Western media outlets are trying to fix their racist, stereotypical coverage of Africa. Is it time African media did the same?

Racist depictions of Africa as a dark continent abound in history. Here US filmmakers pose with Africans in 1925.& Osa & Martin Johnson Safari Mus./Getty Images by j Siguru Wahutu, New York University and David Cheruiyot, University of Groningen Quick question: what do these titles have in common? A Dark Continent Seeking Light; Sure, Ebola is Bad. Africa has Worse, or; Magic and Cannibalism in the African Jungle. You guessed it – they’re all about Africa. But the most correct answer is they’re all headlines that have appeared in the prestigious New York Times newspaper. They’re just some examples of the ways that many traditional news outlets in the west have historically reported about Africa. Today news reporting that reinforces negative perceptions, stereotyping and racial misrepresentation is declining. But the harms inflicted on the continent and its communities remain unresolved. US media scholar Meredith Clark predicted that 2021 would be the “year journalism starts paying reparations”. She coined the term “reparative journalism” to mean a new approach for the US news media “to redeem itself … through radically inclusive editorial choices”. As if to answer this call, many news organizations have published prominent apologies. These acknowledge their racialized framing of...