African Blogosphere:Filling the Gap

The Zimbabwe pundit writes about the impact of African Bloggers "...The African blogosphere is a heterogeneous amalgam of blogs not only by Africans and people on the continent as much as it is comprised of blogs that write about the continent. There are many people around the world that write about Africa. This miracle of cyberspace—that it allows for cheap communication unfettered by geopolitical boundaries—has made it possible for the African odyssey to share center stage alongside the big issues in the west, thanks in part to Africa’s bloggers. The latest news from Africa is available to anyone in the world with access to the internet...The hallmark of African bloggers is authenticity. African bloggers are retelling the African story from their authentic perspective with an avid passion for their countries and continent to boot. It is impossible to read the posts on any of the blogs in the African blogosphere and come away without a sense of the writer’s deep connection to the country and continent...According to George Ayittey, the author of Africa Unchained, only eight of Africa’s 54 countries have a free press. Filling the news gap has become a main role the African Blogosphere is playing. After decades of repression during which shot callers in Africa’s often corrupt governments dominated the news, Africa’s bloggers are turning the spotlight on the continent’s real newsmakers; ordinary Africans. At best, these bloggers most likely filling the news gap outside of their repressive countries because of low internet proliferation in many African countries. Very few people, many of them in urban areas, have access to the internet in much of Africa. Consequently, most of bloggers polled for this article reported that the bulk of their readership came from outside of their countries, in the US and Western Europe. However, there are already some exceptions to this in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa. Most bloggers don’t write exclusively to fill the news gap. In fact, the group of African bloggers I polled overwhelmingly responded that they blog out of their motivation to share their own stories and life experiences..."
Via Committee to Protect Bloggers