Following Forein Policy Magazine article on the 2011 ‘Twitterati 100′, blogger Pernille Bærendtsen posted an article: ‘THE FP TWITTERATI 100′ – WHERE ARE THE AFRICANS?’. The author notes that among the 100 listed, only two are Africans (President of Rwanda @Paul Kagame and Ugandan journalist @AndrewMwenda). @DambisaMoyo, Zambian author and economist, is also mentioned.
Cancel this reply
7 comments
Interesting! Because it’s almost the same thing when it comes to the Middle East. About half – if not more – of the tweeps mentioned there are non-Middle-Easterns. Which makes me wonder, how foreign media perceive a certain region in the world, if they do not really listen to those born and raised and aware more of that region.
When it comes to newspapers, I might go to a western newspaper for African news because it might be a bigger and easier to reach media outlet, but on twitter! Why should I get my news from a western journalist living in Africa, when I already have tweeps from Africa to follow!
Hi Tarek,
Thanks for your comment. Your point is very interesting. Probably all this was not a malicious intent, but more a sort of cultural tropism: you tend to rely on what is said by people who resemble you.
Their list is from a US-point of view, right? I could name a dozen alone from the list i am maintaining at afritwit.com (and it only includes 500 due to Twitter’s limitations). Ah well.
Dear GV,
Thanks for picking up.
However, I need to say that you must quote me correctly – this is what I blogged: ‘in the ‘Africa’ category only one out of five, namely Andrew Mwenda from Uganda, is an African.’
I didn’t blog this: ‘The author notes that among the 100 listed, only two are Africans’.
Greetings Pernille
Dear Pernille,
Thank you for your comment and your blogpost. I mentionned it but did not quote specifically any of your sentences.
I took the liberty to summarize your thought regarding the fact that, as you wrote, “very few Africans [were] on the list”. This was the main idea displayed in the title “where are the Africans” and in your argumentation.
Greetings,
Dear Julie,
Well, no reason for debating details :-) The big lines count.
Questions was raised to me also – like what Africans on Twitter to suggest then…? A good question I think.
Best Greetings Pernille
So what does this tell us about the role of Africans in FP (according to the list)?