The last decade witnessed the resurgence of the buzz-word ‘rebranding’ in major African nations. From South Africa to Malawi, from Kenya to Nigeria, the story was the same. We witnessed rebranding jingoes and colorful advertisements from country to country but after all these years, have these rebranding efforts achieved their intended missions?
Africa has come to be associated with the image of a helpless continent that needs salvation. A continent that must adopt a predetermined posture, a ‘wanna be like them’, of the so-called nations that are acclaimed to have possessed the most sought-after traits. However, the achievements of Africans in varied fields world-wide tell a different story. From science and technology, trade and banking, from academia to entertainment and sports, the catalogue of achievements are too numerous to have earned the continent and its people such a negative image. All we see are horrible footages and colorful-gloss pictures of hungry-stricken malnourished children, refugees receiving food items from international donor agencies, pockets of population nearing extinction due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, over-crowded cities with dilapidated infrastructures begging for World Bank’s intervention, etc. Do you call this international media conspiracy? You may be right.
However, our problems remain our problems. The way we go about solving them relies on the pertinent questions we ask instead of playing the blame-game. It is time to stop attributing our under-development to Western conspiracy and colonization which always give us the soft-landing. A landing that have placed the continent on the wrong footing of corruption, poverty, hunger, civil wars, electoral fraud, over-ambitious leaders, etc. These conditions were the yardsticks on which the so-called international organizations and development partners came in to play the ‘Big Brother’ role. What we as African people need do is take a journey of soul-searching, speak the truth to our conscience and resolve firmly that we as followers and leaders are ready to flow with current dynamics of change. Someone has said that ‘all great empires ever built were readily built in the heart of men before they came to their physical form’. The kinds of images we conceive in the eyes of our mind become the reality with time.
.
The type of rebranding we need as Africans is the rebranding of the mind. We do not need spend billions that could be channeled responsibly to improve and save lives in expensive “Nation Rebranding” campaigns.
I think we need to look at this in two ways. First, we need to recognize that the west is to blame. Lets make no mistake — we would be foolish to think they don’t have an agenda in Africa. Second, we are to blame for letting us be a doormat and not putting our people and ourselves first. We should not pretend that neo-colonialism, and western hegemony doesn’t exist or don’t have real consequences. If you need proof of it, take a look at any trade policy with Africa and you will see that there are unfair trade policies, and the west has infiltrated almost every illegitimate African regime – they support almost every African dictator (recent uprising have shown that – the Egyption people know who was keeping Mubarak in power, the reason they were able to throw him out is b/c they recognized this), Shell has infiltrated every level of the Nigerian govt. and most of us knew this before wiki leaks leaked it. The African leaders that try to make change get killed- La Mumba is the most famous example… Rebranding is not about selling propaganda, its about selling yourself an following through with action.. ie selling coca cola, you need to make sure your product is good, the legal conditions are there to facilitate coke sales, you have a quality product and you follow through on promises – same concept etc… its not just about wasting money but it deals with public diplomacy too. you can make changes within if you cant recognize the international politics of it all – its not about blaming others but understanding what there interests are in order to better yourself. It can be very useful to concentrate on our image. Yes, if we emancipate our selves from mental slavery, part of this means taking control of how we are portrayed –
See my blog at http://ww.rebrandafrica.org
Bob Marley talked about emancipation from mental slavery. Is is our minds that need rebranding. Bro, you hit it right on the head
No one can portray an image of you if you don’t allow it. You are right that we need to rebrand our minds and attitude, not campaigns on TV. Good article