“Writers have to recognize the works of the artist and those of the activist. Creating content is more than just throwing words, video, pictures on a digital sheet of paper. There is serious intellectual thought during the writing process. Sometimes writing will be in a zone of creativity and innovation to create new content that has an intended outcome, but sometimes the outcomes are unknown.” William Jackson.
Professor Soyinka “Just sit down and write….” as he has stated to growing African writers across the continent. The ability of a blogger/writer to write also means that they have a responsibility to tell the story of those that cannot write, those that are silent and have no voice.
Digital content is powerful and enabling to bring recognition, attention, and urgency to civic issues that need to be addressed. The growth of the blogger/writer is composed of periods
of growth, reconciliation, enlightenment and a civic responsibility to write/blog not just for oneself, but for those that do not have a voice and will not be heard.
The ability to share a story comes from the ability to listen and apply knowledge from a person’s experiences, interactions, goals for growth and even how mistakes are
made and learned from.
The diversity of cultural influences a writer’s ability to “touch” the people they are writing to or writing for.
When past writers applied their skills they shared stories that could be connected to real life, to the experiences that many knew they could connect to. The diversity of African bloggers represents the diversity of a continent that influences not just the global weather but has digital extensions that influence business, commerce, entrepreneurial spirits of the dreamers, creators, and innovators that have ideas to change the world around them.
Africa is in a constant state of flux economically, educationally, culturally and the future is unknown, but it is becoming brighter and brighter as business and entrepreneurial
opportunities become available.
Writers like author and Professor Wole Soyinka who are involved in civic issues, governmental policies and the educational growth of youth, teens, and adults. He is of the past but influences the present. There are modern writers waiting to be read. Ngũgĩ was Thiong’o has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 and is a strong contender to win one in literature.
The African continent has birthed intellectual and intelligent writers that have embraced and applied digital platforms to awaken and encourage others in the African diaspora to spread their digital wings and take flight. The storytellers of the past have grown and adapted to the Bloggers, Vbloggers, Podcasters, Facebook Live and Instagram visionaries building, creating, designing and posting content that influences thought not just emotions.
Stated by Soyinka, “when Africans learn the power they have in their hands in writing, they can influence their communities and make important and needed changes because they will have a voice that others can hear and follow.”
Writing is a grassroots process that builds knowledge in Africans of all ages and can influence generations. The educational process is key because as can be seen in Africa it is dangerous to allow your colonizers to educate your children. Their goals are not the goals of those being
oppressed. The goal of the oppressor is the keep the oppressed ignorant. So that their resources can be drained dry before the oppressed realize what is happening to their lands, to their people and their very existence.
Stated by Prof. William Jackson of My Quest to Teach “If we (Blacks) are not speaking for ourselves or writing for ourselves, someone else is going to describe who we are, where we came from and ultimately where we are going.” This creates identity problems because those that are doing the writing are not looking through the eyes of those being written about. The people are not seen as people they are seen as little things with no value, as Chinua Achebe states, “as funny things.”
Too many stories are wrong in their direction to offer solutions to issues that Africans are experiencing. Africans must be able to tell their own stories because there is a story to tell…..
“Your pen has to be on fire.” Chinua Achebe Social Media has opened more doors to express, share and even demand change.
Resources:
How many people use social media in Africa?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/13/africa/africa-social-media-consumption/
BBC Africa
https://www.youtube.com/user/bbcafrica
10 Best African Speakers
https://www.africa.com/ted-global-2017-meet-the-10-africans-on-the-list-of-speakers/
