Putting the Africa Story in the Right Perspective
As members of African Public Relations Association prepare for the 2015 edition of their annual conference, Raheem Akingbolu writes on the determination of the association to change the perception of the rest of the world about Africa through a better nar
For years, Africa stories had been narrated by foreigners, who often said it the way they wanted. As a result of this, a lot of innuendoes and concocted stories have been established about the continent and what she represents. But in the last few years, Public Relations practitioners, who considered it necessary to rewrite the story, have continued to impress it on stakeholders on the need to intensify effort towards changing the wrong perceptions. Among the leading proponents of this campaign are members of the African Public Relations Association (APRA), who have consistently centred their annual conference on issues related to wrong perception about African nations. To achieve this, the association is said to be working closely with the African Union to showcase African potentials and the relationship has boosted the image of Africa and her people.
In continuation of the campaign, APRA members will next week converge again in Yaounde, Cameroon for the 2015 edition of the annual conference to review the current situation in the African nations, especially as they concern terrorism, Ebola and other issues undermining the socio-political relevance of the continent. The theme of the conference, which will be the 27th edition, is; ‘Africa Trending: Contemporary Challenges, Opportunities in Reputation and Crisis Management’.
According to the Secretary General of the association, Mr. Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, this year’s conference is unique for three reasons. At a press conference in Lagos, Okunsanya said: “It coincides with our 40th anniversary celebrations; it is designed to strengthen the capacity building of members as this particular conference will be Workshop-driven and it is the first time that the conference will be held in a Francophone Country after a long time. Reasons for the theme On why the association settled for the theme of the discourse, Okusanya said APRA consider it to be apt, considering the image crisis plaguing the continent from time to time, giving the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease and the recent xenophobic attack on foreigners of African descent in South Africa as examples.
“We believe that the African continent stands on the brink of a rise, but has been plagued with several challenges, including lack of development at all levels, even as the continent gains ground demographically as the second most populous continent and economically as the next global frontier.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that Africa is a bright continent with adequate human & material resources. However, after decades of independence, Africa remains the least developed continent in the world. It is often discussed with emphasis on the narrative of the continent as one of war, poverty and disease; it is even referred to as the Dark Continent and African people, no matter their standard of education and achievements are looked down upon and ridiculed everywhere.
Africa needs a voice of her own to overcome the negative voices that have overshadowed her own for decades. Africa’s failure to have a voice of her own , tell her own story, sing her song, paint her own images, gives the rest of the world and even Africans a distorted view of the African continent. This has impacted negatively on the socio-economic growth and eventual development of the continent,”
Strategy As a way to tackle the crisis, Okunsanya stated that APRA has conceived a multidimensional initiative tagged “Campaign Africa” to drive home the African narrative, which he described as, “a narrative of hope, renewal and of endless possibilities”.
He also stated that the association has put together an initiative that would draw stakeholders from around the continent and beyond in order to facilitate the journey towards a more positively perceived and prosperous Africa.
To drive this narrative and frame the vision and reputation of the continent for generations yet unborn, the APRA Scribe said the duty has fallen on his association as reputation and image builders, to steer this ship; to gather under one umbrella, the crop of thriving African corporations and individuals who represent what Africa stands for and the possibilities that abound on the continent and preach the gospel of a positive Africa from as many platforms as possible.
He explained that ‘Campaign Africa’ is poised to re-introduce Africa as the next frontier for opportunities to investors and business prospects with the aim of showing them what they are liable to enjoy – for a lifetime, as benefits of a re-emerging continent
Speaking on the chumming relationship between APRA and the AU, Okunsanya said the conference is endorsed by the African Union and also enjoys the support of the Government of Cameroon. To buttress this, he pointed out that the Prime Minister of Cameroon; HE Mr. Philemon Yang will Chair the opening ceremony and declare the Conference open, while the Cameroonian Minister of Communications, Mr. Issah Tchiroma Bakary will deliver the Keynote address.
He said: “The conference, which is expected to draw attendees, speakers and facilitators from all over Africa, Europe, Asia and North America, will deal with such diverse topics as Global Tendencies in the PR Industry, Developing Communication Strategy, Reputation Management, Effective Internal Communications/Employer Branding, Leadership & Communication as well as Crisis Communication Theory, Case Study and a group crisis simulation exercise.,”
He therefore gave the names of the speakers to include; the Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission, HE Mr. Erastus Mwench and a seasoned marketer and communicator, Folake Ani - Mumuney, who heads the marketing and corporate communications function globally for First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc, a leading financial services provider in Nigeria, with 12 subsidiary companies. Sports and entertainment Speaking on why the associations pitched its tent with Sports and entertainment last year, the secretary general described the sectors as areas where brand Africa has impacted well on the rest of the world.
“Last year, we did talk about entertainment and sport as catalysts to promote Africa. We had people from M-net and a sport person who is also a communication person who were there to speak. The speaker in Ethiopia touched on sport as handles or opportunities for the New Africa.
It is not clearly stated in the programme this year but you can appreciate that we cannot cover every topic at every point in time. However, it does not mean that we have relegated it. We feel that Nollywood is very important and all kinds of woods that are in Africa. We believe they are very good opportunity to project Africa. Because we know that one of the key areas people outside Nigeria knows about Nigeria is through those films because we all have relatives abroad. In the past, when you are going abroad, you take your films to meet your relatives. But now, they watch the film before you because they are eager to see what happens at home. However, one of the things people have complained about is our resort to the occult. It is believed that Africa films are not complete until you see an herbalist. So, it shows that there are a lot of things that are there. All these things are very important and so we cannot ignore them. I believe that when we are trying to come to the execution part of campaign Africa, we will possibly see a lot of that involved. On the positive side, we have the musicals,” Need for research If there is anything the Public Relations Practitioner sees as a setback for campaigns coming out of Africa, it is the lip service being paid to research before execution. According to him, many agencies and their clients shy away from research because of budget and this is affecting the success of campaigns.
“Most agencies do suggest to clients to embark on research before starting any campaign but because of budget constraints, it is not taken into consideration. And is necessary we have a baseline research at the beginning of the campaign. Again, somewhere in the middle, we should ask ourselves if we are on the right track. But usually budget constraint remains the key reason why a lot of people do not do it.
The negative implication of not embarking on research is that we will get it wrong. It is absolutely wrong to spend hard earned money on chasing campaign that is faulty. This is because we didn’t get the right kind of data to manage it,” Xenophobic attack, Boko Haram and Ebola To the association, the effort of rewriting African history will be defeated if the issue of xenophobic attack in South Africa is treated in the isolation without paying attention to other related issues like Boko Haram and Ebola. To APRA members, all issues undermining the place of Africa among the comity of nations are the factors that have created Africa in bad light.
“It is unfortunate but we cannot isolate it because when we have challenges of xenophobic attack in South Africa, do we forget about Boko Haram. These are Nigerians killing Nigerians. As much as we are not condoning xenophobic, we should understand it for what it is. The question now is; how do we deal with it? The end can only be achieved by preaching the message of unity. This is one of the things that we, as an association, stands for. An African somewhere is an Africa anywhere. So, we are encouraging that message, we have sent out these message to all our counterparts even in South Africa. We are urging them to please embrace peace and unity. We are one. America is thriving because they have one currency, one agenda among other qualities. America is like Africa continent,” Resolutions Having been championing the course of change for many years, one is tend to ask if the association is heading anywhere in its resolve. Its coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Kayode Yeku said APRA have had quite a number of resolutions and that some of them had manifested. “One, we made it clear in our previous conferences that we wanted something more inclusive than exclusive. At a point in time, it looked as if the conference was being rotated between Kenya and Nigeria.
We then said to ourselves that we must take it to places that we have never been before. One of our resolutions is that we must become the consulting arm of the African Union which came to pass. It will be announced in this forthcoming conference that APRA will be an affiliate body of the African Union Commission. We have been working on it for the last two years. Now, when the African Heads of State are meeting, we will also be there.
Another achievement according to Yeku is that the association planned to go to places it has never been before and this explains the choices of Ethiopia, Mauritius and Central African Republic, Cameroun. Finally, the major resolution is that with the conference and the association’s partnership with AU, a viable platform is being created to sell Africa.