‘We can sell Africa through culture, tourism’
Two things about Africa that the continent can brand itself with and reap substantial benefits from are its culture and tourism and the countries must step up their efforts in that direction.
These views were expressed by Sindiswa Mququ, Brand South Africa’s General Manager for Africa and Middle East at a recent interaction with the media in Accra.
These branding expert, who led a delegation from Brand South Africa on a West African tour to meet stakeholders in the nation branding business, said Africa stood to gain when the various branding agencies acted together to help uplift the continent.
Nation branding aims to measure, build and manage the reputation of countries. Many nation’s brands usually promote and market their countries as tourism and investment destinations.
Brand South Africa is an outfit within the South Africa Ministry of Communications that helps to market the nation globally.
“While we are individual nation brands, we all are small pieces of a bigger brand which is Brand Africa. We have to take those positive things that work in our favour, including culture and tourism, and communicate them effectively to the world,” Madam Sindiswa said.
She said in Ghana and across West Africa, people knew South African artistes such as Miriam Makeba, Lucky Dube, Hugh Masekela and Brenda Fassie.
“That means that there are cultural elements of the brand called South Africa that are already known. So we start from the known and introduce the other elements of the brand to more people. That’s what we need to do on a continent-wide basis.”
Linda Magapatona-Sangaret, Chief Marketing Officer of Brand South Africa and a member of the delegation, said culture was the foundation for strong relations between South Africa and other African nations and could still be the basis for healthy relations between Africa and the rest of the world.
“Wherever we go, it is about what we can do together to take this continent forward and project the image that we want people to have of Africa and not allow other people to define us anymore,” she said.
