BBC — The Art of Irresponsible Journalism
A couple of weeks ago I was engaged in conversations with two close friends. We found ourselves in a deep discussion regarding a tweet that was posted by the renowned and reputable Government-backed British media house BBC. The tweet reminded me of how much the Western curated view of Africa had not changed. Not even within more progressive and reliable outfits like BBC.
“Coronavirus in Africa: Could poverty explain mystery of low death rate?”, read an elegant tweet from BBC on September 3rd. As the article explored the reason behind the drastic drop in Coronavirus infection rates in South Africa. The tweet was meant to promote an article titled “Coronavirus in South Africa: Scientists explore surprise theory for low death rate”. The tweet didn’t echo the message in the article which at best was inconclusive. Even the scientists are yet to figure out why the infection and death rate has been lower than earlier feared. Moreover, bundling the entire continent into one tweet, even though the article only focused on South Africa. Negatively painting an image across the entire continent and woefully disrespecting all the effort by governments and individual groups and institutions to fight the pandemic.
Reading the tweet on its own without reference to the article, one may simply conclude, “Good Lord, so poverty is what is saving these bloody Africans. That's why they aren’t dropping dead in the millions despite the Coronavirus pandemic”. This is the classic mindset that we as Africans constantly deal with when we let the Western-led media houses tell the African story. We are left to guess what kind of picture will be painted of us poor Africans in a media stratosphere that simply negates factual and objective journalism. If the people at BBC had taken their time to use a different tone and relay the right message, what harm would it do? Instead of relying on the usual tactics of painting the continent in the worst light, this could have been an opportunity to give credit and honor the work being done to curb the spread of the virus. The story could have easily shown how African countries have handled the crisis despite all the odds stuck against them. Most African nations similar to Asia counterparts have handled the pandemic more successfully as compared to some more advanced and medically better equipped Western nations. The success hasn’t been because Africans are poor, but rather due to serious measures by governments and individuals across the continent.
I’m proud of how countries in Africa have led the efforts to fight COVID. The numbers across Africa have been lower than expected and the deaths despite concerns of under-reporting are still within manageable ranges. Similar to Asia, most African countries instituted harder and stricter lockdown measures earlier than their Western counterparts. Most countries closed down their borders and restricted movement as soon as single-digit cases of COVID-19 had been reported. A stark contrast to the more advanced Western nations where response came in weeks after.
In my country Kenya, the lockdown was not as strict as in Italy, Spain, or even France. The country would have simply collapsed with a huge population relying on everyday work for sustenance. But the government moved early enough after the first handful of cases had been reported to instill a curfew. This curtailed movement in and out of the major cities, as well as limiting exposure via interaction. People were simply allowed a 5 am to 7 pm window, to go about their daily work and return home. In essence, people would gravitate amongst work colleagues and their families, hence limiting movement. Several people joked about the virus only spreading at night, given the curfew hours. But this was the government's way of allowing the country's economy to still function while reducing the spread of the virus.
Across Africa, we have seen very great stories with very low numbers of casualties succumbing to the virus. For instance, Ghana initiated its lockdown measures only a few days after reporting its first 2 cases of the virus. This was swiftly followed by the government limiting entry into the country for foreign nationals. In comparison, some Western countries took up to six weeks to propose some form of lockdown. The Ghanian government has been very open and communicative about the situation and below you can find a timeline of the measures they have taken ever since.
In a similar manner, we can also learn a thing or two from how Senegal is leading the way in developing a cheap and quick $1 Coronavirus testing kit that can test for the virus in 10minutes. If the Pasteur Institute in Dakar succeeds, this could mean millions of people across Africa and other lower-income areas around the world could benefit from a rapid at-home test kit.
There are several similar stories across Africa. Stories that highlight, the approach, and not poverty as being the reason behind the lower numbers. The fact that African and Asian approaches are being dismissed because they’re inferior in the Western mindset is appalling. Africans and Asians alike have years of experience in dealing with pandemics. If Taiwan and South Korea are anything to benchmark against, we saw a swift response rate that was born out of the experience with handling pandemics.
In Kenya like other African nations, we have had successes in curbing the spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Cholera to name a few. People are better prepared to heed advice from the government and you will find little resistance to wearing masks of keeping social distances.
Besides the experience, Kenya and other African nations have a fairly different social setup. In Kenya, most old folks don’t live in a retirement home or in the cities. People generally have a retirement home in the countryside, where they live with relatives. This has generally limited the interaction between the more vulnerable elder folks and their younger and more populous population. This was also part of the reason behind limiting the movement in and out of the younger and populous urban centers. A government initiative to containing the virus spread in areas where it won’t cause the most havoc.
There are several reasons why African nations have so far succeeded in containing and slowing down the spread of the virus. However; when we negate that responsibility to Western outlets looking to only sell papers and advertisements, then we get irresponsible tweets like the one by BBC. Africans must rise up to the occasion and tell our own stories. As long as we remain factual and objective and paint a true and fair picture of the situations. We must seek to go back to the glory days of producing journalists and writers who will stop at nothing to tell the full story. Not just using hashtags (#) and retweets to propagate Western ideologies, but rather spend time to truly report the full story and not just snippets.
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