KAS-SPI Africa Media Leadership

Welcome remarks by Francis Mdlongwa, Director of Rhodes University’s Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership, South Africa, at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Africa Media Leadership Conference in Kampala, Uganda, on May 25, 2008

 I would like to warmly welcome all of you to the seventh Africa Media Leadership Conference. In particular, I would like to welcome those among us who are attending this conference for the very first time since the series was launched in 2002. Among these are delegates from West Africa, who come from Senegal and the Ivory Coast, plus others from countries such as Burkina Faso, the Seychellesand Mauritius. Thank you all for coming! And many thanks to to all our old friends who are present!

For my Institute and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, which host these gatherings, we regard the presence of these new delegates as a small but  necessary step forward by the conference series to become more inclusive and more relevant to Africa.

In the past we have focused on building networks among media leaders of  Southern Africa, Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa. But by bringing on board our media counterparts from West and Central Africa and the Indian Ocean archipelagos, we are signalling our intention to become a truly pan-African body, which seeks to address Africa’s myriad challenges which impact on our media.

It is however, as I said, only a small step forward because we still need to have at these gatherings delegates from North Africa and most of Portuguese-speaking Africa. Yet, when you chart humankind’s real progress over centuries past, it is not hard to see that it has been marked by these small steps which, when put together, have created an enduring legacy. These small steps are widely known as “small wins”.

Of course, given humankind’s nature, it is usually only the big wins which we hear about, such as the Stone Age, the Industrial Revolution, the First Man Landing on the Moon, the Information Age, etc. But if you begin to look closely at all these leaps, you will find countless small wins which led to the big steps.  Small wins which were recorded by many individuals who were firmly committed, determined, passionate and true to their cause.

Those of you who have seen the movie “Lorenzo’s Oil” will fully understand and appreciate what I mean: the unflinching determination of even one person to achieve what many regard as being near-impossible! 

We meet here today at a time of rapid change in the media landscape around the world, Africaincluded. There is so much uncertainty and ambiguity about the future that confronts us largely because of the digital era that has emerged and continues to unfold at a breath-taking pace.