By Momo Bertrand
Picture this. You’ve just been appointed to an executive position within a global organization. In this new role, you will lead teams in multiple African countries. You are excited.
One week into your tenure, you have to make an emergency trip to Cameroon. You’ve never visited the country before. What do you do?
If you’re like most people, you’ll pick up your smartphone and google “Cameroon,” and look at articles, maps, and images.
At this point, however, you might notice something strange.
Out of the top ten results on Google, nine are written by non-Cameroonian media and NGOs. They mostly speak about a war raging in the country. This contrasts sharply with the financial results of your company in the nation: your Cameroon office just recorded their best year ever.
Puzzled, you screenshot some articles and send them to a Cameroonian colleague. She replies immediately with a facepalm emoji.
“This is incomplete,” she texts. “They make it seem as if the whole country is a war field. In reality, it is also a land of entrepreneurs, innovation, and tourist attractions. Great food, too.”
“Danger of a single story?” you quip.
“Indeed, completely incomplete,” she replies.
When people reflect on Africa’s economic challenges, they often ignore the important role that narratives play. The truth is that global investors, credit rating experts, and development workers often look at African nations through the lens of narratives in the digital space.
Unfortunately, these narratives are often biased, one-sided, and overly negative.
Investors and tourists are bombarded with tweets, Facebook ads, and web articles on the Africa’s problems. On my first trip abroad, someone actually asked me if there were supermarkets in Africa!
The world seldom hears about Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem budding with unicorns or its FinTech breakthroughs.
To accelerate Africa’s growth and development, it is critical to redefine and reclaim the continent’s narrative in the digital space.
If we want people to invest in African countries, to visit the continent, to buy African brands, it is essential to change what comes to the world’s mind when the word “Africa” is pronounced.
In the long term, this will require speeding progress in key development areas. Strengthening public health systems. Building infrastructure. Revamping education systems. Improving governance.
In the short term, however, counter-narratives can prove effective. In fact, African ministries of culture, tourism, and communication can work in synergy to reclaim and redefine public information about countries in the digital space. It could all start with a simple question, “How can we influence the top 10 Google results when people search our country’s name?”
Think of it as a continental online rebranding campaign.
Professionals across the continent can be trained in digital media. African influencers can be leveraged to strengthen the image of the continent abroad. Companies, cities, and civil society organizations can amplify their online presence. Governments will work with internet companies to ensure that public conversations and information are balanced, nuanced, and objective.
As Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, noted, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
It’s time to tell a more nuanced and complete story about African countries. It’s time to reclaim, reshape, and redefine the narratives about the continent. We can begin now. So let’s get started.
