AFRICA/KENYA - Bishops to Catholic journalists: "report the positive news of Africa"

Friday, 13 May 2016 media  

Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) - "Africa is often times portrayed as a continent of gloom and doom and societal failures of ethnocentrisms, violent conflicts, corruption, epidemics like HIV/AIDs and Ebola" complained Fr. Chrisantus Ndaga, head of communications of AMECEA (Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa) at a symposium of Catholic journalists held in Nairobi (Kenya).
Fr. Ndaga intervened on behalf of His Exc. Mgr. Charles Palmer-Buckle, Archbishop of Accra (Ghana) and Chairman of Catholic News Agency for Africa (CANAA), the Catholic pan-African news agency promoted by SECAM/SCEAM (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar).
In addressing the Catholic journalists from 10 African countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana and South Sudan) Fr. Ndaga stressed the need to also report positive news about what is happening in Africa, and in particular on the initiatives promoted by the Catholic Church.
"There are many interventions and positive activities of the Church in Africa that go unreported", he said. "Over the years, there has been the desire to share news and other information among the local Churches of Africa. There has also been a longing to have the voice of Africa’s Church heard within and beyond its borders".
Speaking at the same time, CANAA Director Fr. Don Bosco Onyalla echoed the Bishop’s sentiments saying that Africa does not enjoy a positive narrative globally "many contexts of Africa are used as examples of negativity, with expressions like a poverty-stricken Country, a government defined by corruption, a political system rooted in ethnic affiliations, a society divided by religion, a disease –ridden community, and even more recently, a hotbed of terror. This narrative is oftentimes told by non-Africans". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 13/05/2016)


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