them. Nigeria¿s 36 states, for instance, have unified the police force into one national agency which is answerable to statute, not the minister of the day. Senegal and Botswana have much to teach us in how to combat AIDS infection. More than 20 per cent of national legislature seats are reserved for women in a fifth of the countries. And, contrary to perception, democracy is the norm; elections are a very serious matter. Where there are big disputes in a country, the African Union or neighbours have built a tradition of brokering a solution.

In sum, Africa is one interesting story that we in India rarely get to see or read; more news space is given to American or European politics in a week than all of Africa gets here for months.We lose, because the challenges this continent is addressing are quite the same as we face; there¿s an entire ocean of relevant news out there, since it¿s been an uphill struggle. Compared to colonisation in Africa, that in Asia was a paradise; basics like higher education, modern techniques, and industry or representative government were largely absent. Preparation for self-government was close to zero. Yet, after the initial decade or two of turmoil, almost every country has built a civilised system to take things onward. We mentioned Ghana, first to be decolonised, at the outset. After three botched tries at democracy in its first three decades, it has put down roots; the second occasion this decade when power was peacefully taken away from the ruling party. The new President was sworn in with his predecessor and challenger both smiling and looking on; the chief justice who administered the oath of office was a woman. So is the new Speaker of the national legislature.And Ghana isn¿t exceptional in any of these features. A pity all of this is news to us.