Time to celebrate Africa’s progress

Africa has too often been painted as a dark and backward continent plagued by under-development, wars and diseases, with a bleak future, although there are many bright spots worth celebrating.

Africa is also a continent with a very promising future.

It is a very well-endowed continent where all the world’s precious minerals can be found. It can also boast vast arable lands, which most of the other continents lack, oil and an energetic and rich human resource.

Unfortunately, over time, the branding by the media, especially the foreign ones but also the local media, the lack of self-esteem, the greed exhibited by some African leaders, the mismanagement of most economies and the corruption that has taken centre stage in most African states have all contributed to continuously draging the continent’s name in the mud.

The crises in specific countries have also been generalised as a continent-wide problem, with the Ebola outbreak that affected three countries being passed off as though it affected the whole of Africa.

Painting the crisis as an African one resulted in a reduction in international tourist arrivals from five to two per cent in 2014.

Positives are definitely happening, but the negatives are so bizarre that they overshadow the things we need to celebrate.

For instance, many brainy Africans who could have helped to redeem the continent with their wisdom, knowledge and skills are instead helping to build other economies because they are not regarded in their own countries and will not be given their dues should they decide to stay in their countries to contribute their quota.

Brand experts, the media, technocrats, politicians and professionals will have to focus on the good things we have around.

Despite the stereotyping, the warmth and smiles of the people of Ghana, for example, the many tourist sites, its diverse culture, festivals, good food, colourful fabric and cloth designs, family values, the religious and kind nature of Africans put them miles ahead of the peoples of other continents.

That is why we need to believe in, be proud of and promote our own.

We join President John Dramani Mahama, in his call yesterday to brand experts in Africa to help change the age-old negative perception of the continent by exploring innovative ways to sell the African continent to the world.

Indeed, as he noted during the opening of the UN World Tourism Organisation Regional Conference on Africa, "There are many selling points on the continent that could be packaged for the world to buy.”

Most often it is our own media that furnish the foreign media with the negatives that they so gladly feed on to show the continent with settlements full of doom and gloom.

It is time we rather sold out good images and stories about the good happenings in order to get the rest of the world to demonstrate confidence in the continent of Africa.