“There is a historical relationship between Africa and Europe” says Tanzanian journalist in exhile Ansbert Ngurumo, as he opened the panel discussion with a reflection on the partishioning of Africa in the 1800’s.

“When you speak of Tanzania today, Kenya, Gambia, Sierra Lione, whichever country you speak of, it was the Berlin conference that made it what it is today. Whatever is established in Africa today here is a European line and link about it.”

Justin Yarga, originally from Burkina Faso and now working in Sweden, adds how Europe’s presence is still strong, particularly in media. This presence, he argues, is important in countries where freedom of the press is not as consolidated as in most of Europe: “Countries like Burkina, Mali, and Niger, which right now have the military in power, do not have democracy and journalists are not free to do their job. The only way to find out about what is happening there is through international media like Le Monde”.

From a European perspective, Terese Cristiansson, foreign affairs correspondent for Swedish TV4 who has worked extensively covering Africa, highlighted the challenges in bringing a story from the African continent into the Swedish newsroom: “Editors often ask for either quite sad, depressing, war-related stories or the opposite, like another Africa who’s super fast-developing and doing very well. But it’s everything in the middle that we are missing is” .

But when bringing these stories to European newsrooms, knowledge and nuance are key, as Ansbert points out. African stories are relevant for European audiences – but it’s important to do it right. The lack of knowledge of different realities in the African continent makes many Europeans see it as one big country, something that might stem from what we learn in school or the image of Africa in the media: “When I meet people in Europe who have never been to Africa, who have never met people from Africa, who have only relied on news reported by European media, all they know about Africa is hunger, famine, death, diseases, wars, dictatorship, all those bad things associated with Africa.”

“For me, it’s the format that really matters” underlines Justin who believes a shortage of European journalists on the ground impacts the way stories are told: “The way of covering Africa through news agencies… For me, sometimes I feel like it’s a way to fill a gap in the daily content. I think something in-depth and with a context is more important than just giving some bit of information through news agency” he says.

The way news works generally does not allow for societal analysis, which could also be a challenge in lifting stories that bring a stronger understanding of Africa, beyond situations of crisis or very positive stories. Terese believes, though, that there has been a recent example of a narrative change: “When South Africa took the whole Gaza situation to the ICC, all of a sudden we were talking about one African country in a politically equal agenda and that was refreshing. I have to say whatever you think about the act and why South Africa did it and where it will lead, it was still nice to see in the Swedish media that South Africa got a political position with power behind it.”

This conversation is taken by the past event hosted by Gothenburg Media Hub called ‘Africa, a fogotten continent?’.

Want to hear more? Then listen to the podcast version of the event: