Modern democratic nation states cherish the virtuous role that journalism plays in disseminating useful information to citizens and holding accountable those entrusted with power. However, the relationship between journalism and nationalism within the African democratic nation State remains debatable.
Nationhood is one of the most readily accepted concepts in modern socio-political life. Every person is expected to belong to a nation. Ironically, however, nationalism is a hard concept to define. This article subscribes to an understanding of nationalism as advanced by Michael Billig. The renowned contemporary cultural theorist sees nationalism as occurring through a complex of beliefs, assumptions, habits, representations and practices through which citizens of an established nation State are reminded about their national belonging and allegiance.
Nationalism understood in Billig’s way is an everyday experience in the life of citizens. Nevertheless, some journalists perceive nationalism as a domain of government officials and politicians. Consequently, they think that when journalism tries to pursue nationalism, it abandons its core values and converts itself into a public relations agency for the powerful.
The fact that journalism with a nationalist orientation may be prone to abuse by the powerful does not warrant its abandonment. Any kind of journalism is subject to abuse depending on the integrity of journalists involved. If anything, nationalism is a higher good which binds citizens together, giving them much needed common purpose and common destiny, and as such journalism cannot afford to abandon it even for the sake of professional considerations. During an international dispute, for example, it is only logical to expect a media house to feel obliged to protect its country’s national interests. These examples are not in any way promoting media escapism as they may sound at first encounter. Rather, they underscore the fact that common sense would question the integrity of a journalist who cites journalism’s professional quest for truth and objectivity as a rationale for humiliating their country as if it were impossible to point out weaknesses of a country without necessarily humiliating it.
The type of journalism I am advocating is well summarised by the popular Chichewa proverb ‘chitsiru chiri ndi mwini’, literally translated ‘a fool has an owner’. Journalism with a national consciousness does not need to be in support of government policy for it to see no dignity in sympathising with those that try to belittle or take advantage of the country it serves. Practically, this journalism is well represented by the collective anger with which some Malawians responded to Jacob Zuma’s attempt to reduce Malawi’s underdevelopment to an antitype of South Africa’s advancement. They did not need to be ruling party supporters for them to get concerned that Jacob Zuma had humiliated their nation.
Professionally, journalists with a nationalist consciousness are rewarded handsomely. They display a high level of creativity that evidently benefits from local resources, including values. This increases the relevance of their reports to targeted local audiences. The term ‘cashgate’, which is used to describe Malawi’s Capital Hill financial scandal, for example, sounds stylish and gives Malawi’s journalism an international appeal. However, a journalist who fully appreciates his nationalist obligation would quickly realise that most Malawians do not know the Western roots of the term ‘cashgate’, hence the term’s minimal cultural relevance to them. Thus, the journalist would take initiative to report the scandal using locally generated terms to maximise the relevance of their stories.
The ‘chitsiru chiri ndi mwini’ type of journalism is yet to become the mainstay of most African countries. It boils down to journalism training in Africa. As the outspoken Ghanaian Africanist journalism critic, Baffour Ankomah laments, unlike their Western counterparts, African journalism training institutions rarely teach about nationalism, considering it peripheral to the profession. It often takes an African journalist to spend some years in the West, like Ankoma did, to appreciate the affinity between journalism and nationalism. n
The author is a lecturer in communication and cultural Studies at Chancellor College ad currently a PhD candidate at University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.
