By Saywhar Nana Gbaa,gbaasay@gmail.com
Rabat, Morrocco–Africa and other developing countries continue to see their citizens making desperate and risky attempts to migrate to Europe, America and other parts due to various reasons.
But concerns of migration are conveying a meaning for development of the continent for an improved African society.
Hundreds of Africans have died over the years in desperate attempts to migrate to Europe and other parts in unsafe vessels on the Mediterranean Sea. Rwanda has agreed to host hundreds of African migrants camped in unsafe camps in Libya. And the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the African Union this month signed an agreement to take hundreds to Rwanda.
“A first group of 500 people, predominantly from the Horn of Africa, will be evacuated, including children and youth at risk. After their arrival, UNHCR will continue to pursue solutions for the evacuees,” a joint statement said on September 10.
At the opening of the forum on Journalism in a global context on media and migration, Veye Tatah of the Africa Institute for Media, Migration and Development has challenged Africans to redirect their thoughts of developing the continent rather migrating for improvement of their lives.
Madam Tatah said it is time that Africans give a different narratives of how migration has been portrayed as an insignificant continent in the World.
She described the reportage of development stories on the continent as an important tool to address the underlying factors for Africa’s underdevelopment.
The head of the Africa Institute for Media, Migration and Development has also called on African Journalists to be focused on the positive of the continent and rethink migration from a more progressive standpoint through balanced reportage.
For his part, Dr. Eric Chinje of the African Media Initiative called on the Journalists to exercise their journalistic power to report more development from a holistic stance.
Dr. Chinje said Africa can regain her valuable status when development stories surpasses stories of only negativity on the continent.
He named Climate change, bad economies, injustice and other societal ills as major issues that confront the Continent which he said can be addressed through a constructive reportage to better the lives of Africans.
The African Media Initiative Head also attributed poverty and unemployment to the failure of African Governments to implement realistic policies for the improvements of African livelihood.
Dr. Chinje pointed out that poverty, unemployment and other factors drive the phenomenal at the same time accounting for big share of intraregional mobility of youth in search of job opportunities.
He said Africa at the helm of her natural resources has the power to develop the continent.