The need to write and document

African Scholars have been called to stop depending and concentrating on the western countries to develop their careers.
Prof Belly Mody, Chairperson in Global Media University of Colorado Boulder, while addressing participant on the presentation on communication development in Kampala, said that, Africans need to document their work and build their own literature and realities.“I hope one of these days we shall start to document our research so as to make people in North and West to read our own work,” Prof. Mody said.

Scholars in Africa countries depend on materials from the western countries. It’s very hard in Uganda to find any documented work either in the internet or in books.Despite the existence of large number of people who are educated, only few have written their own books. Students in our local schools, institutions continue to depend on books from Western authors.

Prof. Mody said that Africans need to document their work by making it available globally since their have technology.Africans writers were challenged to start writing of their own unique differences since their come from communities that value culture and traditions.“Begin with traditions. Begin with the known. You do not expect the west people to do that,” Said Prof Mody. She added that researchers should deliberate using their own traditions. Scholars were called to create their own blogs and website in order to share their own writing so that global people can read it.
A Website opening and maintaining it costs less than Shs 150,000. However, no organisation or individuals in the region run a website on documented work or research portraying the unique culture on our people and environment.

On the Media training and capacity, Prof. Mody said that they can be improved, but; “lack of political redress and response to journalistic investigative reports is not something you and I can fix in short run. For example, on reports on corruption and misuse of public offices,” She said.Politicians were on receiving side when they were accused of being the roadblock to investigative journalism.
“Our journalists are doing the job, but our politicians are slack,” she lamented.

She called on the right use of the media to reach the local people. Media professionals were told to rethink on which media to we use most for social marketing and development.

On how to use the freedom of media entrenched in Africa she said that media need to rethink carefully who they are enriching more since media tend to enrich the rich than the poor.
As class difference increases some groups tend to have access to the internet skills, while many still rely on local languages radio station.

“Social disparities results in high education income group learning more while the lower income group become more illiterates,” Prof Mody said.

If the media want to avoid creating these disparities, it needs to rethink and load information meant for the poor informatively.

Media does not exist in vacuum, in that the media used in spreading propagandas and hates to subdivide people to their ethnic background and political alignment. The same can be used for good cause in the fight against poverty, diseases such as; malaria, cholera and aids.

“In Kenya people used radio station and mobile phone to spread hate speech but; the same was used by leaders to call for peaceful coexistences among the Kenyans,” She said.

Though everything is turning to be global, Africans were told to utilize the opportunity to market their own unique rich resources to emancipate the continent from the problems facing it.

This is by programming in our own media content and design that shows the people to solve their problems.

“Globalization to me means the capitalists to solve world problems,” Prof said.

Dr, David Musoke a lecturer at Makerere University said that Africans journalists need to be liberated since there are highly affected by the western culture.

“We need to liberate our own brain in order to write and document,” Musoke said.Prof. Belly Mody