nature and practice of pr in africa

7/30/2019 Nature and Practice of PR in Africa

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CHAPTER

14

The Nature and Status of Public

Relations Practice in Africa

Chris Skinner

Gary Mersham

OVERVIEW

Research on the continental practice of public relations in Africa is for the most part sparse

and fragmented, a large proportion of it carried out on specific aspects of practice in

specific countries.

There are unfortunately few studies that try to treat Africa as an entity and from a

communication perspective. However, the recent report The Public Relations Landscape

in Africa (2006), carried out by the UK-based consultancy Gyroscope, is one that claims a

measure of success in this challenging task.

As the report points out, the continent we refer to as Africa is a patchwork of 53countries, some sharing common borders, with others separated by thousands of kilo-

metres. They range from large, prosperous and cosmopolitan Egypt, to landlocked,

impoverished and troubled Chad; and from the scattered Atlantic island state of Sao Tome

and Principe to the thriving economies of South Africa, Nigeria and more recently the

Democratic Republic of Congo.

The deliberations around NEPADthe New Partnership for African Development, a

continent-wide initiative for the social, economic and political development of Africa

and the African Renaissance, actively promoted by South Africas President Thabo

Mbeki, in fact highlight the challenges that will have to be addressed before we can speak of

an authentically integrated and united Africa

First, there is a daunting lack of physical infrastructure. Road networks radiate

from capital cities to the major provincial hubs and the pattern remains constant: the

nearer the capital, the better the road. As the roads spread beyond the provinces toward

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the border with the next country, they degrade, often to little more than tracks. Trade and

other contact is characteristically either within national borders or extra-continental,

rather than intertrade between countries which share borders.

There are relatively few safe, secure and comfortable international road or rail links. Air

links are available between major centres, but this raises the problem of cost. The vast

majority of people cannot afford to fly, and hence are unable to travel beyond their owncountry.

This in turn contributes to the second barrier: a profound, mutual ignorance of different

countries and cultures. Compared to many other parts of the world, it is very difficult for

someone from any given African country to acquire a real knowledge and understanding

of just one or two of the countries which border their own.

The third barrierlanguagecompounds this further (Hooyberg and Mersham, 2000).

South Africa alone has 11 recognised official languages; Nigeria has more than 390 distinct

dialects; few if any of these are widely spoken in Nigerias immediate neighbours, such as

Chad or Benin, and none of them are spoken in (for example) Egypt or Ethiopia. Even

where either English or French is generally understood, linguistic confusion and isolation

are common.

The fourth barrier is differential economics and huge discrepancies in the GDPs of

Africas states. Poverty is grinding and widespread. Nations often have small, wealthy elites

FIG. 14.1 Countries in the Gyroscope Africa Communications Index.(see www.gyroscopeconsultancy.com).

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along with millions of dirt-poor peasants and workers. Elites tend to run major institu-

tions, with a very small middle class providing few checks and balances. As the Gyroscope

report (2006:4) puts it, South Africa can afford a global advertising campaign to build

its national brand, and attract investment and tourism; Ghana, which celebrated its 50th

Anniversary in 2007, cannot.

Indeed, so challenging is the social, political, geographical and economic diversity of

Africa that for many communications professionals in the commercial sector Africa

remains out of bounds. For many organisationsNGOs, charities, healthcare managers,

educatorsoperating in Africa is not a choice but a responsibility or a mission. They work

there and manage communications there because of the continents problems, not despite

them.

Yet for commercial organizations, Africa is a potentially vast and untapped market, the

worlds next great consumer market which will require a massive growth in effective

marketing communications. Africa is a continent of 800 million people, with an average

GDP per capita of $684. This compares with that of China (1.3 billion people, and $780per capita in GDP) and India (1.1 billion, $440 per capita in GDP). Certainly, within the

average GDP per capita in Africa there is an extreme range of personal income levels, from

utter poverty to immense wealthbut this range is not significantly more extreme than that

of Chinas or Indias inhabitants.

Whether organisations are exploiting Africas commercial opportunitieseither as a

market or as a source of raw materials and resourcesthe need to act as good global

corporate citizens is drawn into sharp relief. Clearly there is a responsibility to the con-

tinents people, their development and their environment. Ultimately, then, there are few

major organisations that do not need to know more about Africa and how to manage

communications there (Gyroscope 2007:5).

Indeed the final Commission Report for Africa (2006) paints a pragmatic and positive

story about the continent. Regional economic integration is indeed proceeding apace with

major advances in the streamlining of investment and competition policy frameworks,

customs regimes and trade policies, and in many other areas. A new initiative on budget

reform and public expenditure management has been launched in South Africa with the

enthusiastic participation of treasury officials from across the continent (CABRI).

More democratic states and fewer civil conflicts are also just two signs of progress on the

political front. The long-awaited European UnionAfrican Summit in Lisbon in December

2007 heard that when leaders of the two continents last met in Cairo seven years previously,

there were no fewer than 14 conflicts ranging on African soil, making up 50 percent of

violent deaths in the world. These chilling statistics had more than halved by 2007. Africahas also achieved unprecedented macroeconomic stability, which is contributing to

better economic growth rates than have been achieved in decades. According to the IMF,

the continents GDP was less than 1 percent between 1995 and 2000. In the first five

years of this century it rose to 4.3 percent. Since then it has increased to 5.5 percent and

is estimated to have risen to 6.8 percent in 2007. However, it must be said that deep and

grinding poverty remains a daily reality throughout the continent, notwithstanding the

focus on macroeconomic policywhich is necessary but remains insufficient.

In these circumstances the Commission concludes, Africa is ready and willing to

embrace a new kind of partnership. NEPADs primary objectives are to:

eradicate poverty; place African countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth

and development;

14. THE NATURE AND STATUS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE IN AFRICA 267

nature and practice of pr in africa

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