Media coverage of Ukraine shows it's time to rethink what we know about Africa

CNN ^ | March 4, 2022 | Moky Makura

[Trump20162020]

"It's very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed." These were the words of Ukraine's Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, during a recent BBC interview about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It wasn't so much what he said, it was more what was implied; that not all lives have equal value. And that idea -- the belief that some races are superior to others -- is a fundamental principle of racism. It's alarming to me that Sakvarelidze was left unchallenged during his interview.

ITV News correspondent Lucy Watson on ITV reporting back to the studio summed up the collective hypocrisy and underlying narrative that the Ukrainian war has exposed when she said: "The unthinkable has happened...this is not a developing, third-world nation; this is Europe!"

In Africa, it's the stories of conflict in Ethiopia, insurgency in Mozambique, election violence in Uganda, and the recent coups in Mali, Chad, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Guinea Bissau. But it's clear that far too many are not paying attention to them because the people in these stories are not rich or from the Global North.

[ifinnegan]

Hoisted on their own petard.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

Cause it’s CNN and they know their audience

[DaBroasta]

Rise up people of color and demand that the dozens of ‘black’ news channels and media outlets stop doing puff pieces on the Obamas, Snoop Dawg Poop, and the Whoopie Cushion and start covering all that carnage in Ethiopia and Uganda that your audience has apparently been hungering for—some African war porn.

[falcon99]

Guess this black -itch doesn’t like it when things are said about whites that they only want said about blacks — cause dontcha know, blacks are the protected group.

[OpusatFR]

None of the African countries mentioned have huge armies, weaponry and nukes.

For Blacks, it is all about them all the time.

[Kid Shelleen]

The West ignores Africa, they're racist.
The West gets involved in Africa, they're colonialists.

[gop4lyf]

Welcome to the party, pal.

[Chode]

and yet, you lose yer minds over ALL LIVES MATTER... right?

[Jim Noble]

“ And that idea -- the belief that some races are superior to others -- is a fundamental principle of racism” The idea that the earth moves around the sun is a fundamental principle of heresy. E pur - si muove

[lastchance]

I think the answer lies more in the fact that being honest about the conflicts in Africa means a harsh objective look at the role Islam plays in them.