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<\/a><\/p>\nLiu Guangyuan is China\u2019s Ambassador to Kenya.\u00a0 In\u00a0 an article (excerpt from a speech he delivered at a launch reception for China Daily Africa Weekly in Nairobi) <\/i>\u00a0published in China Daily Africa Weekly<\/i> (March 8-14), he made a compelling case as to why the world should now be seeing the good side of Africa in terms of the continent\u2019s development strides.\u00a0 This is especially within the framework of the continent\u2019s greatest and one with \u201cinfinite charm, great hope and a bright future.\u201d He stated, that in recent years Africa has enjoyed a growing economy with an improved infrastructure and better telecommunications and that \u201cthe voices of its citizens have become increasingly united and stronger\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Often, Africa has been synonymous to words like hunger, war and poverty. But given the progress in the continent, Liu Guangyuan called for objective and balanced coverage which means the media and the world \u201cshould look at things in an all-round way. Media should know clearly that it is time to portray Africa for what it is by covering this great continent and its people with objective perspective\u201d I cannot agree more with Liu Guangyuan\u2019s submission given the way the continent and her people are often portrayed. If it is not a place of war, it will be a place of diseases, famine, and corruption, amongst others. This has had a telling adverse effect on the image of Africans.\u00a0\u00a0 Indeed, these challenges do exist but the fact remains, there also has been great process especially in the last two to three decades.<\/p>\n
The continent\u2019s continued growth in the last decades speaks volume of the commitment of her people to move along with international trends especially given the awareness amongst her people and their quest for progress. At the socio-economic and political levels, much has been achieved. With democratic transitions now taking place across the continent, so also has there been some encouraging boom in her economy.<\/p>\n
Let me use my country, Sierra Leone as a practical example. The country had a challenging period\u00a0\u00a0 in the form of a civil war that lasted for over a decade. Sure! And this led to descriptions like \u2018war torn\u2019 \u2018a nation with a brutal civil war\u2019, etc being used whenever the country is being discussed. Sure, we also have challenges like dealing with graft, in tackling poverty and a host of other challenges. But the good news is, the war came to an end over a decade ago, with outstanding progress now being scored in addressing challenges of a nation rushing to reach the apex of development. So, in the first place, the sooner we decides to put behind the \u2018war torn\u2019 description of that beautiful nation, the better it becomes in telling the world that the country is now in another phase of her history.<\/p>\n
A description like \u2018war torn\u2019 should now be replaced with words like \u2018growing nation\u2019, \u2018a business friendly country\u2019, an investment potential\u2019 nation, amongst others.\u00a0 As a people we have come a long way in a lot of areas. By 2002, due to the collective will of the people, coupled with the political leadership provided by then President Kabba (h) we came to the full realization that civil war was not the best of options if we want to see socio-economic and political development, thus, an end to our civil war.\u00a0 Since then, also as a result of the collective efforts by Sierra Leoneans we started experiencing some encouraging development in the country as was seen in the institutional reforms as in the National Revenue Authority (NRA), National Commission for Social Action, (NaCSA) Independent Media Commission (IMC),\u00a0\u00a0 the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and a host of others.<\/p>\n