Re-branding Africa -Akon

In the late 1980s, Africa archive turned into the wrong hand which is the exploitation of colonial powers, there are plenty African nations who have rich history but suddenly their pride become purse which have changed the eyes of the universe, all news, TV and social media publish the negative things of those countries including Somalia (Sharmarke: We have to tell our own stories, 2018).

This world is all about marketing and branding, the number one branders in the universe is the United States of America, they made US seem like the best place in the world to be, the land of free, home of brave I go there and chase my dreams. We have to tell our own stories –directors, film makers, entertainers it’s going to be clearly your job, to redefine how people think about Africa. You are here, see what is going on the good, the bad and ugly what you choose to put up there is what the world is going to get, because I can tell you right now in Chicago Illinois –there are more people dying in Chicago but you will never see them because they choose to show you what they want. It’s about culture and integrity we have a certain reputation to keep, no one puts their family business out to the street, one of the policies we have in Africa is when something happens the press is quicked to put out negative energy then quicked on negative story and then that story goes on to the internet and other broadcasting system and they post it, so when you see places like Kenya there was two terrorist attacks and it was everywhere posted and broadcasted, when you want to go to Kenya they say no because someone shot at the mall and when you look online there was over twenty five thousand terrorist attacks in US but you may only know five or six, so we have to really re-brand and then when you look at how the world perceives Africa you see zebras, lions, and tigers so you get to the point that Africa is big jungle, the energy they showing about Africa is historical images, this is away before civilization, this is when they battling with spears like times of Shaka Zulu, but when you look at the US, the Superman and  Batman, where is our Superman… -Shaka Zulu should be our hero today, so we have to tell our own stories… even Jesus is white and you believe it, but It’s OK but how you dare. If you taught something from the day you born and your mother and father taught you that something is real you never know that your mother and father are liars but their mother and father taught the same thing because that is the kind history that is put on to believe our history and books is all white American history –culture that is borrowed from other nations but Africa have to teach the same history of our instances, the great things they have accomplished and this going to be the job of directors, film makers like yourself to narrow that history, how do we want perceived, how do we want that history to be narrated the rest of the world.

Akon: We need to re-brand Africa and black people, Rwanda 2017

This young generation we can it figured out because now when you look at Hip Hop in America every rapper is rich, nice girls, pools, money and home –and then when the video is over they get their phone and  call Uber, they don’t even have the cars you see in the TV but you go to Nigeria we get whisky and drive a car that they belong to –that is the difference, but if we don’t translate that they will never know they think like walking out and going home with no car, that is why Americans afraid Africa, they don’t know how to translate that, it was just reason that people now saying “Yo man, I wana do some collaboration, be ready man Yo, come on” I am not putting on my record. The young generation slowly understand how you have to re-brand the culture because that culture has adapted, they have actually took everything that we have created and made it look better, they made a superstar look like a superstar, when I look on TV and I see our biggest entertainers –they don’t look like starts, that is why we have to respect entertainers, if a politician see a singer, he think like a local singer but if you go to that local singers performance he may sell out the stadium because he has a huge influence but the image is not there so we have to take the image as a huge accountability for ourselves and realize that Africa really does have a reputation but if we allow our stories to be told, our stories will told according to their agenda on what they need to be able to benefit from Africa so we have to tell our stories so we can be able to understand to we can utilize that story to benefit for our agenda.

In closing, this job is for the entertainers, film makers, reporters and anyone that creates content, we have to re-brand in a way see it and tell the story to where they can understand, feel comfortable and want come here and invest (Akon: We need to re-brand Africa and black people, Rwanda 2017).