Culture Trek

Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

David Kobia just went live with his new?brainchild,?I Have No Tribe. This?site is dedicated to positive discourse?on the Kenyan conflict from around the world and it has been met with great response in the form of debate, poetry, hope and support.

In early January, Kobia contributed?to tech development of?Ushahidi, a forum for civilian reporting?on?acts of violence through electronic means during?the Kenyan government’s (recently lifted) ban on?media. That project was the brainchild of bloggers Kenyan Pundit, White African, Afromusing, and Mentalacrobatics.

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Kenya: Media Being Silenced As Political Crisis Intensifies
AllAfrica.com,?Washington
A continuing ban on live broadcasts and new death threats to journalists in Kenya are silencing media reports on the country’s escalating political crisis

The organisations say the ban harms the ability of journalists to cover Kenya’s unfolding political crisis, and that “the situation is worse than the government wants the public and the world to believe.” According to the Media Institute, nearly 1,500 people have died and more than 250,000 have fled their homes.

Autosmiler has posted a series of text messages from her friend Emmanuel Leina Tasur,?a Kenyan Village Volunteer host, with news regarding Kericho, Transmara, Nakuru, Naivasha, Kisumu, Nyeri, and Nyahururu. Although brief in their transmission, they somehow say so much.

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What’s wrong with using the word “tribe” in Western media? A lot more than meets the cultural divide, it seems.

AfricaFocus.org posted a fabulous argument about the particulars. I include the introduction here along with a link to the full length piece. This?position has recently been brought to the attention of the New York Times’ Executive Editor,? Bill Keller, in response to journalist Jeffrey Gettleman’s?Kenyan election coverage. While Gettleman, after receiving letters of criticism, seems to have adapted his writing style, Keller?was less than obliging. ?You can read his bitter response as posted at allAfrica.com?below too.

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Violence continued in Kenya, where on Sunday the police and residents tried to quell a fire set in the Mathare slum in Nairobi. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times

?While the idea that the post-election violence had been pre-planned is not new, Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times recently presented an evidential account of governmental and civilian preparations in Signs in Kenya That Killings Were Planned (21 January 2008):

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Finally, mainstream media takes the hint and publishes some sense! (Of course it’s not American mainstream media. Get real. We have states that still haven’t apologized for slavery.)

If you read anything today, let it be this.

The Violence in Kenya May Be Awful, but It Is Not Senseless ‘Savagery’
by Madeleine Bunting
Monday January 14, 2008
The Guardian

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I feel much trepedation?this week for Kenya. Former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, with Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, and the former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa arrive Tuesday to mediate between President Kibaki and his opposition, Raila Odinga, over the contested election, but it will likely do little good.

According to the article “Kenyan Minister Spurns Annan Intervention” by Matthew Weaver, Haroon Siddique and agencies at the Guardian Unlimited (14 Jan 2008), the President’s cabinet says there is nothing to discuss:

“If Kofi Annan is coming, he’s not coming at our invitation,” Michuki told Reuters. “As far as we are concerned, we won an election we don’t have a problem to be solved here.”

John Michuki was named as president Mwai Kibaki’s road and works minister last week, when Kibaki enraged the opposition by appointing half his cabinet as peace talks were due to begin.

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I just read?two compelling?articles over at Spiked?in which Western media is being taken to task for failing to report?honestly and?without stereotypical bias.?

In?”Kenya is not the new Rwanda: Why Western observers see every political conflict in Africa as an inexplicable outburst of violence and a harbinger of ?holocaust?” (Tuesday, 8 January 2008), Frank Furedi. Professor of Sociology at University of Kent,?critiques the Western disinformation?that plagues?Kenyan news coverage.?Tracing the?underlying historical tensions of the region, Furedi?challanges Western cowboy journalism that shoots from the hip:

Through today?s promiscuous use of the term ?genocide?, conflicts become transformed into morality plays about human destruction, and tend to be seen as being both incomprehensible and inevitable. Western reporters see only a sudden, inexplicable outburst of violence – a kind of murderous descent into hell – and overlook the structural causes of crises in the Third World…

…it is precisely because the stakes are so high that the last thing Kenya needs is for its problems to be transformed into a Western fantasy about ?another Rwanda?. Kenya was not a beacon of democracy or a model of economic stability before the December elections. And nor is it the dramatic setting for a Rwanda-to-be after the elections. All that has happened is that one group of corrupt politicians overplayed its hand, got a little bit too greedy, and forced its opponents to react on the streets.

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Linda Szeto?has been invited to write?a three part series on the situation in Kenya?at Eugene Cho’s blog, Beauty and Depravity.

• The first installment was posted today, 2008 January 10. It’s?a well researched, up-to-date, summary of?Kenyan events as reported?in the media world-wide.
• Tomorrow promises to present?a compilation of?Kenyan reactions from Linda’s friends and from various Kenyan blogs.
• The last will?feature an account of the emotional and political struggles of Linda’s friend and Village Volunteer host, Emmanuel Leina Tasur.

I look forward to reading on with great anticipation.

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I have been spending some significant time?reading the?Diary of a Mad Kenyan Woman, asking myself some hard questions posed by its author, Wambui Mwangi. In the chilling post “I was near to die… I was dead,”?this sentiment (among many) struck a chord with me:

I was watching CNN as opposed to Kenyan television channels because I wanted to see what the world was saying about us. The world is saying that Kenyans, who had been on the brink of one of the most astonishing democratic transitions witnessed in Africa, degenerated, very conveniently for the West?s stereotypes, to a ?business as usual: chaos and anarchy right on schedule? version of the African story. These broadcasts are brimming with just barely-suppressed glee at being able to say that tribal violence is tearing the East African nation of Kenya apart, long regarded as an exemplary bastion of stability in the region. We have confirmed some cherished stereotypes and validated many racists worldwide.

For me too, a?born and bred American, this media matter has been?painfully obvious.?I’m once?again trapped within a?moment?in which I am embarrassed for my country’s myopic comprehension?and ashamed of?the national and cultural baggage?that?can weigh upon me like a sack of boulders. I admit that I am not always fully aware of the American ideology that forms my thoughts and, with a growing awareness, I?feel as though my identity has been violated by?stereotypical ideas never inherently mapped within my?DNA. Still, I try to be?conscious of?the cultural confines of a perceived American superiority. It is?a constant?effort to combat?my subconsious?with a sense of humility and an obsessive focus on education, both scholastic and?via analysis of my experience. In times of plain living?is when?the snake?slithers up from the?shadows and?bites me in the ass, but today – today I am painfully aware.

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The BBC continues to surpass US humanitarian coverage of?Kenya?by addressing the physical and emotional needs of?those navigating their country’s sudden outbreak of violence. As of today, more than 600 have been burned alive, shot and butchered?and American?media continues to focus on the politics, economics, and violence.?But an estimated 250,000 living men, women and children are?displaced,?frightened, mourning,?wounded?and hungry with no home to return to.?These are?stories of the people.

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