By now, we all know that CNN has got no love for Africa. Or maybe it’s just indifference. It was only last year that they broadcast an illustration of Africa with Niger erroneously marked as Nigeria.
President Obama’s visit to his ancestral homeland scheduled for today (Friday) was just another opportunity for the news network to demonstrate its supreme African ignorance.
In a report yesterday, CNN described Kenya as a “terror hotbed” with the threat from militant terror group, Al-Shabaab. This crude and stereotypical description unleashed a massive comeback from the Kenyan Twitter community under the hashtag #SomeoneTellCNN. And rightfully so.
If you thought global (Western) media was just and equitable, this would be a healthy reminder to bring you back to reality. Africa, according to organisations like the CNN, is still just a mess of war, famine, sickness and uncivilised natives.
So what makes a country a terror hotbed? What makes the United States of America not a “terror hotbed”? Is it the presence of young people who shoot innocent people in the name of race? Is it the number of black people who die at the hands of law enforcement? No, it clearly can’t be. Otherwise Africa would be issuing travel advisories to its citizens against travelling to the ‘land of the free’.
Let’s see your thoughts. Join in the conversation and make your statement. #SomebodyTellCNN
