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OAAN asks some pertinent questions on African diplomacy through the media in Tokyo |
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(I to R) Phalanx president Hiroshi Chijiwa wants to help African ambassadors
improve their image in Japan. Meeting chair: Dean of African ambassadors
and Tunisian ambassador to Japan, Salah Hannachi and Zimbabwe's
ambassador to Japan: Stuart Comberbach, hosts the African Diplomatic Corps.
Under resourced and economically dependent, what are the chances of African countries broadening their diplomatic functions from attending scheduled
meetings with the Japanese government officials to improving their media
image and attracting investiments to their countries?
Below left: Wasswa Biriggwa, Ugandan ambassador to Japan prefers a committee approach. Below right: Dr Emile Rwamasirabo, Rwandan ambassador, to head new committee to work with Phalanx to improve Africa's image in Japan
This is the question African diplomats are presently grappling with in Tokyo. Chances however seem very slim, leaving African countries to wallow in a diplomatic cul de sac.
How for example would the African countries be able to correct the erroneous view that Japan is only interested in African countries for their support for a United Nations
Security Council seat?
In other words how do they change the view that they are mere tools of Japanese
diplomacy? To be used or discarded according to the whims of their hosts?
And how would they be able to make the Japanese public understand more what the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) is about without any funding for a media blitz?
Agreeing: An Un-African Union Stance.Each country must look after its own image. Time for collective media diplomacy is gone. Botswana's ambassador to Japan and
Nigeria's ambassador to Japan and Egypt's ambassador to Japan pursue an
independent line.
OAAN would like to continue being interested in this question. It is very central to
whether Africans have the ability and the will power to change the way they are talked about in the global media.
The fact that they have started to talk about it and have been talking about it for nearly
two years now, gives the project hope.
However the practice of extending a begging bowl even on issues whose initiatives is rightfully theirs should end.
Africans representing their countries in developed countries should stop representing their heads of state and start representing their countries in order to make a difference and progress on the United Nations Millenium Development Goals.
Increasingly group approaches to solutions are less effective depending on the type of problem. The issue of media image while a continent wide issue is coming to rest more and more on an individual country's shoulders.
| Jean-Christian Obame, Gabon ambassador to Japan Concerned that African ambassadors will fail to pay for services and this may affect efforts towards a collective approach for fixing Africa's media image problems in Japan. He knows this since he chaired the last media committee whose work was marred by similar problems. |  |
The issues of transparency, free and fair elections, good governance, accountability, respect for human rights, amongst others should force individual countries to look after their own backs.
This is when it matters most for individual countries to shape their own media strategy as a way to focus on their own individual strengths.
There, however still exist opportunities for collective media diplomacy where continental issues are at stake such as at TICAD and G8 conferences amongst others.
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Saturday, 24 March, 2007
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