Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights, Media
The flags of civil disobedience are waving across North Africa. In Tunisia, mass demonstrations went on for weeks and included acts as extreme as self-immolation. Nearly a dozen protesters were injured in Algeria after they clashed with authorities. And in Egypt, one of the cradles of civilization, they have taken to the streets to shout their disapproval of President Hosni Mubarak.
It's making international news and drumming up support for people who would dare question their government's overbearing role in their lives. Meanwhile in places like Angola, police crack skulls on a daily basis and the spread of long-eradicated diseases cause epidemics. In Uganda, the newspaper outs a man as gay and he's later found bludgeoned to death. In Ivory Coast, the people democratically voted out the president who allowed the election and now he won't relinquish power.
Things like this happen in Sub-Saharan (read: black) Africa all the time. There is a constant struggle for democracy and freedom in these countries and you hardly hear about it unless you listen to the BBC World Service. But let things jump off in Northern Africa, and everybody's acting brand new.
So the question is, with the exception of South Africa, why is it so hard for people struggling to live a life of freedom from oppression and despotism to make news in Congo and Namibia, once powerful independent nations, but it is so easy it to garner world attention in desert sands once ruled by the Roman Empire?
To be sure, news constantly comes out of Sub-Saharan Africa, and often. War, poverty and violence are typically what western news audiences are used to, but there is also economic development, entertainment, and politics happening there each day. In fact, Western Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world thanks to Latin American and Chinese investment.
But there are also political struggles, too. Just a year ago, Umaru Yar'Adua, Nigeria's then-president faced demonstrations from all sides demanding that he cede power. Thousands hit the streets in Abuja for that purpose. He died last May and Goodluck Jonathan took his place.
In Tanzania, a similar number of people demonstrated against Jakaya Kikwete's re-election and police killed at least two, something considered rare for that nation. Of course Sudan is worth watching all over the world because the country recently voted over whether or not it would split in two. Leaders there are watching to see if democracy takes hold or if the bloody violence of recent years returns.
There are dozens of examples like these coming out of non-Arab speaking Africa. Truth is, many, including people in Northern Africa make a marked distinction between that region and Sub-Saharan Africa, despite them being one continent. Historians erroneously argued for years that Egypt wasn't even part of Africa!
Thanks to geography, we know better now. There's really no reason to differentiate or favor one African political conflict over another. But what media seems to be missing is that since European powers began shedding their official holds on nations there, the entire continent has been politically volatile from Ghana to Libya.