By George Egeh, Correspondent (Ghana)
For decades, the dominant image of Africa has been that of poverty and helplessness; for conscious Africans, this image is far from right. It can be argued that most people in Africa may be living below the poverty line, but the continent itself is one of the richest in terms of natural resources.
Is it possible to say that the narrative of Africa as known globally was consciously orchestrated to drive foreign aids to Africa for the personal benefit of those who orchestrated Africa’s narrative as a helpless poor continent?
Billions of dollars pour in as aid, yet the Africa situation remains same, the reality on ground is, most African’s are poor not because Africa is in need, but as a result of poor resource management coupled with greedy leadership. The African continent is blessed with enormous natural and human resources. Africa’s woe’s unearths from un-compassionate leadership, our in-ability to set priorities right and the inequitable distribution of wealth among the citizenry and not from “lack”.
Far from being helpless and dependent on aid, Africa pays more money to rich countries than it receives in aid. We need to face up to the uncomfortable truth.
The time has come for African content developers and creators to put in the global space contents that throw very positive light on the African continent.
The narrative of Africa as a continent that is in need must change, we have to put premium value on the African continent by ensuring the world see and read positive narratives from Africa.
At the fore front, championing the course to redeem the image of Africa by creating contents that have strategic impact on the African continent is the Ghana Chamber of Content Producers.
The chambers whose modus operandi is to support the creation of local contents, provide quality control for Ghanaian contents including policy advocacy and promotion of audio-visual and literary contents in Ghana & Africa is engaging both local and foreign partners to change Africa’s narrative as it is known.
Following keenly the ideology of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who stated that “Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa” the chamber is engaging stakeholders and industry players with like mind in Africa to roll out a blue print on how it intends to disrupt the African status quo and replace it with narratives that put Africa on level playing field to negotiate the right investment deals for the greater good of the African continent.
As part of its strategic move to create contents that will disrupt the status quo that presents Africa as a helpless continent, the Chamber is currently involved with the Africa Trade and Investment Global Services “ATIGS” to produce an “Invest in Ghana” Documentary that will drive investments and not aid to Ghana. With an advantage seminar that has been held in Ghana already, ATIGS is already positioning itself to lead a team of investors to Africa starting with Ghana.
The sitting of the African Continental Free Trade Secretariat in Ghana has propelled the chamber to lead the creation of African contents that will inspire positive change and drive socio-economic development to advance Africa to the next stage.
Victor Gotevbe is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of Diplomatic Watch. He is the Managing Director of Conduit Communications Limited.
