Media in West Africa hope to overcome barriers
Commentary
By Charles L. Overby
Chairman and CEO, The Freedom Forum
07.15.99
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A Freedom Forum delegation recently traveled to West Africa to learn more about the news media in Senegal and Mali. In the process, we learned more about ourselves.
West Africa is where slavery in the United States began. The events of previous centuries affected us dramatically.
As we prepared to open a two-day conference in Senegal, I could not shake the image of West Africans being shipped to the United States as slaves. I had not expected to feel this way.
So I apologized to West Africa for slavery in the United States.
Granted, it was presumptuous of me to do so. But I couldn't help it.
How could any white American travel to Senegal and not feel the urge to apologize? This is where the slave ships left for America. Seeing some of the buildings where the slaves were kept before their departure, I felt a lump in my throat.
How could I — the head of an American organization that promotes freedom around the world — stand in front of West African journalists, students and government leaders and carry on as if the only thing between us was the Atlantic Ocean?
I could speak as only one American, as one Southerner.
I apologized profusely:
"In traveling to Senegal, I am acutely aware of the historical link between the United States and West Africa.
"The slave ships that transported your ancestors from here to my country represent a sad and tragic time in my nation's history.
"I cannot change the past. But I can apologize for it.
"To each of you, I deeply apologize for the outrageous and barbaric actions of my countrymen and my personal ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries.
"As we approach the 21st century, let us all remember the life and words of Martin Luther King. He often quoted an old African-American Baptist preacher: 'We ain't what we want to be. We ain't what we're going to be. But thank God, we ain't what we were.'
"It is in that spirit — repentance for the past and hope for the future — that I open this conference and dialogue."
And what a dialogue it was, first in Senegal and then in Mali.
Both Senegal and Mali enjoy freedom of the press, but they are poor countries in remote regions. Ironically, new technology could be their salvation. That's because Senegal and Mali are much closer to us today because of the Internet and new technology.
At the end of a dirt road in Bamako, Mali, the Spider Cyber Cafe Internet offers local residents fast food and fast Internet connections. You have to see it to believe it. I saw people accessing Web pages and sending e-mails as if they were in San Francisco.
This is the future.
Of course, there are problems.
Adam Powell, our vice president for technology, moderated a conference on new technology and asked the group of reporters and editors if they ever had trouble connecting to the Internet. One reporter raised his hand and said his newspaper didn't have a telephone.
The infrastructure problems represent barriers to the future, particularly in Mali, one of the world's poorest nations. President Alpha Oumar Konare is a charismatic leader and advocate of freedom, but there is only so much one leader can do when roads are poor, the electrical grid is inadequate and, worst of all, the literacy rate is declining.
Mali has long had those problems, but its people have never had the prospect of being linked instantaneously to the rest of the world. That's their hope.
Jerelyn Eddings, who left a successful American journalism career in 1997 to run our African Center in Johannesburg, South Africa, works diligently to help the African media. Following our conferences in Senegal and Mali, she voiced optimism: "It was a wonderful opportunity to begin to establish a strong network of journalists in West Africa."
Eddings knows the continent. She served as Johannesburg bureau chief for The Sun of Baltimore from 1990 to 1993. She also worked as Atlanta bureau chief and chief congressional correspondent for U.S. News & World Report. She is a South Carolina native, a graduate of the University of South Carolina and a former Nieman fellow at Harvard University.
Her background, work ethic and intellectual understanding of the region are great assets, but Jerri brings one other thing to work with her every day: a deep concern about the future of the news media in Africa.
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