AT the First All Africa Public Relations and Strategic Communication Summit held recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, experts were of the view that governments of the different countries in Africa must develop their own channels of telling their stories to the world to checkmate the continued misrepresentation of facts about the continent by the international media.

The three-day event, which was organised by African Public Relations Association (APRA), took place at the African Union New Complex saw the cream of Africa’s best in professional public relations practice and strategic communications consultancy in full attendance. Also, special guests and government officials graced the occasion, which featured an air of friendship and promise for the continent.

In his opening address, a public relations fellow and the President, Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Mr. John Dramani Mahama, represented by the country’s Minister for Information and Communication commended the recent developments in Africa where most countries are experiencing growth and development.

He identified communication as one of the major drivers of this new development and urged African communication and PR practitioners to help Africa maintain sustainable development through strategic communication of the positive things happening in the continent.

The President of APRA, Mr. Peter Mutie expressed his gratitude on the huge number of delegates that were present at the conference as most of the African countries were represented. He re-echoed the new wave of economic growth and positive developments in Africa. He was, however, disappointed by the misrepresentation of the African continent in the media.

According to him, “the image of Africa has for a long time been misrepresented. Stories about progress and two digit economic growth are drowned by negative images that are flashed on screens of international media. For a long time, Africa has been portrayed as the continent of civil strife, diseases and starvation. These and other miserable images dominate African stories in the international media.”

He believes that there is a missing link between Africa’s rise in economic growth and negative images painted in the media. That missing link, he said, is communication. He therefore recommended that Africans should tell their own story themselves. He further asserted that the responsibility lies on PR and communication experts in Africa, noting that, “until the lions tell their story, only the hunters will be heard.”

The Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission, His Excellency, Mr. Erastus Mwencha in his presentation condemned the present position where economic policies being implemented by African governments are foreign brewed without inputs from African people. Also, he pointed out the case for media representation of events in Africa, which according to him, are portrayed by foreign media conglomerates in the interest of their patrons and not in the interest of Africa and her people. He called on African governments to think towards creating their own channels and mouthpiece to tell their own stories.

Meanwhile, a leading Pan-African brand-focused magazine published in Lagos, BrandiQ, received public commendations from Mutie during the conference.

He praised the selfless effort of the publication in serving as the official journal of the first APRA Summit.

He equally commended the magazine’s effort in promoting public relations and strategic communications among students in tertiary institutions across Africa.

In his response, the Editor –in –Chief of the magazine, Mr. Desmond Ekeh, promised that the magazine would publish an extensive pull out on the APRA summit in its next edition to help in publicising the good works of APRA across the continent.