CNN political analyst and radio personality Roland Martin (left) greets President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal after his remarks at the Unity 2008 journalists of color convention. Photo: Kenneth Muhammad

“Nowhere in the world does the media focus more upon crisis coverage than in Africa,” said Dr. Djibril Diallo of the United Nations and co-chair of the NABJ World Affairs Task Force. “The stories about the economic resurgence of many African countries, of the resilience of African people in the face of enormous challenges still needs to be told. The result of this unbalanced coverage is far reaching with dangerous distortion of Africa’s image in the eyes of the outside world,” Dr. Diallo added.

For a different viewpoint NABJ invited the president of the Republic of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade to address journalists gathered for the Unity 2008 convention in Chicago on July 25.

In the midst of strategies being developed to combat global warming and other environmental problems related to climate change, little attention is being paid to the continent of Africa which is experiencing severe drought and desertification in many areas.

In remarks to approximately 400 journalists, the president of the West African nation of 13 million discussed his ambitious proposal to build a “Great Green Wall” of trees from Dakar to Djibouti through several different African countries to slow the rate of desertification.

Pres. Wade said the idea originally initiated by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo also has the support of the African Union. According to Pres. Wade, the “Great Green Wall” would cover some 12,500 acres of land and it will be 4,350 miles long and nearly 9.5 miles wide. The plan also included building water basins to catch rain water for use by farmers enabling them to grow crops all year around.

“President Wade brings a new and innovative perspective to the climate change debate,” said NABJ president Barbara Ciara, who in December of 2007 led a delegation of journalists on a fact-finding mission to Senegal to report on the progress of some of the initiatives put forth by the Senegalese president as he works to make economic, educational and medical improvements in his country.

First elected president in 2000 and then easily winning re-election in 2007, Mr. Wade is credited with many reforms, however, his appearance at the conference was not without controversy.

Approximately 30 anti-Wade protesters shouted outside of McCormick Place West about an hour before Pres. Wade was scheduled to speak. At one point, the protestors and Pres. Wade’s supporters—also numerous— had to be separated by uniformed and mounted Chicago police officers and traffic in both directions was halted for several minutes. Later, during Pres. Wade’s remarks to the journalists, he was interrupted twice by hecklers who were quickly escorted out by security.

Senegalese officials said the discord and conflict in many African nations—including Senegal—are often the result of outside interference in African affairs.

“Everywhere in the world especially in Africa, it’s about resources. Whether in the Congo, Zaire or Zimbabwe, it’s about controlling the power of the resources and (conflict) is orchestrated from outside and they put one group against another group,” said Mamadou Mountaga Gueye, head of the Economic Mission of Senegal to the United States.

During a question and answer session, CNN political analyst and WVON-AM radio host Roland S. Martin asked Pres. Wade to address allegations by journalist organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists that his administration is harshly restricting freedom of the press in Senegal.

Pres. Wade replied through a translator that those making those complaints and claiming to be journalists are not really journalists. He said they are actually political operatives aiming to destabilize his government and “not interested” in reporting the news.

Mr. Martin said Pres. Wade should have expected to be confronted by questions dealing with those allegations—especially at a gathering of journalists.

“The bottom line is this, if you are going to come to a journalist convention and speak to us, you are going to have to confront the reality of freedom of the press,” Mr. Martin told The Final Call. “There are far too many journalists in that nation who say that it is no longer as free as it used to be,” he added.

Pres. Wade is on record for opposing western backed sanctions against Zimbabwe and though calling the situation in Darfur “a tragedy” he is against the recent decision by the International Criminal Court to bring charges against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.

Senegal is in western Africa and its capital is Dakar. It is bound by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to its east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to its south.