Bad
reporting of Zanzibar's election
is part of a wider problem
By
Jonathan
Power
TFF Associate
since 1991
Comments to JonatPower@aol.com
November 12, 2005
LONDON - The dust is beginning to
settle on Zanzibar's notorious election. Perhaps we can
now look at it with a little more objectivity. Reporters
flocked in, lured by the promise of rigged elections in
an African tourist paradise where the smell of
blood-letting mingled with the scent of cloves, cinnamon,
nutmeg and all the other wonderful things that the spice
island grows.
Moreover, the Tanzanian balloon was
too tempting not to prick - an African country, which
incorporated the islands of Zanzibar in 1964, is one of
the continent's success stories: politically peaceful,
democratic and exhibiting consistently high rates of
economic growth; surely something must be wrong.
After days of journalists
highlighting the run up to the election with stories and
photos of mayhem and murder, intimidation and fraud, the
election did take place and the ruling party, the one
allied with the ruling party of the mainland, as most
diplomatic observers expected, did win by a small
majority but with the opposition winning a considerable
presence in the House of Representatives. Yet The
Economist this week reports, "Western diplomats tended to
deride the vote in private but endorse it publicly".
I have talked with the diplomats,
the local reporters and the president of Tanzania and to
quote one senior European ambassador who has often feared
the worst, worried the situation might blow, "The media
don't see it from the inside…We have not had a
catastrophe here." Others point to the extraordinary
lengths President Mkapa went to avoid a blood bath and
make sure the election was conducted fairly and openly,
overcoming much resistance from his party colleagues on
Zanzibar.
The observer mission of the
Commonwealth said, "Overall, this was a good election."
The European Union's team concluded, "The election
process was a marked improvement on past polls and it was
generally administered in an efficient
manner."
No wonder President Mkapa explodes
and says, "Derision, cynicism, prejudice, stereotyping
and hunger for stories of failure than of success will be
the undoing of democratic progress on the
continent."
The media are stuck in a rut on
Africa. For over a decade from the mid 1980s to the mid
1990s Africa was largely in a mess of economic misrule
and civil war. Whilst Tanzania was exceptionally peaceful
it also was in economic decline and Zanzibar, with the
traditional hostility between its Arab-descended ruling
class and its African peasantry and proletariat, was
always simmering on the edge of violence.
But a lot of good things have been
happening in Africa the last decade, as Prime Minister
Tony Blair's Commission For Africa report makes clear.
Violence has gone sharply down. The number of civil wars
is much reduced and the current election in Liberia is
one more indication of how the most sadistic violence can
be ended by a mixture of forceful African diplomacy,
African and UN peacekeeping and quiet backroom support
from the U.S. and Europe. President Olusegun Obasanjo of
Nigeria, President Thabo Mbeki and former President
Nelson Mandela of South Africa have worked hard at
mediating successfully a wide number of civil
wars.
If one looks at the economies of
Africa a seeming miracle is underway. Seventeen
sub-Saharan African countries attained 5% annual growth
in 2003. If we narrow this field down to the active
democracies with firm term limits on the elected head of
state we see an even more significant degree of promise.
Senegal, Mali and Ghana have had for a number of years
steady 5% growth rates. Nigeria, the most populous
country in Africa (with half of West Africa's population)
has achieved 5-6% the last few years, Mozambique 7-9%,
Botswana 7-10% (the world's fastest growing economy
during the 1990s) and Tanzania near 6% the last four
years.
In all of these countries inflation
is sharply down and the received wisdom of both the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund is that if they
continue with their reforms at the same pace as they have
over the last decade they can push these growth rates up
even further. This will make a big impact on a range of
very important things, from adequate water supplies to
girls' education to declining birth and poverty rates.
It is a question of perspective and
mind set. How many of today's African reporters and
editors in the newsrooms knew Africa in the 1960s and
early 70s when there was progress? Not very many. Most of
their memories only go back to the dark 80's and 90s when
it has been decline and carnage. So, as the French say,
"the idea is fixed" and as Disraeli wrote, "Thought is
the child of action". But Disraeli also wrote in the same
breath, "Experience is the child of thought" and the
press covering Africa badly need to have some new
experiences.
Copyright © 2005 By
JONATHAN POWER
I can be reached by
phone +44 7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
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