Books =

Don’t Africa me

In a new book (titled as above), a Nigerian author domiciled in the USA, C. P. Eze, criticises the corporate media, Hollywood celebrities, black immigrants, NGOs and others for hurting Africa’s image worldwide through their portrayal of the continent as a “basket case”. Tom Mbakwe reports.

Though Nigeria is tainted by advancefee fraud and China by lead-laden toys, a Nigerian in America is still called an African (by his continental identity) while a Chinese is called a Chinese (by his national identity). Many “African” immigrants still threaten to send their disobedient kids “back to Africa”, portraying the continent as a “torture chamber”. In the USA, Nigerian-born professionals still speak in borrowed accents to “fit in” as African-Americans, while African-Americans dissociate themselves from the continent under heavy bombardment by the corporate media like CNN which show carefully shot images of “African” slums and scavengers versus those of Chinese factories and trade fairs. And despite the many positive developments across Africa, its 53 countries and over 800 million people are lumped and limited together as “Brand Africa” rigidly seen through the lens of PIDIC (poverty, instability, disease, illiteracy and corruption), which smacks of inverted objectivity. Would that be the case if, for instance, Nigeria, like the once dreaded “communist” China, is visible in American boardrooms, ballrooms and bedrooms through its ubiquitous consumer products? A new book, Don’t Africa Me: ‘Their’ Geo-branding War, ‘Our’ Trade, Tourism Wounds, says NO. The book holds up what it calls “Chinese lifestyle diplomacy” as a model for African countries besieged by intense global misinformation that encourages many people to see a Nigerian, Kenyan or Congolese as either dumb, dubious or destitute, a misinformation that rides on the “better-than-thou” wagon.

The author, C.P. Eze, a widely travelled former daily newspaper and monthly business magazine editor-in-chief, who now runs the Coralville Iowa-based Paschal Eze Media, notes: “It is surprising that many in 21st century America still think of Africa as a jungle where half-naked people chase lions around with spears and make human sacrifices. Africa is not what they think.” With a “Foreword” by Sesto Giovanni Castagnoli, the Switzerland-based founder of the World Spirit Forum who has lived and done business in The Gambia and Senegal, Don’t Africa Me, in the words of Bankole

Thompson, senior editor of the Michigan Chronicle newspaper in Detroit, “pierces through every stigma about the continent”. Eze takes issue with the corporate media which ignores what he calls “reformed markets of Africa with average economic growth of 5.4%”. He also takes issue with Hollywood celebrities like Paris Hilton and Angelina Jolie exploiting Africa to reposition their personal brands, and donations-worshipping global NGOs like Feed The Children. Such activities, Eze argues, are creating the impression that Africa is up to no good, turning people away from it, and thus hurting trade, tourism and investments in African countries. The benefactors, he says, are big corporations which continue to source raw materials like gold, oil, diamond, coltan, coffee and cocoa from Africa, while individuals and small businesses are turned away. While pointing out many problems besetting the continent, Eze, a certified e-commerce consultant and re-branding strategist who has six books to his credit, maintains that such problems are not unconnected with the development process. “Every country,” he says, “has its share of these ailments, and many people forget that countries in Africa are still in their fourth, fifth or sixth decades of nationhood with the requisite learning curve.” g NA

(Don’t Africa Me was officially released on 11 January 2008. ISBN-13: 978-0-98007680-6. 212 pages, dust jacket. Contact Shanita Michelle 001-319-936-6140 or email paashanbooks@mail.com. Recommended by New African.)

90n NEW AFRICAN February 2008
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