Western press: You're generalizing Africa

Posted by Maddie Hanna on May 30, 2006 at 12:40 PM

Western newspaper editors are oversimplifying Africa, South Africa’s Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said yesterday, and ignoring the continent’s successes.

“Over-generalisation has had the specific result of dishing out collective punishment to all in the continent and discouraging investment, thus holding back progress,” Mlambo-Ngcuka, President Thabo Mbeki’s deputy, said during the annual world congress of the International Press Institute (IPI) in Edinburgh. “Out of 54 countries in Africa, only five are in conflict in 2006. Yet the 49 countries are easily compromised by failure to acknowledge peace in most countries and note success of individual nations.”

No one has written about brain drain in Africa, Mlambo-Ngcuka added, and without investment the Western “poaching” of Africa’s resources will only continue.

Source: AFP

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