Taylor Hanigosky
tmh004@marietta.edu
The Marcolian’s Managing Editor, Taylor Hanigosky, interned at The Daily Guide, a national newspaper in Kumasi, Ghana this summer. Taylor’s experiences exposed her to the challenges facing developing nations, the media’s portrayal of race, and the pervasiveness of white privilege.
The central market pulsated like the hasty heart of a beast. An aerial view of the crowd would reveal a homogenous throng, condensing and expanding in unison. But everyone marching within it knew their purpose and pursued it with reluctant, yet effortless persistence. For me, traipsing through the midst of this chaos was like navigating an unpredictable jungle.
My eyes were fixated on a yellow satin shirt that darted from nook to cranny, never skipping a step. The man wearing the shirt was David, my loyal guide and reliable colleague, always alert and attentive but never tense.
I glanced frequently at the ground, trying to avoid obstacles in my path—potholes, rubbish, open drainage canals—and generally reassure myself that my feet were, in fact, still attached to my ankles –which meant I must keep walking.
The market sprawled out in nearly every direction, but exactly how far I could not see because of the density of the crowd and my unfortunate height disadvantage. David periodically reached for my hand to pull me across an intersection or down an uneven staircase. All the while, his mind was in dozens of other places: a group Facebook conversation on his Blackberry, a call on his Bluetooth earpiece, a case at the courthouse where we would get our next story. Meanwhile, I seemed to be the only one bumping into women selling fruit from baskets balanced on the tops of their heads or tripping over uneven sidewalks. As a young court reporter, David was trained for the pavement, chasing sources and ledes through the sweltering alleys of Kumasi.
Soon, he said, I, too, would know the ways of the city. This would all be second nature to me. I hope, I said.
And so began my two months as a journalist in Ghana, where I undoubtedly learned as much about our global society and myself as I did about reporting. According to Freedom House’s 2014 freedom of the press data, Ghana is the only country in Africa with a completely free press system. I witnessed first hand the vibrant and competitive nature of the small, developing country’s print and broadcast media. I found myself in the midst of this lively mix, able to compare Ghana’s media with the declining significance of American newspapers and the transition to digital platforms in the U.S.
However, as a white journalist in an African nation, many people were hesitant to speak with me or to be photographed—and rightly so. The international media has a habit of portraying Africa as a homogeneous entity that is dangerous, underdeveloped, and incapable of helping itself. This picture is detrimental to the progress Africans are working toward and their place in the international community.
White privilege is a pervasive and clandestine attitude whose existence is unknown to many. It is easy to succumb to traditional lessons taught by Western-centric media without question. Existing narratives of Africa spawn feelings of pity, misplaced righteousness, and fear. However, I have learned that questioning existing norms and assumptions is vital to progressing toward an inclusive global society.
I lived within a nation of people who are working feverishly toward growth. However, they are not so indecent to disregard their deep-rooted history and culture in place of joining the industrial world. They are pioneering their own modernization. Witnessing this period of change was important for me (and any other journalist wanting to report on the developing world). I learned how much power the media wields, and how much that power can do if it is wielded effectively and beyond a white, westernized perspective.
