CHANGING THE AFRICAN NARRATIVE

Every writer dreams to change His society through His work. What most folks don’t realize is that a writer is a de facto ambassador of His country or state and is not only responsible for reporting events and criticizing all the things that are wrong within the country but is also expected to help promote the national identity by correcting any negative perception about the country.

It is widely believed that a lot of African writers are unable to adequately report on the happenings in their country’s because of political interference and intimidation. This isn’t always the case, it is important to note that not all African countries oppress their writers. Some issues don’t make the news so that we can maintain the national image and pride. To explain this, let’s take a look at the national pledge of Ghana.

THE NATIONAL PLEDGE OF GHANA

I promise on my honor

to be faithful and loyal to Ghana my motherland.

I pledge myself to the service of Ghana

with all my strength and with all my heart.

I promise to hold in high esteem our heritage,

won for us through the blood and toil of our fathers;

and I pledge myself in all things

To uphold and defend the good name of Ghana.

So help me God.

In a country with 28.4 percent internet penetration, it takes a bit longer to convey a message of change to the grassroots, which means in your quest to expose the rot in a sector in your country, you may end up further damaging the image of the country.

You might  not understand my obsessions with national image and pride but if the first thing that comes into the minds of people when  your  continent is mentioned is war, poverty, conflicts, corruption and safari (that most Africans can’t even afford) it might be a bit clearer. When every young person you know wants to wear the biggest fashion brands and use the latest iPhone but u still find pictures of folks wearing animal skins to cover their nakedness as a description of your continent, you might get it.

Ghana has been through rough stages, from a highly indebted but poor country (HIPC) to a middle income country, and we recently completed an IMF program.  In every stage of the our development, just the name we are labelled with had an impact on our lives, we may not be where we want but at least things are better compared situations we have found ourselves in before. The question you should be asking is why would we want to write something that might jeopardize what we have?

In recent times, there has been calls for the African youth to change the narrative of Africa. I know it’s a difficult task and being silent on issues affecting us isn’t a good solution but if a country that is filled with so much gun violence, racism and inequality can be painted to us as green pasture to lure our brothers there why can’t we do same?Like manifest said ‘No where cool’ so let’s work on changing the tags associated with our countries and continent as a whole by giving our best in all our endeavors, if you can’t do this, please don’t destroy the little image we have left with your words.