THE CULTURAL NEXUS IN THE SINGLE STORY: WESTERN MEDIA REPRESENTATION OF AFRICA AND ITS EFFECTS ON AFRICA’S CULTURAL SECURITY

This paper adopts both the notion of the single story and the psycho[1]cultural theory to show how the global media space, especially of the Western breed, has predominantly mediated the media space and has become a colossus on the negative profiling of Africa as the continent of poverty, disease, wars, ignorance, corruption; a region of failed states and consequent lawlessness. This has become the single story out of Africa. The paper argues, that there is a cultural nexus to the negative depiction of Africa and it is deeply rooted in the notion of cultural hegemony and cultural security. The paper concludes that this media bias against Africa fulfills the strategic objectives of colonialism, global capitalism, and cultural segregation of Western neocolonialist imperialism that represent Africa systematically as (1) a place of “darkness” and “tribalism”; (2) it presents Africa as a homogenous entity; and (3) that it relies predominantly on Western cultural orientations as a civilized people against those of Africa