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Angélique Kidjo criticizes West’s coverage of Africa

Angélique Kidjo didn’t mince her words in an interview with Al Jazeera.

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On this weekend’s episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, Benin’s Grammy-winning singer Angelique Kidjo criticized the Western media’s depiction of Africa, particularly since the Ebola outbreak.

“Do you think everybody in Africa has Ebola?” she asked presenter Barnaby Phillips. “That’s the image you give to people.

“We didn’t invent Ebola. It’s just a disease that exists there. Like, are we going to be blamed for inventing malaria too?

“If there is an Ebola outbreak in the Western world, will the media in the West treat it the same way?”

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She also expressed her frustration with the way Western media portray Africa as a continent steeped in violence, victimhood and corruption. “A success story in Africa doesn’t interest any media,” she says. “They are so eager and hungry for horrible stories from Africa. Why?

“It looks like the West is the hyena, feeding on the misery of the African people. They should be ashamed doing this.”

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