Negative stereotypes and narratives on Africa cost to the continent up to $4.2 billion a year, report finds

In the world of journalism, a well-known expression says “when a dog bites a man, that is not news, but if a man bites a dog, that is news”. The same situation seems to happen each time global media talks about Africa. According to a report published by Africa No Filter (an advocacy organization that rails against harmful narratives that distort the reality in Africa), most of time the continent is portrayed in the media through a distorted lens, that focuses on structural weaknesses of its economies and shifts attention from positive stories to negative events, such as famine, war, violence and election fraud. On the one hand, this is perfectly understandable. People love hearing disaster stories, as those are the ones that sell best. But when this biased narrative ends up inflating perceptions of risks by investors, calling into question the ability of African countries to take control of their own development trajectory, this becomes a serious problem for a continent that is already in the grip of debt and that needs significant flows of investment to fund its growth.

Negative narrative about Africa influences global rating agencies that react by downgrading credit ratings and by questioning the ability of African States to repay the capital and interests of the debt acquired on the capital and money markets. This obviously derails the flow of capital that could be heading to Africa or, at best, leads to unfair lending conditions for its States.

Africa No Filter estimates these damages to the tune of $4.2 billion annually, noting that African countries are unjustifiably perceived as higher risk by international investors, compared to countries with similar political and socio-economic conditions. In fact, the study shows that a positive media sentiment is correlated with a lower risk profile and reduced bond yields.

Despite the study has limitations – as recognized by its authors -  the alarm launched by Africa No Filter is worrying. This excessive emphasis on socio-economic catastrophes and problems from which some African countries suffer, inevitably has a ripple effect on other key sectors of the economy of these nations, limiting their development possibilities. Among them there is tourism, an important resource that many African countries are trying leverage to improve the living conditions of their citizens and that could grow dramatically if only global media refrain from depicting Africa as the land of wars, hunger and infectious diseases.

The report therefore concludes by urging global media to shift away from harmful stereotypes in reporting about Africa, noting that biased narratives lead not only to unjustifiably high borrowing costs (even for African countries with decent credit ratings), but they may also stifle the development possibilities of important compartments of the African economy. Tourism is a case in point.

Read the short version of this post on the Habari Network.