



Yesterday I witnessed yet another twitter storm erupt over Western coverage of an African situation. A Guardian correspondent offered an analysis of the on-going crisis in South Sudan that, judging from the comments on the website, was well received outside South Sudan.
Yet, the reaction from the South Sudanese online community was the opposite. Relatively well-known twitterati roundly criticised the article as a complete misread of the situation on the ground. As someone who has both criticised Western media for their coverage of Africa, but has also relied on Western media for information about places that I have never been to, I found it fascinating. Who should you believe in a situation like this? And why do Western media keep getting coverage of African issues wrong?
My inclination is to believe that the South Sudanese bloggers, if for no other reason than they are relatively immune to the vagaries of the news cycle, remember the same journalist was touted as "the first Western journalist on the scene" - a descriptor that the South Sudanese community rejected. Does it matter if he's a Western journalist? What does that say about the premium that Western news outlets place on information given by Western (read white) reporters versus non-Western reporters?
This casual descriptor inadvertently disregarded the lived experiences of the thousands of literate, experienced South Sudanese writers, journalists and informants, and created a hierarchy of knowledge that appears to be largely based on race. So, given the choice between a person whose truth seems conditioned by race, and another whose truth is based on experience on the ground, I'm inclined to believe the latter.
Indeed, Western media continue - and will continue - to get coverage of African issues wrong because of their inability to confront this unspoken hierarchy of knowledge and the barriers it generates. Firstly, in this scheme, The Rest is necessarily set up in opposition to The West in resulting coverage, and issues or situations are rarely, if ever, analysed for their intrinsic impact or worth. Events or situations are therefore analysed as what the West is not, and so articles are a process of either reifying or undermining pre-existing assumptions that are either set up in history books or in other literature about Africa in general or the phenomenon at hand. So the coverage of the crisis in South Sudan is either used to reiterate or undermine beliefs about ethnicity and its role in conflicts in Africa: where "ethnicity" is a trope that can easily distinguish "Africa" from The West but is now a shorthand so overused and misused that it's lost its explanatory value.
Secondly, one must recall that any reading of a polyglot nation using a colonial language is necessarily an act of interpretation, and Western coverage of African situation is always going to suffer from this process. Sending people who speak only English or even Swahili to find people who also speak English or Swahili is always going to create a selection bias, and necessitates a process of translation within which the nuance of coded, non-verbal communication will be lost.
Binyavanga Wainaina wrote in a powerful essay for the National Geographic about how Nairobians, most of whom speak three recognised languages in addition to the patois, sheng', and occupy three or more corresponding "worlds". The world of English is necessarily formal - schools and offices - while the world of sheng', at the other extreme, is the world of familiarity and fraternity. Anyone who speaks multiple languages will testify to this - there is more to language than just words. When a multilingual person switches between languages, it's not just about finding the grammar or the syntax that best represents what they're trying to say. It's also about coded messages that indicate familiarity with the spoken to; that demand fraternity; that create space for all sorts of unspoken communication. It is in the informality of sheng' that tea (chai) or a soft drink (soda) becomes a bribe.
So when a foreign journalist enters a space in which he speaks the formal but only understands the informal, a great deal will necessarily be lost in translation. I believe that it is in this space that most of the mistakes occur when writing about Africa. I argue that most Western journalists who come to Africa believe that they can get by because they speak English or even Swahili, but never really get down to the essence of what it means to be a South Sudanese in war for instance, an essence that is fundamentally related to the ability to be able to switch between the three or four languages and their attendant identities.
This switching matters to a large extent because it is in this switching, for instance, that many Africans comprehend the fluidity of ethnicity, which translates as hardened and immutable in English but is actually pretty malleable and utilitarian in sheng' or in any other African language. It is in this switching that context is given - a Kikuyu or Dinka descriptor that modifies an English concept, and either attenuates or aggravates its meaning. The use of poorly translated or contextualised concepts, of hardened constructs in place of malleable ones, is thus an integral part of the broader frustration that Africa just isn't being heard right. Yes, this person says that Tribe X is responsible for issue Y, but are they just using that as shorthand for a more complex phenomenon, like the interrelationship between class, ethnicity and power?
There is an easy way to resolves this of course: ask Africans what they think and have them tell their own stories, instead of co-opting them to undermine or reinforce existing narratives among the Western audience. But given the aforementioned racial hierarchy of knowledge in the Western public sphere, I doubt this will happen and we should all prepare ourselves for another bout of misunderstanding.
Nanjala Nyabola, is a writer and political analyst, currently based at Harvard Law School.
Forget the past, Emir of Kano tells Al-
Mustapha
on december 31, 2013 at 9:09 am in news
BY ABDULSALAM MOHAMMED
KANO—The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero,
yesterday urged former Chief Security Officer
to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha,
Major Hamza Al Mustapha, to leave behind
the experience of his long incarceration and
forge ahead in peace.
Bayero, who hosted the former security goon
in his palace, admonished the serving Major in
the Nigerian Army to treat the fate that befell
him as a clear act of God, adding that “such
experience was a fulfillment of destiny”.
Bayero stated: “I want you to bear in mind
that whatever happened to a man in the
journey of life was predestined by Allah,
therefore, your experience over the long
incarceration was a fulfillment of destiny, and
I urged you to leave it behind and forge ahead
in peace.”
Al Mustapha was incarcerated for 15 years by
Nigerian authorities over an alleged role in the
killing of pro-democracy activist, Kudirat
Abiola, before he was let off the hook by a
competent court in July, though Lagos State
government is still contesting the appeal court
verdict at the Apex court.
*Al-Mustapha
Major Al Mustapha had stormed the emir’s
palace in a convoy of over a hundred cars
filled with sympathizers and well-wishers to
pay homage to the monarch who had been
indisposed over the last couple of months.
Fielding questions from newsmen after the
brief but historic visit, Al Mustapha stated
that his visit was purely a manifestation of
father and child relationship.
Major Al Mustapha, who stressed that he was
still a commissioned officer of the Nigerian
Army, said “my stalled progress in the army is
the direct consequence of the criminal case
instituted against me in court and until it’s
finally determined in court, I remain a major in
the Army.”
He dismissed political linkage to his
nationwide visit to distinguished Nigerians;
revealing that “my major preoccupation now is
to better the life of humanity through a
credible non-governmental organisation.”
"Life was not that rosy. When my dad was alive, life was pretty much rosy but I lost my Dad in 1999 and it was my Mum that was taking care of me up until she died too. So it was kinda hard to get by, really. I dropped out of school in my 100Level to focus on my music.I moved to Abuja and started living with MI and Jesse Jagz. We were making music, doing some small small shows just to get money. Then we moved to Lagos, we got a chance to chill at Djinee’s house. Djinee gave us some space in his house to sleep. Djinee is like my Jesus. He came through for us. We lived in his house and made it very uncomfortable for him but he took all the pain and accommodated us. This was in 2008. Gradually, there was steady growth. We got our own place, started making music. In 2008, I hosted Sprite Triple Slam. We did 30 shows, 15 in Lagos, 15 in the East. I got some small money off that to buy some new jeans and shoes so that girls would, you know, say hi to me when they see me." [7]In 2004, Ice Prince released his debut single "Extraordinary". "Rewind", another single he released received radio airplay in Lagos and Abuja. It charted on Rhythm Fm's "Top 7 chart", Notjustok's "Hype", Unilag Fm, Zain Central Station, Inspiration Fm, Top Fm’s "Top of the Morning", Cosmo Fm's "Top Hits", Africa Connect Chat Show, and Kiss' "Top 20 Africa". Moreover, it charted at number 1 on Cool Fm and Vision Fm in Abuja.
| Year | Title | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | "Oleku" (featuring Brymo) |
Everybody Loves Ice Prince |
| 2011 | "Superstar" | |
| "Juju" | ||
| 2012 | "Ma’Gyptian (Magician Remix)" (featuring Gyptian) |
|
| "Aboki" | Fire of Zamani | |
| "More" | ||
| 2013 | "Gimme Dat" | |
| "I Swear" (featuring French Montana) |
||
| "Aboki Remix" (featuring Sarkodie, Mercy Johnson, Wizkid, M.I, and Khuli Chana) |
N/A | |
| "V.I.P" |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | House of Gold | Supporting role | [25] | |
| Shuga | Himself | Shuga Series 3 | [26] |
| Year | Event | Prize | Nominated work | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Channel O Music Video Awards | Most Gifted African West Video | "Aboki" | Nominated | [27] |
| Most Gifted Video of the Year | Nominated | ||||
| 4Syte TV Music Video Awards | Best African Act Video | Nominated | [28] | ||
| Nigeria Music Video Awards (NMVA) | Best Hip Hop Video | "V.I.P" | Won | [29] | |
| Best Use of Visual Effects | Nominated | ||||
| MOBO Awards | Best African Act | Nominated | [30] | ||
| Nigeria Entertainment Awards | Best Rap Act of the Year | Won | [31] | ||
| BET Awards | Best International Act: Africa | Won | [32] | ||
| 2012 | Channel O Music Video Awards | Most Gifted Hip-hop Video of the Year | "Superstar" | Won | [33] |
| Most Gifted Reggae Video of the Year | "Juju" | Nominated | [34] | ||
| Nigeria Entertainment Awards | Best Album of the Year | Everybody Loves Ice Prince | Nominated | [35] | |
| Best Rap Act of the Year | Nominated | ||||
| BET Awards | Best International Act: Africa | Nominated | [36] | ||
| Hip Hop World Awards (The Headies) | Album of the Year | Everybody Loves Ice Prince | Nominated | [37] | |
| Best Rap Album | Won | ||||
| Artist of the Year | Nominated | ||||
| Hip Hop World Revelation of the Year | Nominated | ||||
| 2011 | Channel O Music Video Awards | Most Gifted Newcomer Video | "Oleku" (featuring Brymo) |
Won | [38] |
| Most Gifted Hip Hop Video | "Nobody Test Me" (Jesse Jagz featuring M.I and Ice Prince) |
Nominated | [39] | ||
| Most Gifted Video of the Year | "Molowo Noni" (Samklef featuring Wizkid, D’Prince, and Ice Prince) |
Nominated | |||
| Nigeria Music Video Awards (NMVA) | Best Contemporary Afro Video | "Oleku" (featuring Brymo) |
Nominated | [40] | |
| Nigeria Entertainment Awards | Hottest Single Of The Year | Won | [41] | ||
| Best New Act Of The Year | Nominated | [42] | |||
| Best Rap Act Of The Year | Nominated | ||||
| City People Entertainment Awards | Song of the Year | "Oleku" (featuring Brymo) |
Won | [43] | |
| Eko FM/ Radio Lagos Awards | Young Artiste of the Year | Won | |||
| 2010 | Dynamix All Youth Awards | Promising Artiste of the Year | Nominated | [44] | |
| Song of the Year | "Oleku" (featuring Brymo) |
Nominated | |||
| 2009 | Hennessy Artistry Club Tour | Hennessy Artistry | Won | [45] |