Perhaps the biggest problem facing Africans in media, is how to represent their own continent in the eyes of the world. A continent which has diverse culture, people and languages is just too difficult to be represented by one single adjective. There are some patriotic personalities who have pushed the Africa rising story far and wide. And there are the others who believe the continent is not close to the hype being heaped on Africa. If you have dealt with Africa and the people on the continent before, you will realize, truly, it is just impossible to place Africa under just one description or tag. Africa is neither rich nor broke, smart nor dumb, advanced nor archaic. What Africa is, depends on which part of it you are referring to.
Komla Dumor passed away on Saturday the 18th, but I feel among all the people who have attempted to tell the African story, he did the best job at it. As a journalist who has traveled the length an breadth of Africa he had enough information to stand on the TedxEuston stage and present Africa as he had seen it. In his presentation at TedX, the son of Ghana steered the audience from the funny side of Africa into the different smiles and frown Africa has gone through. The underlying theme of his message was – get the right stories from the very people who have experienced Africa and know Africa. Take some time and listen to Komla’s Tedx message, which captures African stereotypes, and the many different shapes of the continent.