THE most remarkable thing about President Robert Mugabe’s plea for journalists to report positively about Africa is that Zimbabweans have been there before and they know how it feels to be pummelled by the media.
“And of course we also feel that our journalists should report us better than they have been doing all along, including yourselves. Report the good things that Africa is doing,” President Mugabe told the media soon after his meeting with Equatorial Guinea leader Theodore Obiang Nguema Mbasogo at State House last Saturday.
“There are many (positives), including football.”
There are only so many times a continent or country’s issues can be pored over and analysed with the same old story of negativity and, surely, there are so many times the beauty and greatness of a people can make up for supposed ills of a people.
Yet that has never been the case with Zimbabwe and Africa, which are easy prey for a media that seems to have been created to desecrate Africa.
Zimbabweans at home and millions of Africans across the world will all have seen this before, several times over.
Our story is being stolen, distorted and destroyed by a media that has and will never regard Africa as a continent of extreme hope but one crushingly admonished by our own through the lenses of the media.
We have a problem in Zimbabwe and in Africa.
We have a media suffering from amnesia.
Two critical and compelling examples quickly come to the mind of any progressive Zimbabwean.
Waving the Constitution as passport to write negatively about the country and the security sector, there has been an interesting twist to the whole project as journalists have not lived up to expectations.
And the media hiding under the now infamous Section 62 of the Constitution has been gleefully dabbling in these sacred waters, lying to the public about supposed changes to the military command and that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) ‘secretly’ got bonuses.
The idea is to shake the command and divide it through the media.
We shall see about these purported changes to the command as the Zimbabwe Independent published on December 18 2015.
We shall equally see if the CIO was ‘secretly’ paid bonuses as the Newsday claimed in its story.
The net effect of this whole security sector reform fiasco by the media and their political godfathers is that their incessant interference does not inspire public confidence about their revered security structures, itself a recipe for destabilisation.
This year, the Daily News began the year with a story that claimed Zimbabwe was ‘burning’ and that there is chaos in the beloved country.
But Zimbabwe, steadfast as ever, has not shown signs of a nation burning and mired in chaos.
And the bigger story of Zimbabwe, the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme has not been fully told by our own people.
Instead, sections of the media in Africa have sought to take the initiative by labelling the land indigenisation drive as ‘Mugabe’s violent land grab’.
Notwithstanding the fact that you cannot simply ‘grab’ that which belongs to you, the numerous huge milestones made by local farmers who, despite operating under a hostile environment characterised by sanctions, have largely been ignored.
Even the African Union’s Agenda 2063 programme, a road map of developmental programmes which Africa as a continent is determined to carry out over the next 50 years is not a story told to many across the globe.
Every day stories told are about poverty, hunger, war and persistent attacks on leadership on the continent.
But Agenda 2063 is among an array of programmes aimed at freeing Africa from the vestiges of colonialism and poverty and are in line with the dreams of the founding members of the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
Away from this anti-Africa madness, it has been yet another successful week for Africans plying their trade in Europe.
Ghana’s Andre Ayew and Nigerian Odion Ighalo were on target in the English Premier League at the weekend as Cameroon international player Dani Ndi scored his first La Liga goal for Sporting Gijon.
In the Spanish La Liga, Moroccan striker El Arabi fired home his sixth goal of the season in Granada’s vital 3-2 win over Getafe to lift them out of the relegation zone.
According to Supersport, below is how African players performed at their respective clubs.
JOEL MATIP (Schalke 04)
With the Royal Blues eager to extend his contract, the Cameroon defender headed his side into a fourth-minute lead from a corner in Schalke’s 3-1 defeat at home to Werder Bremen. It was the 24-year-old’s third goal of the season.
ANTHONY UJAH (Werder Bremen)
The Nigeria striker scored his eighth goal of the season in the 89th-minute of Werder Bremen’s shock win at Schalke. The 25-year-old tapped home a final pass from his captain Clemens Fritz. Despite the win, Bremen remain in the relegation zone and are third from bottom.
FRANCE
CHEICK DIABATE (Bordeaux)
The Mali striker grabbed his third goal in three games as Bordeaux scored twice in the last six minutes in a 2-2 draw at Nantes. The 27-year-old found the target in the 84th minute with a header from close to the penalty spot to beat Remy Riou in the Nantes goal. Riou had earlier kept out another Diabate header.
ITALY
KEITA BALDE (Lazio)
With Miroslav Klose and Felipe Anderson starting on the bench against Chievo, Keita was given a rare start for Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico, and after a largely positive performance the Senegalese striker finally made his mark with his team’s fourth goal – in the sixth minute of extra time as Stefano Pioli’s men enjoyed a 4-1 win. It was his third goal in 16 Serie A appearances this season.
This is our story and it only us who can tell it in full.
Let those with ears listen.