The articles below are the most recent additions to the Africa's Image category of Africa InfoServ. To read an article, click on its title. To see more Africa's Image articles or to search a particular topic, click on Africa Archive. Articles marked with a magnifying glass ( ) are longer, more analytical pieces. More detailed background information on this section may be found at the bottom of the page.

There are five subsections in "Africa's Image in the World":

1. Africa in World History
2. African Culture
3. Profiles
4. Contemporary Issues
5. Africa in the Media

Africa in World History
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	1.	Ghana: Nkrumah: Model challenge for Ghana’s rulers
		Author: Yao Graham	Date Written: 18 June 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Africa in World History	Document Origin: CHEMCHEMI & Pambazuka News 438
		Secondary Category: Economic Justice	Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org
		Key Words: Ghana, Nkrumah, model, challenge, CCP,
		Summary & Comment: Today Ghana is seen as a development icon, but the challenges Nkrumah grappled with have not been overcome. Reliant on a few commodities for export earnings and aid for public investment, Yao Graham ,of Third World Network, argues Ghana is far from the independent, structurally-transformed model Nkrumah wanted to establish. DN
	2.	Tanzania: Nyerere, liberation, and unity
		Author: Issa G. Shivji	Date Written: 9 April 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Africa in World History	Document Origin: Pambazuka News 427
		Secondary Category: Central Region	Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org/en
		Key Words: Tanzania, Nyerere, liberation, unity,
		Summary & Comment: Dar es Salaam is about to host the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week from Monday 13 April. Issa G. Shivji, offers a reflection on the pan-African struggle. Because Pan-Africanism brings Africa’s continental quest for unity and liberation together, Shivji says it is now firmly back on the historical agenda
	3.	Nkrumah at 100: Lessons for African leadership
		Author: Yao Graham	Date Written: 9 April 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Africa in World History	Document Origin: Pambazuka News 427
		Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org/en
		Key Words: Ghana, Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, leadership,
		Summary & Comment: There is a gaping political leadership vacuum at the heart of Africa’s collective expression of continental unity. Where, the author asks, are African leaders who see opportunities for change in the current crisis, and are "ready to dare and look beyond guaranteeing aid flows?" DN

African Culture
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	1.	Something different + website updates
		Author: edited by William Minter	Date Written: 30 June 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: African Culture	Document Origin: AfricaFocus Bulletin
		Secondary Category: Africa General	Source URL: http://www.africafocus.org
		Key Words: website updates,
		Summary & Comment: This AfricaFocus Bulletin takes advantage of information sent in by subscribers to share with you some links going beyond the current crises to such diverse topics as geometry, baskets, and sand drawings, plus several videos from Kibera, Kenya, and news of a new feature film in the making. WM
	2.	You cannot kill tribalism
		Author: Patrick Boivin	Date Written: 10 April 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: African Culture	Document Origin: Sukuma Kenya
		Secondary Category: Kenya	Source URL:
		Key Words: Kenya, tribalism, status quo,
		Summary & Comment: "Tribe" is a comfort for those who use it to maintain the status quo and as a tool for survival. Instead the author says, "let’s try to build a prosperous, pro-people State that will give us an identity superior to that which any of our tribes can give." A rigid understanding of "tribe" was a colonial and post colonial . . . [expand]
	3.	Burkina Faso: Upright, culture-loving Africans
		Author: Judy Kibinge, Ouagadougou	Date Written: 3 April 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: African Culture	Document Origin: The East African
		Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke
		Key Words: Burkina Faso, culture,
		Summary & Comment: A Kenyan film maker gives her impressions of Ouagadougou while attending FESPACO, le Festival Pan-Africain du Cinéma et de la Télévision de Ouagadougou. DN

Profiles
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	1.	Tributes to a fallen giant - Tajudeen Adbdul-Raheem
		Author: Firoze Manji	Date Written: 28 May 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Profiles	Document Origin: Pambazuka News 435
		Secondary Category: Africa General	Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org
		Key Words: Tajudeen Adbdul-Raheem, tributes, eulogies,
		Summary & Comment: Firoze Manji summaries some of the tributes paid to the life and work of Tajudeen Adbdul-Raheem, giant of Pan-Africanism. DN
	2.	Namibia: Women are born leaders
		Author: Michael Chebud, Addis Ababa	Date Written: 14 May 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Profiles	Document Origin: IPS News
		Secondary Category: Gender	Source URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/africa
		Key Words: Namibia, women, born leaders, Margaret Mensah-Williams, parliament,
		Summary & Comment: Margaret Mensah-Williams is a teacher - in 1998 was the first woman in Namiba appointed deputy speaker of the National Council (parliament). Namibia is one of seven African countries that has more than 30% female representation in parliament. DN
	3.	Swaziland: A brief autobiography - PUDEMO President, Mario Masuku
		Author: Mario Masuku	Date Written: 14 May 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Profiles	Document Origin: Links
		Secondary Category: Southern Region	Source URL: http://links.org.au/node/1055
		Key Words: Swaziland, autobiography, PUDEMO, Mario Masuku,
		Summary & Comment: Mario Masuku, president of the People’s United Democratic Movement, PUDEMO - Insika Yenkhululeko YeMaswati, tells his story. In 1973, King Sobhuza II by royal proclamation suspended the national constitution and assumed all legislative, executive, and judiciary powers. In effect he banned political parties and free political activity in Swaziland. . . . [expand]

Contemporary Issues
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	1.	It’s not the dark continent
		Author: Innocent Madawo, Toronto	Date Written: 12 June 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Contemporary Issues	Document Origin: Globe and Mail
		Secondary Category: -none-	Source URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
		Key Words: image, dark continent,
		Summary & Comment: As long as the Western world sees Africa as an object of pity, demands for foreign investment will go unheeded. Ms. Moyo is an arrowhead of a growing movement of African intellectuals and leaders who are seeking to correct the image of Africa as the Dark Continent, where all the bad happens and only Western aid can cleanse it. IM
	2.	Pan-Africanist inspiration: The Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week
		Author: Gacheke Gachihi	Date Written: 11 June 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Contemporary Issues	Document Origin: Pambazuka News 437
		Secondary Category: Eastern Region	Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org/
		Key Words: Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week
		Summary & Comment: The author discusses talks given by Issa G. Shivji, Oliver Fanon, and Adebayo Olukoshi at the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week in Dar es Salaam from April 13 to 17, 2009 and the inspiration he draws from the Pan-Africanist struggle. "African universities can recapture the university as the central battleground of ideas and revitalise . . . [expand]
	3.	Africa: Letter from a continent - a poem
		Author: MarionRick Grammer	Date Written: 11 June 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Contemporary Issues	Document Origin: Pambazuka News 437
		Secondary Category: -none-	Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org
		Key Words: poem, Africa, continent,
		Summary & Comment: "Now you want to save me. Brand new white Land Rovers criss-cross my dusty streets Bringing your self-serving ‘aid’ to my starving people. My large scale famines a ‘growth opportunity’ for your charities to stimulate donations." DN

Africa in the Media
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	1.	Sao Tome and Principe: Saturday night fever, with condoms
		Author: PlusNews, Sao Tome	Date Written: 29 December 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Africa in the Media	Document Origin: IRIN/Plus News
		Secondary Category: Health and AIDS	Source URL:
		Key Words: Sao Tome and Principe, condoms, Bleguê Linda Estrela,
		Summary & Comment: La version francaise suit. The Bulauê Linda Estrela cultural group raises awareness about the importance of using condoms to prevent HIV. Their song, Bleguê Bleguê, sung by adults and children is played incessantly on radio stations and in night clubs throughout São Tomé and Príncipe. La chanson « Bleguê Bleguê ... » d’un groupe culturel baptisé Bu . . . [expand]
	2.	The Africa that pushes back
		Author: Mukoma Wa Ngugi	Date Written: 24 December 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Africa in the Media	Document Origin: Foreign Policy in Focus
		Secondary Category: Africa General	Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org/
		Key Words: image, Africa, Abahlali baseMjondolo, Kibera, women,
		Summary & Comment: Why is it much easier for those in the North to listen to philanthropists talk about what is wrong with Africa than for them to pay attention to serious activists on the ground, the author asks. Why is the foucus not on helping those who are helping themselves? The author offers a counterweight to the negative images of an aid- and handout-addicted . . . [expand]
	3.	Interview: Distorting Darfur: The international media and Sudan
		Author: Interview, Afshin Rattansi	Date Written: 11 June 2009
		Primary Category: Africas Image: Africa in the Media	Document Origin: CounterPunch, Pambazuka News 437
		Secondary Category: Sudan	Source URL: http://www.pambazuka.org
		Key Words: international media, Darfur, Sudan
		Summary & Comment: In this interview the author discusses Western media distortions of conditions in the Darfur region with a British television producer and a media consultant following their visit to Sudan. They saw no evidence of genocide and were free to talk with whomever they chose within government camps. They also report that the International Criminal Court’ . . . [expand]

The "Africa's Image in the World" section features articles, essays, reports and other documents that lift up Africa and that are not usually found in international, especially Western, media. Indeed, most coverage of Africa in mainstream international media is adversity-oriented. It perpetuates an image of the continent as backward, poor and violent. While not ignoring issues of adversity, nor romanticizing Africa, "Africa's Image in the World" will include material that broadly contextualizes social, political, economic, cultural and other issues in a manner designed to elicit awareness of and respect for the dignity, dynamism and resilience of the African peoples.

The purpose and content of the five subsections is as follows:

1. Africa in World History - features articles, resources and links that document Africa's rightful place in world history and its contributions to the development of global civilization;
2. African Culture - features articles, resources and links that describe and celebrate African cultural (artistic) contributions;
3. Profiles - features African individuals and groups that have made leading or major contributions to the continent and its peoples;
4. Contemporary Issues - features articles, reports and links that broadly contextualize African social, political, economic, cultural and other issues in a manner designed to elicit awareness of and respect for the dignity, dynamism and resilience of African peoples.
5. Africa in the Media - features analyses of the way Africa is often portrayed in media around the world and offers alternative approaches.

Africa's Image in the world is fundamental to the shape, content, and purpose of AfricaFiles - along with our emphasis on justice and human rights. Originally conceived by Gary Kenny who for many years worked with the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa the five parts of Africa’s Image -  in the media, in history, African culture, contemporary issues, and profiles - aim to counter the persistent African stereotypes in the mainline press’ stories of poverty, war and disease. Africa Image lets Africans speak for themselves, offers alternative views of the issues and resources of the continent, and highlights the humour, strength, vitality, and perseverance of Africa’s many peoples.