By Adepeju Adenuga (Nigeria)
A few years ago, I experienced living in a traditional family house. Under the reflection of the moon, several families gathered to discuss various matters, ranging from how strict the house rules were, the struggles at the workplace, new friends made at school, and the breaking of bottles between two football club loyalists at the market. We discussed how we would pay the electricity bills, who would interact with community leaders, and how to prevent petty theft in the house. The dogs alerted us to intruders as children played under their parents’ watchful eyes.
As I participated in the daily routine, I realised that elements of Public Relations were practised, right from crisis management to communication, to stakeholder management, among others.
However, like every African Public Relations practitioner, I almost missed out on the broad Public Relations principles practised in our rich culture and heritage because it was quite different from the principles studied in textbooks. In a bid to keep individuals who are interested in Public Relations from having a myopic view of the industry, I attempt to sketch Africa’s Public Relations and Communication industry.
Perhaps the challenge we face in telling the African story is figuring out the right way to tell the story. For instance, when the national orientation’s “Change begins with me” campaign was launched on October 6, 2016, many argued that it took the federal government 15 months to unfold the rebranding initiative, as they did not consider it important. Other times, the objective of the storytelling is achieved. The Abia State Government in partnership with TBWA Concept and Ford Foundation’s “Proudly made in Aba” campaign new image for “Made In Aba” goods TBWA Concept partnered with Ford Foundation and the Abia State Government, to develop the “Proudly Made in Aba” campaign launched in May 2017.
Another challenge faced in telling the African story is the misrepresentation of what Public Relations is. While working as a journalist, I realised that there is a maze of confusion as to exactly what Public Relations is or what PR people do. This has increasingly undermined the strategic relevance of the profession in telling the African narrative.
There is a diversity that is African nature. Africa is a continent of significant scale and diversity, covering 54 countries with their own geographical, economic, and cultural characteristics. Africa, a continent whose physical size is larger than China, India, the United States, Japan, and most of Europe and the United Kingdom combined, and has what is soon-to-be the world’s largest workforce, need to equip itself with professionals who can tell its complex stories.
In addition, telling an African story is flawed with the ‘danger of single stories.’ Since Public Relations professionals have left foreign practitioners to assess the continent’s image, we are forced to cringe at stories of war, malnutrition, and violence from the media. Bleak images are shown of Africa’s inability to overcome agricultural stagnation, explosive population growth, recession, and worse still, the degradation of its natural resource base.
The Future of African Storytellers/ Public Relations:
The African PR and Communications industry has been growing rapidly in recent years due to the increasing number of multinational companies operating on the African continent. These companies are looking to increase their brand awareness and market share across Africa, and are also willing to spend large amounts of money doing so.
Multinationals have been investing in Africa for many years now, but now they are beginning to see more results from their investment, as well as the increased demand for their products or services across Africa. This is largely down to several factors:
With the rapid growth of mobile technology across the continent, it is predicted that there will be nearly 100 million new subscribers by 2025, with Nigeria and Ethiopia accounting for almost a third of new subscribers, according to the GSMA Intelligence report. It added that mobile technologies and services generated around 8% of GDP across Sub-Saharan Africa in 2021 – a contribution that amounted to almost $140 billion of economic value added.
The emergence of new technologies such as social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp allows Africans to interact with each other freely, without having access to traditional media outlets.