This document discusses how African bloggers, marketers, and brands can effectively share stories about Africa through new media to counter stereotypes. It recommends using social media monitoring tools that use image recognition to identify untagged photos related to brands and destinations in Africa. These tools can help marketers find influential users and user-generated content to learn more about consumer perceptions and engage audiences. By actively participating in social media storytelling using these evolving tools, African stakeholders can help control the narrative about Africa and shift global perceptions.

1. Sharing Your African Experience
Through Blogging
Sam Adeleke | February 26, 2016
Ø Breaking the Single Story Narrative
Ø Adventures of a Travel Writer
Ø New Media Tools of the Future
#BungeeJumping
#JInjaUganda
Travel Branding Expert

2. At the 2009 Ted talk,
Chimamanda Adichie spoke of
the “The danger of a single
story” in narrating theAfrican
experience and warned that if
we hear only a single story
about another person or country,
we risk a critical
misunderstanding.

3. She went on to further talk about stereotypes

4. But I have 5 Big Questions
- DoesAfrica have an image
problem?
- Why do Africans worry about
howAfrica is portrayed in
western media?
- Why are there more negative
than positive stories about
Africa?
- IsAfrica’s negative image
justified?
- Who is hiding the realAfrica?

5. At a recent BBC Debate onAfrica’s global
image, a participant noted:
“The image ofAfrica as it is, is correct … It
is true that there is famine. It is true that
there is poverty, there is war. All those are
true. But let’s talk about Brazil, for example.
Brazil is poor. There is prostitution.There is
horror. There are drugs. But what is the
image of Brazil in the world? The image of
Brazil in the world is the image of a country
that is successful, that is progressive, that is
exciting … The Brazilians themselves have
taken the agenda in their own hands to
promote it. InAfrica … we have abdicated
our responsibility to drive our own image”.

6. So whose responsibility is
it to launder the African
image?

7. “There is an increasing decline of the
so-called western media and their
influence inAfrica.Alot of local
media houses are emerging that can
tell the narrative of theAfrican
situation far more effectively than the
international media will ever do …
In about five to seven years the
international media will become
completely irrelevant.And that is
why you got that reaction to the 2012
Documentary on Joseph Kony (the
Ugandan rebel that abducted over
30,000 children and turned them into
child soldiers for 26 years) because
it was in complete contrast to the
situation on the ground.
Robert Kabushenga,
CEO, Uganda’s Vision Media Group

8. And the people who went
against it were not even the
traditional ones – it wasn’t the
army, it wasn’t the government.
It was the bloggers who said,
‘This is not correct’.
Finally there is a process in the
media inAfrica that is beginning
to reverse these perceptions.
Very soon we will have our own
infrastructure that tells the story
differently.”
Robert Kabushenga,
CEO, Uganda’s Vision Media Group

9. Today that infrastructure has been established via a
platform called
For the past 3 years, we have been criss-crossing theAfrican
continent, documenting, blogging and providing dynamic travel
and leisure information on untappedAfrica and its surrounding
islands. Our aim is to work with individuals, organizations,
governments, key decision shapers and policy makers in
promoting the untapped potentials of the world’s most culturally
rich and diverse continent.
www.afrotourism.com

10. So let’s do a quick tour of the Africa
you don’t see on TV

11. View of CMS, Lagos, from the Pedestrian bridge at night

12. Hand park,Calabar, Cross river state, Nigeria

13. Boat cruise on Marina resort, Calabar river, Cross river state

14. Port Harcourt Zoo, Trans-Amadi,PortHarourt, Rivers state

15. Double Decker bus tour @ Tinapa, Calabar

16. Ngwo Cave, Enugu, Nigeria

17. Oguta WonderLake, Oguta, Imo state

18. Obudu Mountain Resort, Cross river state, Nigeria

19. Cable car rides @ Obudu Mountain Resort, Cross river state

20. Pink Lake, Senegal

21. Quad biking desert safari, Hurghada, Egypt

22. Elephant Orphanage, Nairobi, Kenya

23. Aero beach, Entebbe, Uganda

24. Somaliland

25. Capetown, SouthAfrica

26. Afriskii Resort, Lesotho

27. Congo Brazzaville

28. Ivory Coast,Abidjan

29. Kenya

30. South Sudan
Off from Juba teaching Hospital via Mobil street.
Juba City (early 2014)
SouthSudan Hotel,Juba

31. Made in Madagascar

32. Rwanda… a classical example ofAfrican stereotypes

33. Rwanda is a fast developing East
Africannation with a stable democracy.
They all love theirpresidentbecausehe has been incorruptibleand magnanimous
in all his dealingsafterendingthe 1994 genocide& civil war.

34. Methane GasPlantonLakeKivu,
fromwhich electricityisgenerated.
With joy, the citizens recently voted
in a referendum which passed with
over 98% support of Rwandans
saying they want President
Kagame to run for a third seven-
year term.
This means that President Kagame
could remain in power till 2034.
Interestingly, everyone I spoke to in
Rwanda from the capital Kigali to
the farthest districts of Cyangugu
loves Kagame and wants him to
lead them as long as he lives.
Yet, the western media chooses to cast a dictatorial mantle on Kagame.

35. Folks,there’sno otherway to tell the trueAfricanstoryotherthanvisitingtheseplacesto
getfirst-handexperiencesof eventsand happenings.
Weneed to appreciate the fact thatAfrica is a unique continent and each
of its 54 countries is adopting unique ways to solve its own problems.

36. Having said these…
So how can African bloggers,
tourists, brands, marketers and
governments effectively tell the
African story through the new media
while standing out from the clutter?

37. First of all, we all know that the
beauty of the new media is its
democratic temper. With any
electronic device, anyone at all,
can set up a communications unit,
using a phone, a tablet, a laptop,
a desktop, and simply occupy the
social space and broadcast
information which in a matter of
minutes may go viral and
condition public opinion.
So if it is that simple, why can’t
exclusive stories and facts from
Africa go viral?

38. A Quick Illustration
Did you know that Megafauna like giraffe, zebra, gorilla, hippopotamus,
chimpanzee and wildebeest are unique to the African continent?

39. So why are such facts, stories and images not as popular
as it should be?
According to Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends report,
over 1.8 billion images are posted to social media each
day, yet 80 percent of these images lack identifying text.

40. So how can you
stand out from
the clutter?

41. Right now, the visual web has dropped a cloak on social
media. For example, if someone shares a photo of an African
destination or even a product but doesn't tag the brand with a
hashtag or caption, there's nothing that tells the marketer,
"Hey, I'm talking about your brand, so you should listen."

42. This is where image recognition comes in. It’s the new
darling of the social media world. Take the Wolfram
Language Image Identification Project, for example, which
can identify the content of any picture uploaded to the site.

43. So how does image recognition work in a social media
context?
Image recognition makes it possible to find and categorize those untagged
photos by analyzing their visual content for patterns specific to a brand
(consumers holding cans of Coke, for example). This provides brands not only
with useful content they couldn't find before without accompanying text, but also
with better connections to their biggest fans.

44. Real-time image recognition tool Mantii is used for "visual
listening": It watches social media as new images appear,
then grabs the ones that are relevant to the respective
brand and displays them on a dashboard.

45. Mantii also analyzes the demographics and sentiment
associated with these images, so marketers can quickly
get a sense of who's talking about their brand and what
they're saying.

46. So to what extent
is Mantii and
similar social
media watching
tools useful?

47. Marketers can use tools like Mantii
to identify the top influencers and
engage with them through direct
advertising or obtain rights to their
photos for user-generated content.
Great Badagry Festival, 2015

48. The next time an
influential consumer
posts a selfie with a
loved one at a
popular African
destination (wearing
the country’s T-shirt),
it could turn into a
yearlong advertising
campaign for that
country or company.
In that sense, "going
viral" becomes more
scientific and
accessible for
marketers, so they
can ride the wave
rather than chase
after it.

49. Bloggers, Marketers and Brand managers can also use new
social media tools such as Mantii to benchmark their brand
against competitors to get the big picture of their industry on the
visual Web.

50. From the foregoing, it is obvious that we can now have a
scientific approach towards telling the African story. And this can
only be done if we are more deliberate and conscious about it.

51. Finally…
As African bloggers, marketers, brand
managers and influencers, it is our
responsibility to actively participate in
sharing our stories using the evolving
social media tools.
In the words of Brene Brown:
“You either walk inside your story and
own it or you stand outside your story
and hustle for your worthiness.”

53. Connect with us
w. www.afrotourism.com
t. @frotourism
f. facebook.com/Afrotourism
i. instagaram/afrotourism
samadelstudios.com
@samadeleke
facebook.com/sam.adeleke
instagaram/afrotourism

54. References
• https://www.imageidentify.com
• http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends
• http://www.adweek.com/brandshare/what-it-s-be-
marketer-era-image-recognition-169207
• https://www.facebook.com/The-Africa-We-Dont-See-on-
Tv-287750344684263/?fref=ts
• Gabriel Kolapo Photography
• www.google.com
• www.afrotourism.com