By Samuel Kwasi Obeng
www.mrsamko.blogspot.com
There is an African proverb which says that until the lion learns how to write its own stories, the tales of the hunter will always glorify the hunter. In other words, a story authored by the hunter will always portray the lion as an inferior species to the hunter, in spite of the common knowledge that the lion is described as the king of the beasts/jungle because of its ability to protect its territory with valour.
Sadly, the story of the African continent is no different from the lion. The continent abound in rich human and mineral resources; natural landscapes and forest; wildlife and arable land; rich culture and traditions; vast water bodies and coast lines; but it has not been able to project these natural assets to the world for its own development. It has however laid low for others to highlight its frailties above its strengths.
In fact I agree that there is fundamentally, a mindset and attitudinal problems with their associated manifestations, militating against the progress of the continent. However, some of these manifestations are not peculiar to the continent. Other continents also face similar problems of corruption, poverty, bad governance, diseases, ignorance, illiteracy et al. But they have not allowed these problems sink them down.
In this competitive global village, the best we can do for ourselves is to leverage on our strengths as we rest not on our oars to minimise our weaknesses. One way of doing this is by re-writing the negative script about the continent and using the life we live each passing day, week, month and year to give weight to the re-written script.
Thank God the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) shares in the opinion that there is a great story about the continent which needs to be re-written, packaged and told to the world. From Friday August 14, 2015, delegates from across Africa and the world will start arriving in Accra-Ghana for the UNWTO conference on Africa branding. The conference which starts from August 17 to 19, 2015 at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel will be held on the theme ‘Enhancing Brand Africa; Fostering Tourism Development’.
The president of the Republic of Ghana, H.E John Dramani Mahama would open the conference on Monday, August 17, 2015 after which there will be brainstorming sessions. Participants include experts and stakeholders in the tourism industry from across the continent and the world, including the General-Secretary of the UNWTO, Taleb Rifai and at least 24 African tourism Ministers.
Among its focus will be to capacitate stakeholders in the tourism industry in Africa with ideas and tools to re-package the continent, and to increase its appeal on the global front. This has a potential to increase Africa’s inbound tourism from the 56 million and US$36 million people and receipts respectively which was realised last year.
The conference gives hope to people like me who believe that we can use tourism to transform the continent. But this hope comes with a little restraint, borne out of how we have fared as a continent in terms of achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs).
Maybe the conference would come out with a framework or policy document to re-brand Africa. Maybe this framework would set goals with targets to be achieved within a limited time frame. For this conference not to be likened to a talk-shop by our own attitudes, the commitment we give to the realisation of the vision of a re-branded Africa with a positive appeal is very important. Put differently, the actions and attitudes that would accompany the strategies that would be proposed at the conference are very relevant to the re-branding process.
Nonetheless, if our actions and attitudes after the conference remain reticent as it has always been with respect to dealing with our problems, the story will remain the same or even worsen and former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair will still feel confident about a statement he made in 2001 after the 9/11 attack on US at the Labour Party Conference in Britain that ‘Africa is the scar on the conscience of world’.
I think he erred and that’s my opinion. But it’s not about my opinion; it’s about the facts on the ground. It matters most. Do the facts on the ground give credence to his assertion?
But whether he erred or not, there is a new dawn; a new opportunity being offered by UNWTO to heal the so called scar and re-write the story. We must learn to write the story ourselves lest the hunter will claim superiority in the jungle with its own skewed version of the story.