“You're in the wrong continent dear!"

Are you from Europe or the United States, or are you living there for whatever reason? May I ask you something? Would you please have a look in the international sections of the past few newspapers, and count how many articles are dedicated about Africa? Based on the (non?) presence of Africa in your newspaper - or what ever medium in the Western World - you would be tempted to assume that "nothing happens in Africa".

Wrong.

Plenty is happening in Africa; matters that are just as important and urgent - or just as (or even more) tragic as the effects of for instance hurricanes, bombs, and fundamentalism.

Just a few exemples:

• March 8 (www.iol.co.za): In Ethiopia, three explosions hit the capital Addis Ababa, injuring at least four people. One explosion hit a restaurant, another a market.
• March 8 – (www.iol.co.za): In the Horn of Africa, every day 25 000 people (more than 1 Katrina hurricane each day) die of hunger, every day 18 000 children - one every five seconds - die per day. This is one of the harsh conclusions of the World Food Program. "These people will die off the beaten track that the world is not focused on," WFP director James Morris said.
• March 6 – BBC News: If Kenya does not get food aid, 3,5 million people will die the next month. That is 175 times as many casualties as the number of people died in because of hurricane Katrina.
• March 6 – BBC News: In the Horn of Africa, due to five years of drought, 11 million Africans are on the verge of famine and starvation. That equals to 550 Katrina hurricanes. "The world has not appreciated in the last 60 days how serious this situation is... we are now in a crisis,” said UN delegate and World Food Program (WFP) director James Morris said after visiting El Wak on the Kenya-Somalia border. “The world needs to wake up!”
• March 4 – (allafrica.com): Tanzania might be the next African country to fall into the claws of hunger and famine, as many billions of are destroying vast acres of crops in many parts of the country. The situation has reached stage that experts have given up.
• March 7 – (allafrica.com) : In Cameroon a new HIV/AIDS vaccin to prevent the HIV transmission through breast-feeding is to be created.
  
• March 7 (www.afrol.com) - The mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus has infected 157,000 people in the rest the African Indian Ocean region, including the French island of Reunion. Over 90 people have died since the outbreak. The virus has a firm hold on Seychelles, Mauritius and other area’s of the Indian Ocean Region. In Mauritius spraying and fogging machines were ordered from abroad and some 100,000 litres of insecticides were imported.
  
• March 8 (www.afrol.com) – Mozambique has not recovered from the heavy earthquake (7.5 on the Richter Scale) that hit the Southern African country end of February. Despite the low casualty number – four people died – the damage is more serious than assumed. Tremors of the heavy earthquake were felt in many parts of Mozambique, in eastern Zimbabwe and some parts of South Africa as for instance Pretoria and Durban.
  
• 7 March (Survival International): Botswana government has been receiving harsh criticism from the UN's human rights agency UNHCHR because of its record on racial discrimination in the fate of the indigenous San people (also known as Bushmen or Basarwa). The government is relocating the San from the Kalahari, their native land, into reserves. The UN Committee member from Burkina Faso referred to the Botswana's San people as "discriminated against and marginalized", while the Committee member from the UK told the Botswana government, "What disturbs many people is the spectacle of one of the great cultures of Africa being placed under severe threat."

For me, as a Dutch journalist who grew up in Africa and moved back to this magnificent continent one year and a half ago, it is not surprising that you don’t know about the above.

It is a clear fact: Africa isn’t of great interest amongst western media. I have tried to sell a couple of stories to print media in my country, stories that were of great importance I found. Unfortunately, the answer was “not serious enough”, “No dead people”, “No space”. I was even told once: “Africa? You have chosen the wrong continent, dear.”

The wrong continent.

Than to think that, not so long ago, western countries were trampling one another to get a strong hold in Africa. Ironic. Morbidly ironic, as all the back than important countries are now being forgotten completely. Take the Democratic Republic of Congo. Not so long ago this country used to be a paradise for diamond miners, gold diggers and hunters. Everybody wanted to get involved. Now, practically no western country wants to dirty its hands and get involved. Tragic, as the west is one of the key players in Congo’s misery. For more information I’d be glad to refer you to the book or movie ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’.

I know I am not going to change the perception of the western media, but my aim is - with this weblog - to give a voice to Africa. So if you are interested in African news, log in once in a while!

Miriam Mannak / Cape Town