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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 Annually, communications experts gathered to celebrate African Communication Week,
00:08 and this year was no different.
00:10 [MUSIC]
00:11 The theme for this year's celebration was Borderless Africa, and
00:15 experts across the continent discussed how effective communications can bring
00:19 opportunities to Africa.
00:21 Quadrant MSL, a leading strategic communications firm in Nigeria,
00:25 hosted a session to highlight the opportunities and
00:28 values in cross-border communication that can lead to the growth for the continent.
00:32 Let's present to you some highlights from the event.
00:35 >> We're all Africans who are a part of the Africa Communications Week.
00:40 We have some people who are not Africans who are a part of Africa Communications
00:43 Week.
00:43 But what brings us together is our passion for Africa and
00:46 our desire to transform this beautiful continent through effective communications.
00:52 As communications professionals, we're really entrusted,
00:54 not just with shaping the narratives of our organizations, but
00:57 really shaping the story about Africa.
01:00 Who are we?
01:01 How do we tell the story?
01:02 How do we portray us to the world outside?
01:05 Today's Africa Day, and I wish all of us a very happy Africa Day.
01:09 >> Today we are here for telling African stories.
01:11 So I'm going to ask you,
01:12 what's the biggest misconception about Africa that do you think?
01:16 >> It's a lot of misconceptions, as basic as, do we still wear clothes?
01:22 You watch some TikTok videos and someone is asking, do you have Internet in Africa?
01:27 Do you have roads in Africa?
01:29 Do you guys go to school?
01:30 >> The biggest misconception about Africa would be that Africa is still,
01:35 there is a lot of potential, but this potential is not yet seen,
01:40 or this potential is not yet exploited.
01:42 We are still developing.
01:45 >> There was an Africa before the white man came.
01:48 And that Africa, yeah, it was interrupted, development was interrupted.
01:55 But then we were not who they say we were.
01:59 We had a community, that community had rules.
02:03 The rules may not have been the rules they were familiar with,
02:07 but they were rules that made the community work.
02:11 >> The one I'm going to refer to, it is not false, and
02:15 it's the story of poverty in Africa.
02:18 >> The question is, will Africa never be poor?
02:24 Would we always be poor?
02:27 Are we poor?
02:28 >> A large section of Africans are poor.
02:32 Poverty really is, what is the size of your population
02:39 that cannot really feed well, cannot clothe well,
02:45 cannot live in accommodation where there is light,
02:50 that cannot drink clean water, cannot have quality education.
02:57 So whichever African country you look at,
03:01 those populations are very, very large in numbers.
03:05 So we have poor in that sense.
03:09 So the question is, are we supposed to be poor?
03:12 The answer then is no.
03:14 We are not supposed to be poor, given the resources and
03:18 everything that God has given us.
03:20 >> It's not that there's no poverty in Africa, but
03:24 it has become like the single story about Africa.
03:29 So the story about poverty in Africa is amplified so
03:34 big that it makes it difficult to see all the amazing things that are going on
03:39 in Africa, like talent, like energy.
03:43 [MUSIC]
03:44 >> I don't know that there's one thing that is the biggest misconception.
03:47 I think that there are a couple of things that we don't narrate properly
03:51 about ourselves.
03:52 We hear a lot more things about things that are not working,
03:54 things that are not, the president has done something.
03:58 It's just like you're in your house, your father breaks a plate.
04:00 You go to your neighbor's house to say, hello neighbor, you're a better father.
04:03 My father has broken a plate, that kind of thing.
04:04 So I think it's a couple of things.
04:07 >> I don't go anywhere and tell Nigeria has a great leader.
04:11 Great leader where?
04:12 How am I going to do skit and say Nigerian leader is great?
04:16 No, he's not great.
04:18 So for me, it's we, ourselves.
04:21 Before you communicate a lie, why don't you do what you can do well,
04:27 so that you can communicate the truth?
04:30 So we have to be careful about balance.
04:33 [MUSIC]
04:38 >> What do you think can be done to help these notions outside the country?
04:43 >> We should tell our stories more.
04:45 We should use social media to tell our stories.
04:47 Tell them as they are and repair the narrative.
04:51 We should be more graceful about how we speak about ourselves.
04:54 >> I think that as Africans, it's about time that we own our story.
05:01 We need to own the African story and begin to tell it.
05:04 >> There's so many stories in Africa, which reminds me of movies and film.
05:11 So you know of Thor, you know of Hercules, right?
05:17 Hercules is Greek, Thor is, I don't know actually, I just know that there's Thor.
05:22 [LAUGH] But Thor almost seems more real to us than Songo.
05:30 >> If Africans don't take the stage to tell our story ourselves,
05:34 then we can't blame anyone who is telling it on our behalf.
05:38 So we need to own the African story and begin to tell it.
05:41 >> So we want to tell these stories, but
05:43 the people who have experienced these things might not be able to tell their story.
05:47 They might not have the opportunity or the platform to tell their stories.
05:50 Now those who have the opportunity and the platform should go to the bottom and
05:55 then build their stories from the ground up.
05:58 >> It's important to shape the narrative that will drive growth for
06:03 the continent and for this nation.
06:06 As we write our stories, write our commercials, write our articles,
06:09 shoot our films, do our skits, let's project Africa in a good light.
06:14 And let's live the values that will make this nation and
06:18 the continent continue to be great.
06:20 >> I think it's about time corporates and
06:23 the media begin to collaborate in such a way that we can tell the African story.
06:28 There should be a deliberate effort to have documentaries,
06:33 miniseries, in such a way you tell what I call amazing African story.
06:40 Can we begin to look at using the media more effectively to tell our story in such
06:46 a way that at the end of the day, it's not about drought, it's not about corruption,
06:51 it's not about hunger, it's about people who are making efforts
06:55 to change the African situation.
06:58 [MUSIC]
06:59 >> If we're passionate about Africa's social economic development,
07:02 then we need to take charge of telling our own stories, not just for ourselves, but
07:07 also for generations to come.
07:09 As the panelists highlighted in their remarks, African nations need to
07:12 collaborate to be able to reshape the true African narrative.
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