New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance

186 Pages·2006·0.58 MB·English

by  Charlayne Hunter-Gault

New News Out of Africa:
Uncovering Africa’s
Renaissance
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New News Out of Africa

New News
Out of Africa
Uncovering Africa’s
Renaissance
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
1
2006
1
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
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Copyright © 2006 by Charlayne Hunter-Gault
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hunter-Gault, Charlayne.
New news out of Africa / Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-517747-3
ISBN-10: 0-19-517747-9
1. Africa, Sub-Saharan—Politics and government—1960– .
2. Africa, Sub-Saharan—Press coverage. I. Title.
DT352.8.H86 2006
968′.0009′049—dc22
2005023124
Frontispiece map: Copyright © 2005 Philip’s, adapted from Philip’s Children’s Atlas
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
chapter One
South Africa, Then and Now 1
chapter Two
Baby Steps to Democracy 71
chapter Three
Reporting Renaissance 107
Notes 143
Index 157
v
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Acknowledgments
If I acknowledged all the people who helped make this book
possible, the pages would exceed the length of the book. So
let me paint with broad brush strokes and thank the African
family, both on the continent and in the diaspora, who helped
me to see the things I had not yet learned to see and to trust
what I was seeing through the prism of experiences that made
me who I am. But I would also like to single out members of the
family who made an extra-special contribution. First and fore-
most is Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., who listened well and
heard my frustrations about the lack of coverage of Africa in
America. As a result, I was honored to accept his invitation
to become the 2003 McMillan-Stewart Fellow at the W. E. B.
Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard
University, delivering three lectures in February 2003 that
became this book. I am grateful for his infectious enthusiasm,
for his ongoing encouragement, and for the warm hospitality
shown me by him and his colleagues at the Institute and
throughout the university.
I am also indebted to Shadrack Gutto, head of the Pretoria-
based Centre for African Renaissance Studies, to John Stremlau,
former professor of international affairs and former head of
vii
viii Acknowledgments
the Department of International Relations at the University
of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and to Dr. Helen Rees,
director of the Reproductive Health Research Unit of the
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of
the Witwatersrand, whose dedicated work in AIDS prevention is
significantly advancing the fight against HIV and AIDS, espe-
cially as it affects women and girls. Their critical wisdom gave
me the inspiration I needed to get the job done. Additionally,
there are the friends and colleagues who are always there for me
and in this instance came to my rescue in a variety of special
ways: Xoli Moloi, Allana Finley, and Yollette Yohaar.
Then there are my husband, Ronald, my daughter, Suesan,
and my son, Chuma, who just do what they need to do to help
me be who I am—sometimes a challenge! And always, remem-
bering my late mother, Althea, my enduring inspiration.
Finally, I want to thank Elda Rotor, a gentle genius of an
editor, whose patience with me will surely serve her well in the
other profession she came to as she helped me give birth to this
book. Luka is a lucky boy!
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Johannesburg, South Africa
June 29, 2005
Introduction
I once had a journalism professor who used to ask on the first
day of class: “What are the news?” To which he would hasten
to provide this answer to his befuddled students: “Not a single
new.”
I never quite got the point, but I still remember the exercise
of forty-something years ago, especially when I am confronted
with “not a single new” in the general coverage of Africa.
On my annual trips home to the United States from South
Africa, I am constantly amazed at how little of the good news—
or what I prefer to call the “new news”—about Africa is getting
through to most Americans. With rare exceptions, the people I
encounter, from all walks and stations in life, still think of Africa
as the “dark continent,” made darker still by the ravages of AIDS
and the ongoing conflicts that occasionally produce enough car-
nage to merit a minute or two on a television newscast. But just
as not all Africans are dark-skinned, neither is the continent a
dark place. In fact, the continent of Africa is a multifarious place,
comprising fifty-four countries, home to some 800 million
people, encompassing a multitude of ethnicities and races and a
complex range of eccentricities. At the moment, it is a continent
at a critical moment in its history, with its nations undergoing
ix