Motola Oyebanjo: Wielding Soft Power for National Agendas
Remember Thor, the god of Thunder of the Norm folklores? Of course you do. Movies have been made about him. Comics illustrated and songs written to tell us of his amazing strength and prowess. He is recognized and celebrated well beyond Europe where he originates from. His legend kept alive and relevant by tales, comics and movies exported across the world.
Now, let’s come home a bit and compare this to Sango, the Yoruba god of Thunder, who is barely recognized in Nigeria and definitely not much beyond. Almost the same story of power, strength and ability but one is told proudly across nations, another is told almost shamefacedly by a country’s citizens. The winner is obvious for all to see.
Every nation is pursuing its own agenda; political, economic or social. It’s a simple statement of fact and understandably so. In doing this, soft power is constantly used strategically by World Powers to attract and co-opt other nations, often without those people even realizing that they are being co-opted.
Case in point are the legends told – Thor, Captain America, the foods - KFC, Starbucks, the movies – Air Force One, Olympus Has Fallen, White House Down etc – all carefully exported and subtly pointing us to the greatness of these lands. Our children and youths learn about them and want to go to these places, want to dress like them, be like them and we wonder why?
America has been depicted as the ‘land of opportunity’. Why do we believe this? - The use of soft power. Their popular culture and mass media - the films, books, news media, stories and music - have influenced us to accept this portrayal of the USA. This simple American positioning significantly increases their income from tourism, the creative industries, the sales of automobiles, electronics and ammunition to mention a few.
African countries need to develop and wield our soft power effectively in establishing our agendas and gaining the economic, cultural and political advantages that accrue.
There are those who are trailblazers, working hard in this important undertaking. IC Publications, founded over 50 years ago by Tunisian, Afif Ben Yedder is publisher of the African Business Magazine and is undeniably a print media leader in showcasing African businesses.
Nigerian, Mo Abudu’s Ebony Life TV, Africa’s first Global Black Multi-Broadcast Entertainment Network, launched in 2013 is young but poised to be a global leader in showcasing Africa to the world. Not the sad and sorry Africa, but an urbane, vibrant, empowered Africa; its cultures, creativity and viewpoints. We however need more of these; so much more.
We need to have a strong communications agenda clearly outlining what we want to achieve and how we intend to achieve it, taking advantage of the huge resources at our disposal.
Our historians must be empowered to research and record the African accounts of history that will be promoted across the continent and beyond.
Our educational system and teachers need to ensure this true heritage is ingrained into our children so they are proudly and unapologetically African.
Our government appointed communicators must be at the forefront of curating professionally organized content about African facts and populating books, magazines and the internet, from Google to Wikipedia.
Our creative industries need to build soft power for us via our films, music and literature.
We need authentic national PR campaigns that ring true and build value for us.
It is vital that we lead this undertaking ourselves; our governments, media, businesses and communications professionals must take the initiative. Where we need technical support, we should bring it in and ensure knowledge transfer, but driving the process ourselves is not optional.
The history books of the 22nd century will tell if we succeeded.
Motola Oyebanjo is a Strategic Communications Consultant and trained Economist. She has served as Head of Corporate Communications for the British Council and Internal Communications Manager for Unilever among other appointments.
Motola is currently a Partner & Client Service Director of the award winning advertising firm AerialView Marketing Communications and Managing Editor for Study International Nigeria.
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