A close look at politics in Africa shows that they are closely linked to the press through political party newspapers, magazines and newsletters and even radio stations. This is despite the latest standoff between the various stakeholders on whether the media in the continent, and Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in particular, should regulate itself or governments should come up with statutory control measures. In some cases, arguments regarding this noble profession have centred on legal (constitutional) impediments. While these are valid points, one thing beyond dispute is that African journalism contributed much to the decolonization of the continent.
Journalism gives birth to politicians: In South Africa, Drum magazine contributed to African nationalism and even punched holes into apartheid. One of the major stories that reached most parts of Africa is that of the first President of Botswana, the late Sir Seretse Khama. His marriage to the Briton, Ruth Williams, was picked up by Drum magazine and the thrust was to show that there was no reason for apartheid South Africa to feel peeved because a neighbour, an African man had married a white woman.
Journalism did not only contribute to the liberation but has also produced Presidents and other eminent government leaders. In Nigeria, the first President Nnmde Azikiwe participated as a journalist in Ghana, where he edited the African Morning Post, which was published in Accra. Dr Azikiwe used his position as editor to advance the voice for Africans and when he returned to Nigeria, he founded the Zik Group of Newspapers. Using this company, Azikiwe established the West African Pilot newspaper in the late 1930s, which stirred African nationalism.
Two editors of the Voice of UNIP in Zambia, the late Mainza Chona and Nalumino Mundia, assumed the position of Prime Minister in first President Kenneth Kaunda's government. The Voice of UNIP was established in 1961 as an alternative voice for the Africans who could not afford copies of the Northern News (renamed Times of Zambia after independence in 1964). Prior to the establishment of the Voice of UNIP, Kaunda and the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, were in 1955 arrested and jailed for distributing "subversive literature". It could only be described as subversive in the language of the colonialists since the arrest of Kaunda and Nkumbula was meant to cause an information and knowledge blackout on Africans. Among non first-line African presidents, journalism propelled Benjamin Mkapa to the presidency in Tanzania and the former South African president Thabo Mbeki was for some time a foreign correspondent for a continental magazine published in Europe.
It was also from the media that Nigerian magnate, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, emerged to political prominence. Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 1993 presidential elections, which was then meant to return Nigeria to civilian rule, was at the helm of the Concord Nigeria Limited that published newspapers and magazines.
However, the then military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida annulled the election even before counting was over. A year later, Abiola was charged with four counts of treason after he declared himself the winner of the elections. But the military government was shocked that even after Abiola was arrested, he had a voice from the stable of his Concord publications and other influential ones like The Guardian from the private sector.
As a result, late General Sani Abacha, who overthrew Babangida following the 1993 impasse, sent security men to seal the offices of Abiola's company and those of a few influential publishers of newspapers in June 1994.
General Abacha decided to freeze publishing of the Concord journals and other influential ones, ostensibly to starve the public of information and knowledge or even to silence civic and political challengers.
Radio journalism breeds genocide: While the field of journalism has contributed to Africa's leadership and liberation of this resource-rich continent from colonialism, it has had some blemishes. Through intra-media competition, radio has become a mode of communication in places where newspapers are not affordable or are out of circulation. However, at the height of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, questions started emerging as to whether this form of communication should not be tightly controlled by governments. About 50 journalists were killed during the genocide in Rwanda that took place between April and July 1994.
The genesis of the Rwanda genocide is complex but what is certain is that extremist Hutu journalists and the privately-owned Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTML) sparked the massacre of about one million people. Hutu journalists and the radio station abrogated the eighth International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)'s declaration, which states:
"The journalist shall be aware of the danger of discrimination being furthered by the media, and shall do utmost to avoid facilitating such discrimination based on, among other things, race, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinions, and national or social origins." Whenever there is chance, African politicians use the genocide issue in Rwanda to justify statutory control of the media, especially radio.
Thanks to the President Paul Kagame, the Rwandan government has announced it would allow self-regulation control of the media. Kagame and others nearby should also work hard to ensure there is private media in Eritrea, which got independence from Ethiopia in 1993 and is the only country in Africa where the media is totally state-controlled.