By Emmanuel Mihiingo Kaija
There’s an old saying that whoever tells the story owns the future. That might sound poetic, but it is also a stark political truth, one Africans have lived for centuries. When outsiders talk about “Africa,” it is often through the lens of crisis: famine, conflict, corruption, disease, and environmental disasters. This is not just poor reporting—it reflects who controls the narrative and who benefits from it. The continent is represented as a homogeneous place defined by hardship, ignoring the remarkable diversity of cultures, economies, and innovations across its 54 nations. Consider the example of Rwanda: after the genocide, the country not only rebuilt but achieved sustained GDP growth averaging 8% per year for over a decade, developed innovative e-governance platforms, and now exports coffee, tea, and technology solutions to the world. Or Kenya, where mobile money solutions like M-Pesa, serving over 50 million users, transformed financial access for communities that were previously excluded from traditional banking. Across West Africa, local startups in Lagos, Accra, and Dakar are leveraging tech and creative industries to generate millions of jobs annually, demonstrating that Africa is a laboratory of ingenuity and problem-solving. Yet, these stories rarely make global headlines, because they do not fit the old script of “Africa in need” (Harth, 2024). Ignoring African voices leaves the narrative incomplete, and as the African proverb reminds us, “A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” When we fail to listen to local voices, outsiders fill the vacuum with assumptions that often distort reality.
The danger of a single story is not just that it is negative—it becomes the default story, shaping how the world perceives an entire continent. Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie addressed this in her TED Talk The Danger of a Single Story, emphasizing that stereotyping is less about falsehood and more about omission (Adichie, 2009). Limiting narratives create a world where only one aspect of Africa’s complex realities is visible, leaving innovation, resilience, and cultural vibrancy in the shadows. Consider the boom in African renewable energy: in 2024 alone, over 7.5 million Africans gained access to solar-powered electricity through decentralized mini-grids, with innovators in countries like Senegal and South Africa pioneering solutions that reduce dependency on imported energy technology. Meanwhile, African literature, film, and music continue to thrive globally, with authors like Chimamanda, Teju Cole, and Nnedi Okorafor receiving international acclaim, yet these cultural contributions are often overlooked in mainstream coverage. The issue is not scarcity of achievement—it is the power to decide which stories are amplified. As Adichie argues, controlling the narrative is controlling the lens through which the world sees Africa, which has consequences not just for perception but for investment, diplomacy, and cultural influence (McKenney, 2016).
This issue extends into media coverage, where Western outlets overwhelmingly focus on negative headlines. Studies show that 85% of Western reporting on Africa emphasizes crises, corruption, and instability, while positive developments—like Africa’s leading role in mobile fintech, agricultural innovation, and green energy—receive far less attention (Africa Practice & Africa No Filter, 2024). This is not simply a question of editorial bias; it is a reflection of the structural power in global media. Funding, ownership, and editorial control all sit disproportionately in the hands of organizations based outside Africa, producing a persistent cycle of “newsworthiness” that prioritizes calamity over agency. Take Uganda, where local solar energy cooperatives have electrified thousands of villages, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and opening educational and business opportunities for women and youth. While transformative, these initiatives are rarely highlighted in international news outlets, despite the fact that they offer replicable models for sustainable development across the continent. This imbalance perpetuates the perception of Africa as a problem to be managed rather than a source of creative solutions and leadership.
Africans themselves are increasingly pushing back, reclaiming narrative control. At media and communications conferences across the continent—from Lagos to Nairobi—professionals stress that African voices must drive the storytelling (Africa Practice & Africa No Filter, 2024). This is more than symbolic: it affects investment decisions, policy discourse, and the international community’s approach to partnerships. African-led media initiatives, such as Africa No Filter, work to highlight innovation, culture, and governance reform, challenging the persistent “crisis-only” narrative. Educational campaigns in Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa train journalists to critically examine which stories are elevated and which remain unheard. Local newspapers, podcasts, and documentary filmmakers are increasingly documenting the full spectrum of African life, from high-tech start-ups to community-based conservation efforts, showing a continent that is dynamic, innovative, and resilient, not just impoverished or violent.
Reclaiming narrative power also requires elevating creative voices in literature, film, and arts. Zimbabwean women authors, for instance, explore identity, history, and postcolonial challenges in ways rarely portrayed in Western media (Wikipedia, n.d.). Nollywood, Africa’s largest film industry, produces thousands of stories annually, reflecting diverse social issues, morality, and humor that are deeply grounded in local culture. African music—from Afrobeats to traditional folk—has reached global charts, influencing cultural trends worldwide, yet these achievements are still marginal in global media coverage. Empowering Africans to tell their own stories ensures that narratives are multifaceted, reflecting the continent’s complex realities, rather than oversimplified, reductive images designed for external consumption.
Ultimately, asking who tells Africa is not rhetorical—it is an urgent challenge to power. It requires examining not just the content of stories but the structures behind them: media ownership, funding sources, editorial control, and the social and political networks that determine whose voices are amplified. Africans have long told stories—around fires, in classrooms, on radios, in novels, and films—but ensuring that these stories reach the global stage requires investment, infrastructure, and policy support. Indigenous media networks, digital platforms, and diaspora-led initiatives all contribute to this ecosystem. When African voices dominate the narrative, the world can see a continent on its own terms: complex, innovative, culturally rich, and resilient, rather than a perpetual site of need or crisis. The proverb “The bird that does not remember where it came from will not know where it is going” underscores that reclaiming narrative is not just cultural—it is strategic. Africans, by telling their own stories, chart a future defined by agency, creativity, and authentic self-representation.
References
Adichie, C. N. (2009). The danger of a single story [TED Talk]. TEDGlobal, Oxford, UK. https://english.umd.edu/research-innovation/journals/interpolations/fall-2018/summary-danger-single-story
Africa Practice & Africa No Filter. (2024, October 17). Negative stereotypes in international media cost Africa £3.2bn a year – report. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/17/media-stereotypes-africa-higher-interest-report-payments-on-sovereign-debt
Harth, A. (2024). Representations of Africa in the Western news media: Reinforcing myths and stereotypes. DDRN. https://ddrn.dk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/1BHarth.pdf
McKenney, Y. (2016). Beyond the single story. ASCD – Educational Leadership. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/beyond-the-single-story
The danger of the single story: The media’s misrepresentation of Africa (2025). Kibin. https://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/the-medias-misrepresentation-of-africa-in-chimamanda-adichies-the-danger-of-a-single-story-P3OE3KXD
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimamanda_Ngozi_Adichie
