I was looking at this poll recently on the BBC News website where they used the story of 24-year-old Ugochukwu Nwaokporo who was released on bail earlier this month after spending seven years in a Nigerian prison without being charged. The question that titled the poll was “Does African justice deserve the name?” I want to focus not on the actual question (because I’m not qualified enough to have an opinion as someone who does not live in Africa) but on some of the responses. One person stated: “I don’t see what the big deal is, the justice system in any country or continent only works some of the time. Similar things happen in the US and other Western nations all the time. Why should African nations be any different, especially when their justice systems are merely carbon copies of their former imperial occupiers?” I thought that point was particularly powerful when you consider Amnesty International’s list of countries that use torture and internment is just as likely to include the countries of the so called developed world. The press is filled daily with stories of failed justice in practice and that is from nations where there is supposed to be no corruption. Then this point: “please africa has 53 countries everytime BBC refers to Africa as if its one country. to answer your question i guess it depends on which country in africa you are in. And please only people who have been in that country may know not after watching news on TV. If you guys are one country here is a question is europe supporting America on its Iraqi war.” Imagine how Canadians would feel if instead of citing the USA in news stories the media starting using ‘North America’ as the descriptive catch-all phrase. So why does the media persist in treating Africa as one country rather than an unique mix of different cultures and traditions existing, in the most part, in a state of mutual co-existence. Much of peoples misunderstanding of African issues comes from the way the media portrays the continent with it’s ‘one size fits all’ descriptions and tired old rhetoric based on 1980’s Live Aid style imagery. We have a long way to go! BBC News Poll