Portland Quarterly | Issue 10: The Africa Edition

Portland Quarterly Issue 10: The Africa Edition

PORTLAND QUARTERLY

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Contents 06

Listen in everyone — the conversation has changed Toby Orr

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How African governments are changing the way they communicate Laura Kyrke-Smith

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The campaign revolution — on the road with Kenya’s candidates Murithi Mutiga

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The end of Françafrique?

French relations with Africa under Hollande Caroline Boin

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Africa at 50 Beatrice Karanja Myles Wickstead 12

Perceptions of Africa Zeinab Badawi

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Africa 20 years from now K.Y. Amoako

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Build and they will come?

Mary Mzumara 22

Ten technologies changing Africa Matt Gould

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Africa’s evolving media landscape Insights from a new survey of leading journalists in six of Africa’s media hubs 24

Morocco's pharmaceutical industry: a model for South-South integration Rajaa Mekouar co-authored by Renaud Savary 26

Corporate communications on the continent Portland Africa Network 28

My moment with Nelson Mandela Charles McLean

Edited by Robert Watkinson For more information on Portland's experience and expertise in Africa, please email robert.watkinson@ portland-communications.com or telephone +44 20 7842 0149

LISTEN IN EVERYONE — THE CONVERSATION HAS CHANGED The last time a British Prime Minister hosted a G8 Summit, he was faced with clear-cut demands and a lot of noise. The week before Tony Blair convened world leaders in Gleneagles in 2005, co-ordinated Live 8 concerts around the world were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. The culmination of the Make Poverty History campaign, the concerts demanded specific action on aid and debt cancellation. The G8 listened and acted.

Yet for all its strategic success and creative genius, the Make Poverty History campaign was largely an exercise in the West talking to itself about Africa (and to achieve its aims, it didn’t need to be much else). Fronted by Western celebrities, mobilised by Western NGOs and backed by Western development economists, there were few African voices being heard and few African arguments being made.

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Just one full G8 cycle later, the conversation about African development has changed, and changed forever.

Toby Orr

Since Gleneagles, the most arresting contributions to the development debate have not been made by rock stars and campaigners, but by African economists – most electrifyingly by Dambisa Moyo, the Zambian author of Dead Aid, and most recently by Lamido Sanusi, the Nigerian central bank governor, warning Africans “to wake up to the realities of their romance with China”.

If you are looking for really radical thinking for improving Africa, then the best creative energy is found on the continent. A new wave of African business leaders is putting big money into bold initiatives. Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese telecoms entrepreneur, has instituted the world’s largest individual award for leaders who have demonstrated excellence in office; Tony Elumelu, the Nigerian banker, has established a major new foundation to promote entrepreneurship and business leadership; Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian

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industrialist, is ploughing eight billion dollars into a new oil refinery which will double the country’s refining capacity – with major knock-ons for the region’s economy.

Even Africa’s public sector – hardly a traditional crucible of innovation – is seeing dramatic change in places. In Rwanda it is now possible to set up a business online in six hours; to get a visa online within 72 hours.

Improved efficiency in government is being driven by better thinking, not in Washington and Brussels, but in African capitals - African think tanks have seen an increase in their numbers by over 30% in just five years.

(This publication includes some fascinating future-gazing by one of Africa’s top think tank leaders, KY Amoako.)

And something you won’t hear from Western NGOs is that African civil society can be effective at responding to its own emergencies. “Kenyans for Kenya” was launched in response to the drought in the Horn of Africa in 2011. It raised over five million dollars in four weeks, including 200,000 dollars in the first 12 hours through mobile phone banking.

So there is a lot going on in Africa, and this in itself should be enough to change the nature and tone of the conversation about development on the continent.

But there is another force at work here too: the rapid transformation of the media in Africa.

In January last year we conducted the biggest study of Twitter in Africa ever undertaken. We demonstrated how widespread Twitter had become across the continent (and Portland’s Mary Mzumara talks more about the growth of social media in this publication). And it’s

not just new media that’s growing; it’s traditional media too. Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, told a Portland dinner recently that Africa is one of the few regions of the world where all parts of the media are flourishing.

The growth of Africa’s media has created new platforms for African news and opinion and, most critically, new patterns of connectivity across the world. With it has spawned a new level of sophistication in running communications campaigns on the continent (as Kenya’s award-winning journalist, Murithi Mutiga, describes in these pages).

So when a few years ago we bemoaned the reduction of foreign correspondents filing for newspapers in London and New York, it doesn’t seem to matter so much now. African leaders, civil society representatives and journalists are tweeting at Western news desks (and many, many others) instead. When CNN broadcast a laughably concocted story about a Kenyan militia training for violence before the general election, there was a social media firestorm from outraged Kenyans under the hashtag “#SomeoneTellCNN”. Bad Western journalism conforming to pre-prepared scripts is being challenged on the ground. Even more importantly, people around the world can get their fix of African news without the filter of the Western news media at all.

It is very likely that we will never see a campaign like Make Poverty History again – not because poverty will have been eradicated, or because we will never match the number of people who felt compelled to take part, but because the debate about Africa is being led from Africa. The conversation has changed, and this publication aims to give a just few insights into the new conversation that is taking place.

Toby Orr is a Partner at Portland, responsible for managing Portland’s international team.

Dressed in starched white shirts, coatless and with red ties to match, their shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbow, Kenya’s new President and Deputy President strolled out of the doors of State House to name a portion of their Cabinet on April 23.

A quip by Mr Ruto, the 46-yearold running mate to Mr Kenyatta, 50, that their Jubilee Alliance comprised a “digital” team running against their “analogue” rival, Mr Odinga, 67, came to define the messaging around the campaign.

It was a gloriously sunny afternoon and if the cast of characters taking part in the ceremony had been different, one would have imagined they were in the White House Rose Garden in Washington.

The quote gained resonance because Kenya, like many African countries, is in the middle of a transition from traditional extraterrestrial to digital television.

Where Kenyans had grown used under previous administrations to having major appointments announced through a press release sent from State House in the evenings (as close as possible to deadline leaving print editors with little time to analyse and forcing them to simply report the new names in the next day’s papers), here they saw something entirely different.

President Uhuru Kenyatta flanked

by Deputy President William Ruto read out the résumés of the new picks, who were then invited to address the gathered media team before stepping back into the mansion behind them.

The ceremony was an illustration of just how much the victorious candidates in the Kenyan election on March 4 borrowed from Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008.

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One of the supreme ironies of the Kenyan election was that Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto – who painted their main opponent Raila Odinga as a stooge of the administrations in London and Washington – run an election operation that was taken straight from the American President’s campaign playbook.

They spoke the language of hope and optimism. “I Believe” was the slogan plastered on campaign merchandise on display everywhere - from billboards on highways to the reflector jackets of boda boda (motorcycle taxis) which have become the main modes of transport in rural Kenya in recent years.

The teleprompter was to be found tucked away at the corner at every major campaign function.

Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto have both been indicted for crimes against humanity at The Hague for their alleged roles in the weeks of bloodletting that followed the last election in 2007, in which about 1,100 Kenyans lost their lives.

But they turned those indictments into an election issue that played in their favour in a communication strategy whose scope and scale had rarely been seen in Kenya. In several key cases, they called it right in their bid to outmanoeuvre the rival Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) alliance headed

by Mr Odinga.

They understood that with the country’s ever younger voting population, the old methods of campaigning could no longer do.

Two thirds of Kenya’s population is below the age of 30. And although traditional forms of media such as radio, TV and newspapers still dominate in terms of breadth of coverage, Kenya has one of the highest rates of internet penetration in Africa, with 41 per cent of the population holding a mobile or computer subscription, according to the Communications Commission of Kenya.

The Kenyatta campaign saw two uses for social media. There was the conventional approach where the outlets were used to put out official campaign material.

But social media outlets, and Facebook in particular, served a more important role. Because such forums are not mediated by editors, they were used to spread propaganda about the process that led to the pair being indicted in The Hague, rallying their core supporters into believing there was

a conspiracy afoot and that it was not a purely judicial process. Such content would not easily have been conveyed, say, in the newspapers in the crude form in which it was put out on social media.

Another key facet of the Kenyan campaign was that it continued the gradual globalisation of the political consultancy business.

In the same way that American political consultants have fanned across parts of Eastern Europe and elsewhere and flamboyant Brazilian ‘marqueteiros’ are to be found pulling the strings in elections across Latin America, the 2013 elections saw the phenomenon spread to East Africa.

In this case, both Mr Odinga and Mr Kenyatta hired in expensive western PR consultancies which attempted to impose message discipline to their respective campaigns.

Many other aspects of the campaign, though, remained unchanged. There were few negative ads and campaign posters were largely drab affairs.

But the 2013 election will be remembered as the nation’s first ‘digital’ campaign. The election results were disputed because of questions over whether Mr Kenyatta fairly achieved the 50 per cent mark to clinch the presidency in the first round. But there is no doubt that his Jubilee Alliance gained more votes overall than the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) which in Mr Odinga had, on paper at least, a far more substantial and serious candidate than the Jubilee Alliance.

Mr Kenyatta’s victory owed in no small part to his team’s realisation that social media platforms now play virtually the same role as newspapers as the agenda setting media which generate content for the much more widely available TV and radio platforms.

Murithi Mutiga is an editor at Kenya’s Sunday Nation. He is an inaugural winner of The David Astor Journalism Award.

THE CAMPAIGN REVOLUTION ON THE ROAD WITH KENYA’S CANDIDATES

Murithi Mutiga

AFRICA AT 50 Half a century on from the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) established to “co-ordinate and intensify the co-operation of African states in order to achieve a better life for the people of Africa” - Beatrice Karanja and Myles Wickstead offer two perspectives on its legacy and the role of its successor, the African Union.

Speaking at the launch of the Organisation of African Unity, Ghana’s President Kwame Nkrumah, a leading advocate of PanAfricanism, told his fellow leaders that the continent’s fate was in their own hands. “All we need to do”, he said, “is to develop with our united strength the enormous resources of our continent”. He was in no doubt that Africa’s time had come.

Half a century later, we can see the journey has not been that straightforward. Africa has ebbed and flowed. Economic, social and political progress has been uneven. Nor has “a united strength” always been the continent’s most obvious quality.

Faced with division and conflict, the OAU has itself faced a battle to remain relevant and useful.

Africa continues to face huge challenges. Poverty remains widespread. Too many people still lack enough food. Food imports, which already stand at US $50 billion, could triple by 2030. Despite many fine words and declarations about the importance of regional integration, trade among the members of the African Union (AU) – as it is now called - stands at six per cent.

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Infrastructure development and deeply rooted graft, too, remain critical issues of concern across the continent. Media freedom and expression continue to be threatened.

Two serving African leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court to answer for crimes against humanity.

But when the AU recently gathered again in Addis Adada to mark its 50th anniversary, the good outweighed the negative. There is real hope that Nkrumah’s hopes could finally be fulfilled. The future is truly promising.

Africa Rising is the new buzz phrase.

The continent is home to six of the world's ten fastest-growing

economies of the last decade. A succession of international reports have given Africa a glowing scorecard.

While Europe remains, for example, deep in crisis, the African Economic Outlook 20131 forecasts that Africa’s economy is projected to grow by 4.8% in 2013 and accelerate further to 5.3% in 2014.

African leaders to mark the landmark anniversary, they recommitted themselves to achieving the Union’s goals. They pledged to build an integrated and prosperous Africa - a continent that is at peace with itself and with the world and where its developments are driven by its own citizens.

Trade and investment are replacing aid as the drivers of development.

The continent’s oil and gas boom – and global appetite for its other rich natural resources - is helping drive this performance. But it is, by no means, the entire picture. There has been impressive growth from countries and regions not wellendowed with such wealth.

An expanded role for the AU, responsive to the needs of the continent, is key to achieving the ambition of its founding fathers. We need to see the vision and courage to work together to harness Africa’s enormous resources – human and natural – for the good of all. If this can be achieved, we may indeed be in the early years of Africa’s century.

Strong consumer demand is equally important. The intake and uptake of technology is also playing a key role.

As anyone who spends even a day on the continent can see, there are more mobile-phone users here than anywhere else in the globe. Africa enjoys, too, a demographic dividend other continents would dearly love to have. Over one in three of the population is aged between 15 and 35 - a powerful driver for future success.

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It is a population which is healthier and better educated than ever before. With improved and sustained economic growth has come a marked improvement in investment and access to public services. A number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa have halved their levels of maternal mortality. Improved access to primary education - free in several countries – will have a major impact.

But as Nkurumah understood 50 years ago, building on and extending these successes needs Africa to come together. What has been accomplished through strong regional bodies like COMESA, the EAC and ECOWAS needs to be replicated at a continental level.

In the Solemn Declaration released by

www.africaneconomicoutlook.org

Beatrice Karanja heads Portland’s Nairobi office, which coordinates our pan-African campaigns.

At the end of May 1963, half a century ago, the Organisation of African Unity was established in Addis Ababa. It had noble ideals, reflecting the wind of change which Harold Macmillan saw blowing across the continent - promoting the political and economic betterment of Africa and its people, combating colonialism and defending the sovereignty of African states. Africa seemed set on a solid pathway to progress, unlike its counterparts in southern and south-east Asia.

And for a while it seemed as if that sense of optimism was largely justified.

But all too quickly the wealth of the continent was appropriated by the political elites and the Cold War - often an uncomfortably hot war in Africa distorted political relationships and stymied progress. Whether leaders were able to maintain peace and stability, or governed well, mattered less to the West and the East than which side of the political divide they lay. The 1970s and 80s were as a consequence, for Africa, largely lost decades.

The end of the Cold War saw a major shift in the global political dynamic.

As the countries of eastern and central Europe implemented political and economic transformation programmes - not least because that was a condition of membership of the European Community, to which many of them aspired so economic and political governance became

increasingly key elements in the relationship between donors and the countries of Africa.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2001 had as their overarching ambition the reduction by half of the proportion of people living in the world in absolute poverty, with a number of other Goals focusing essentially on primary health and basic education. The world has made remarkable progress against the MDGs - largely driven by strong economic growth in China and India and other countries which had seemed like hopeless cases - but with significant progress in a number of African countries too. That has only been possible because of the establishment of a virtuous circle of better governance and increased peace and stability, leading to stronger education and health systems supported by robust economic growth.

That progress is in many ways symbolised by the transition of the OAU to the AU in 2002. The OAU essentially a club of unelected elites became a more democratic institution, more focused on the well-being of its citizens and ready to intervene in cases of bad governance or a breakdown of peace and security. Fifty years on, it remains a work in progress, facing many challenges, including the consequences of climate change and the need to create jobs for a rapidly increasing and youthful population.

The High Level Panel (HLP) created by the UN SecretaryGeneral to make recommendations on what should follow the MDGs reported at the end of May. It identifies a number of challenges, including those above, and rightly concludes that the global community needs to address them together.

Africa, not least through the AU, is

unquestionably now better able to play a full part in the discussions which will take place over the next couple of years about the sort of world we want to create over the next two decades in “our common interest” - the final words of the executive summary of the HLP Report, and the title of the 2005 Commission for Africa report.

The AU Summit which took place in May, celebrating 50 years of the OAU / AU, has focused not just on the next two decades, but on the next half-century. 'Vision 2063' is of an Africa in 50 years free from poverty and conflict, with its citizens enjoying middle-income status and peoplecentred governance. And going back to the language of the Commission for Africa and High Level Panel Reports, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia, in his capacity as Chair of the AU, spoke of Africans in the continent and peoples of African descent in the diaspora sharing a common history and a common destiny.

That is all of us. Because the scientific evidence is now overwhelming that we are all of African descent, with Asians, Europeans, Americans, Pacific Islanders and all the rest of us coming from an extended family group of a few hundred people who crossed to the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa some 76,000 years ago. So we do have a common history. We do have a common destiny. And we do have a common interest. Just like any family.

Myles Wickstead is Visiting Professor (International Relations) at the Open University and Advisor to Development Initiatives and Hand in Hand International. He was formerly Head of the British Development Division in East Africa; Ambassador to Ethiopia; and Head of Secretariat to the Commission for Africa, whose report ‘Our Common Interest’ informed the discussions at the Gleneagles Summit in 2005.

PERCEPTIONS OF AFRICA

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Joelle Tarrant spoke to Zeinab Badawi, the BBC television news presenter. She is a Council Member of the Overseas Development Institute and founder and chair of the Africa Medical Partnership Fund.

Do you think we get an accurate view of Africa through the global media?

There is not a one-size fits all view of Africa, yet the media has traditionally lumped together the whole of a huge and varied continent. As a result, our view of Africa has been quite one dimensional. We wouldn’t ask if Europe was accurately portrayed by the global news media. Fortunately, things are changing and we are developing a more multi-dimensional view of a rich and varied part of the world.

How did we get trapped in this onedimensional analysis?

Ultimately it’s an inheritance from the colonial era, where Africa was portrayed as the ‘dark continent’.

This culminated in Africa’s identity being defined by a default colour.

Then, when Live Aid came along, it hit the mass media in a way like never before. Although the motives were good, it did feed into a narrative that was already there - that Africans, for one reason or another, were junior spectators to their own destiny, and were waiting for the West to come in and sort it out. But Africans have always known that the people that influence their lives most are their own people and rulers.

What is driving the multidimensional view?

Lots of things. For a start, Africans in the diaspora are much more prominent these days. In particular Africans in the global media with links to the continent are keen to drive more realistic coverage.

NGOs, which have always played a major role in shaping perceptions of Africa, have become much more locally engaged. They are listening to, and being influenced by, their local staff.

African governments are becoming more transparent, more democratic

and increasingly they are making themselves available to the global media. They want to show that, actually, there is more to Africa than coups, wars and famines.

And, of course, technology is playing a role. The internet is driving global conversations, and people are reading and seeing first-hand what is happening on the continent.

Can African produce its own global news channel?

Yes, and in time it will. There are pan-African media outlets that are getting off the ground right now and that will be huge global media providers. Africa is a very fertile market for the English speaking media. It is a very vibrant and colourful continent - providing great coverage for the global news media.

Is the change in Africa’s economic fortunes helping to change perceptions?

Bit by bit, yes. Perceptions are being challenged and the facts speak for themselves. These days we are as likely to hear about the rise of the African Leopard as we are the Asian Tiger.

Businessmen like Mo Ibrahim have been very instrumental in changing views by saying: “Come to Africa, we’re open for business. We’re not talking about charity here. You can make real money in Africa.”

Do perceptions of Africa still have an impact on investment on the continent?

Yes, they do. Most multinational corporations that do business in Africa still seem reticent - or even embarrassed - to state that they make great returns from their African investments. Shareholders are concerned if their activities are perceived to be ‘unethical’.

Investors crave government stability and proper fiscal structures and frameworks. African leaders must make it easier to do business in

Africa and make sure they have the right frameworks and structures in place to facilitate investment.

Could the 'Africa rising' narrative be over-stated?

There is a danger that the 'Africa rising' narrative will be overplayed, to the extent that it overshadows the considerable work that is still to be done. Yes, there are high rates of growth, but there are still a huge number of the world’s poor and disenfranchised in Africa.

Ultimately the 'Africa rising' narrative cannot just be about high rates of growth and GDP, it has to be about inclusive, sustainable growth.

Final thoughts?

There is a new found confidence among Africans on the continent.

They know that it’s a happening place. It’s the youngest continent in the world, and it is thriving.

There is also a feeling that the West may be tired, and not everyone wants to flee there in great numbers to make it good. The tables are starting to turn slightly.

Africa is like every other place… some bits are good, some bits are bad. But the bad is receding more and more, and the good parts are on the rise.

Zeinab Badawi is currently a presenter on BBC Four and BBC World News. She was born in Khartoum and grew up in Britain but has maintained strong ties in Sudan.

Robert Watkinson spoke to K.Y. Amoako, President of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET). He is the former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

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AFRICA 20 YEARS FROM NOW

Africa currently has some of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Will that be the case 20 years from now?

I hope so. The future projections do look quite positive. I think it all depends on whether the reforms of recent years can be sustained and if governance continues to improve.

Over the last 10-15 years there have been some very important macroeconomic reforms. We’ve also seen significant progress on governance issues, with more accountable governments and the rise of civil society.

How can African nations seize this opportunity to develop?

The key issue, I think, is how to make this growth sustainable and to deal with the vulnerabilities that have traditionally plagued African economies. African nations need strong transformation agendas.

This means moving away from low-productivity agriculture to higher-productivity manufacturing and services. They need to develop competitive exports, make better use of technology, and secure greater regional and economic integration. If you look at the Asian economies that have done so well – such as South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia – you see that they all had a strong vision of where they wanted to get to. And then they worked towards those visions.

and Institutional Assessments (CPIA) show. At the same time many African nations now face the challenge of dealing with what I would describe as ‘second generation’ governance issues, which could be more complicated to tackle. Take, for example, the question of how you sustain a long-term growth agenda across electoral cycles in a multiparty democracy characterised by entrenched corruption and an increasingly expensive electoral process. This sort of challenge is relatively new for African nations.

Do you think the current ‘Africa Rising’ narrative could be overstated?

There is always a danger of overtalking something, but Africa is definitely no longer the ‘hopeless continent’. Africa is at a crucial juncture and, while it’s important to celebrate the progress we have made, we need to stay focused.

Crucially, we need to look beyond the headline stories and figures.

Growth that relies too heavily on natural resources and agriculture, without increasing competitiveness or harnessing technology, that isn’t inclusive and doesn’t lead to job creation – that cannot be sustainable.

But if we get these other factors right, then the real ‘Africa Rising’ can begin.

What are the key challenges ahead?

There are several. Inequality is potentially a major threat. In most cases, growth has not been inclusive enough. Rapidly growing populations, and the related issue of youth unemployment, present a huge challenge for African governments.

10-12 million people are being added to the labour force in Africa every year, but already people can’t find jobs. Tying growth to job creation is critical. African policymakers needs to ensure that education and training match up with the needs of the economy, so that students coming out of college have the skills that will allow them to find jobs.

Who will be the next economic powerhouses on the continent?

If you look at growth on the continent, it’s actually quite widespread and not confined to just a few countries. And it’s not just natural resource rich countries. But if you think about powerhouses, well, yes, just a couple of countries stand out. If current trends continue, and the political and security issues that could impede its growth are successfully managed, Nigeria will surpass South Africa as the continent’s largest economy. But there are examples of success all around the continent. Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda are all doing very well at the moment and their success shows the way for other nations.

How is governance on the continent changing?

Governance on the continent is undoubtedly improving, as measures like the World Bank's Country Policy

Is Africa becoming more integrated?

Intra-African trade is inching up, but the growth is not fast enough and there are still too many

obstacles. African nations cannot be competitive unless the critical issue of integration is addressed. Uniting the continent will require both political and economic will. The good news is that the African Union is now striving to boost the integration process. We now need to move from rhetoric to clear action. Africa has all these institutions for integration but there has been too much fragmentation and the capacity of these institutions has been weak.

How will Africa’s relationship with the rest of the world develop?

Africa’s relationship with the rest of the world is changing significantly.

FDI is increasing and it’s coming from new places. China’s engagement with Africa has made the news but you see major changes in African nations’ relationships with all of the BRIC economies. The growth of the BRICs and the changing nature of South-South trade create lots of opportunities. African economies must take advantage of the changing international environment in terms of both economic advantages and the changing aid landscape.

Will development aid still be necessary?

I hope the role of aid will decline but it will still be important. It needs to become more targeted and to focus on specific interventions that, for example, boost technology transfer and address the particularly vulnerable in society. In the agricultural sector, for example, technology can transform the crop yields and incomes of smallholder farmers.

What advice would you give to the next generation of African leaders?

First, I would tell them to look to the future and to develop gameplans that address the particular challenges facing their countries.

Second, I would tell them to put the needs of their people at the heart of policymaking – this is critical. Third, I would remind them that it takes courage and commitment to lead.

Are you optimistic about Africa’s future?

Yes, I am a realistic optimist!

The shift from aid to trade and investment, coupled with rising public expectations, has set new communications challenges for governments across Africa.

Governments’ own domestic public will remain their top constituency, of course. Here innovation in public engagement and service delivery continues apace, whether it’s the widespread use of social media, Tanzania’s online mapping of water reserves to improve supply to villages, or Rwanda’s partnership with Visa to roll out mobile phone payment systems.

But change is also needed in reaching those that matter outside their border. Even a decade ago the priority was often seen to be attracting donor financing for health and education. It meant development correspondents automatically got first pick of the interviews with government ministers, even above domestic media outlets. International donor meetings went into busy diaries ahead of conferences on global trade agreements.

Today it is the investment climate or the ease with which goods cross their borders that is at the top of the agenda. It is the views of Bloomberg or the Financial Times which carry most weight. An invitation to a banking conference takes precedence over a meeting with a visiting minister from a donor government.

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It is easy to overstate the newness or the extent of this change. Trade, investment, remittances and tourism, alongside aid, have always been an important part of the international

HOW AFRICA CHANGING THE WAY

relations of governments in Africa. But it is clear that a steady rebalancing is underway. Those governments which do not adapt their communications to this new reality risk real damage to the long term growth of their economies and their wider ambitions.

Last month Ernst & Young’s Africa Attractiveness Survey which found a large gap between perceptions and reality underlined these dangers.

Seven out of ten investors already working in Africa saw improvements in the business climate over the past year, while less than a third of those with no business presence perceived improvements. This was despite real progress reported by established third party assessments like the World Bank’s Doing Business Index.

Improving rankings in these major indexes has become a major and costly preoccupation for governments. But the truth is that these gains count for nothing if those thinking of investing or working in Africa for the first time do not know about them.

It is no coincidence that a simple Google search by country name shows the top five African countries in the Ease of Doing Business ranking have lively and user-friendly government-owned investment promotion websites on the first page. A similar search for the bottom five countries generates only third party news and foreign government sites, with recent bad news stories or advice against travel.

The government in each case has no presence at all.

In some instances there may be simply there is no good story to tell.

But look for example at Kenya, the

10th best place to invest in Africa according to the World Bank. Their first page of Google search results gives you a mix of good and bad news from the Guardian and BBC, tourism websites, and the facts as the CIA’s World Factbook sees them.

Only by clicking through the website of their Embassy in the US, at the bottom of the page, do you start to understand investment opportunities on offer.

Beijing or London. It will mean building the right systems and processes to engage and respond nimbly. The lessons learned from decades of donor investment in civil service growth and reform to a government’s communications function will have to be applied, whether it is more political nous or more focus on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of getting systems working rather than overarching frameworks.

So what do governments need to do differently? Whether they like it or not, Google is where most people new to a country form their first impressions. Narrowing the perceptions gap will require governments to build their own digital and social media platforms where these don’t exist, and to generate engaging written and visual content that rivals third party sites in quality and accuracy.

Tactically, potential investors, analysts and reporters must be encouraged to see the country first hand. It will mean going out and meeting them where they are too, whether it is in global investment hubs or at the growing number of meetings where governments get a speaking slot. Domestic and panAfrican media must be taken more seriously since it is more likely than ever that a story on international newswires will originate in a domestic media outlet.

Their messages will also need to change. Attracting investment and trade means not just updating international audiences about progress towards Millennium Development Goals, but telling them how long it takes to get a business visa, how many flights go in and out of the capital city each day, and how their people’s skills and qualifications can help their business. Using communications to facilitate genuine engagement will be an important part of this. Governments need to be accessible when potential investors want to find out more, and informative in their response.

It requires the recruitment and training of skilled communicators to government, from those monitoring social media debates about the country to those who drive smart engagement with journalists in

Across a vast continent the solutions will of course vary. But however they are applied in practice, making the case for more trade and investment is one of the best things a government in Africa can do to position itself for long-term growth that delivers real results for its people.

Laura Kyrke-Smith is an Associate Director at Portland. She was previously a speechwriter and policy analyst in the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

AN GOVERNMENTS ARE Y THEY COMMUNICATE Laura Kyrke-Smith

THE END OF FRANÇAFRIQUE? FRENCH RELATIONS WITH AFRICA UNDER HOLLANDE Caroline Boin France’s relationship with Africa has been long, complex and often murky. Her colonies once rivaled the British Empire on the continent, running from Morocco in the north-west to Madagascar in the south east.

Her influence remains strong. Half a century after the map of Africa was transformed by the independence movement, over one in ten of the continent’s people still speak French.

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Françafrique was the term coined in 1955 by former Ivorian President Félix Houphouët-Boigny to describe the desire to maintain a privileged relationship with France post-independence. Thirty years later, for many people the term now encapsulates all that is wrong with France’s relationship with her former colonies.

In many people’s minds, Françafrique became linked with envelopes of cash and suitcases of diamonds secretly transferred between the political, business and military elites on both sides of the Mediterranean. So the declaration from President François Hollande last year on a trip to Senegal that the days of Françafrique were over was widely welcomed by African commentators. The daily newspaper of the Democratic Republic of Congo – where Hollande participated in the Francophonie summit of French-speaking countries – said it marked a new beginning characterised by “honesty, respect and equality”.

It was not the first time that a French leader has pronounced Françafrique as dead. His predecessor

Nicolas Sarkozy promised the same. But President Hollande followed up his words with the denunciation of France’s brutal colonial rule over Algeria.

But this does not mean that France under Hollande’s leadership is turning its back on Africa. Indeed for a man who is not known for his love or knowledge of the continent, it has formed a large part of his foreign policy and personal profile-building.

Just a few weeks after his remarks about Algeria, he approved a military intervention to take back northern Mali from jihadist rebel fighters. But if the intervention in Mali is a continuation of France’s military presence across the continent over the past decades, Hollande’s approach marks a clear cut with the past.

Hollande and his Government were keen to stress that the decision to intervene was not led by France, but by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). French troops were said to be responding to Malian pleas and with the support of regional African and global allies. It is a war against terrorism, not for French interests.

Hollande’s resolute stand in the face of American scepticism and his on-going support in the fight against insecurity in the wider Sahel region earned him the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize. He was also noticeably the only European head of state at the African Union’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

But there are many who continue to doubt whether France’s relations with Africa are all that different.

Despite his finger-wagging speech on human rights in Kinshasa last year, Hollande has been criticised for working with autocratic and repressive leaders, including Chadian President Idriss Déby and Gabon’s autocratic heir Ali Bongo.

a new and modern relationship. Hollande has called for Africa to develop the military and civil capacity to contain instability in the Sahel. Following terrorist explosions in Niger this May, and repeated threats against France from Al-Qaeda's North African division, he has also made it clear that French troops will stay in the region if necessary.

What happens in Africa matters to France. A recent Chatham House report said the country’s influence on the continent remains greater than anywhere else in the world. But it is also influence which is under pressure.

In December, Hollande will host several African heads of state in Paris for a summit on peace and security. It may be this common threat which finally reorientates FrancoAfrican relations away from a difficult past toward a common, peaceful and more equal future.

French businesses, which long enjoyed privileged links in Africa, are facing competition from Chinese and other international counterparts. Since the end of the Cold War, the country’s military and security influence has weakened. France’s cultural influence, too, is at risk, as Kagame turns Rwanda away from the French language toward English, with Gabon following the same path.

It may, however, be France’s role in helping Africa combat the transnational threat of terrorism which underpins

Caroline Boin is an Account Manager at Portland. She was previously Project Director at the International Policy Network.

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Mary Mzumara Mary Mzumara is a Digital Specialist at Portland.

She was previously the Managing Director of a South African digital marketing agency.

BUILD AND THEY WILL COME? Africa is changing fast in many different ways. But no revolution has been so remarkable than that driven by digital communications. As any visitor to the continent notices almost immediately, Africans have made their mobile phone their own.

It has allowed them to leapfrog existing technology and connect with each other in ways which would not have seemed possible a decade ago.

These ‘ghost’ pages or profiles tell a story of organisations that have embarked on digital communications and then abandoned them due to a lack of proper planning and commitment. That age-old adage ‘build and they will come’ is an oversimplification for a world that sees thousands of new URLs and social media profiles created every day.

The continent has seen the success of a multitude of digital solutions from M-Pesa, M-Farm, African Digital Art to Youth Village Africa. Each created to meet unique challenges such as transferring payments, getting farm products to market, providing a platform for artists and for young people to have a dialogue about development.

Successful online campaigns require a critical mass from which they can begin to grow organically and gain a more established foothold. So how can organisations successfully begin to build online communities in Africa?

They are having a massive impact on lives, prosperity and the economy. A decade ago, for example, a farmer in Kisumu in Kenya growing avocado – a highly perishable fruit - would have to throw away her harvest if she produced more than the local market required. Today she can use technology to find the latest prices and to access a wider market via platforms like M-Farm.

The speed of this revolution will only accelerate. Africa already has the world’s youngest population and it is getting younger every year.

Millions more are signing up to social networks. Portland’s ‘How Africa Tweets’ illustrates that wide-ranging audiences on the continent are utilising digital platforms to engage.

This background of a young and connected population is essential to understand for any organisation which wants to communicate within Africa. Yet despite this huge and growing on-line audience, we continue to see social media profiles and pages created by brands, governments and campaigning organisations which no one reads.

First, embrace a collaborative and consultative approach. Too many organisations are still locked on broadcast mode and creating websites, Facebook pages and Twitter profiles without understanding the types of content that will allow audiences to gain value from the relationship. A more consultative approach would lead to a deeper level of engagement.

We can learn from Nigeria’s online retailers Jumia and Konga, which have active Facebook profiles with a combined total of over 500,000 likes. Their audience is engaged, active and participating.

Second, don’t cut yourself off from your audience. There are over 2,000 languages spoken on the African continent. Yet content is often created and managed solely in English. No space is provided for multilingual conversations, and little or no consideration is given to incorporating other languages in online content or to simplifying complex terms.

Those who do mix content can see some success. Ethiopia’s DireTube is a media hub that successfully mixes Amharic and English content for its audience.

Third, have a clear idea of what you want to do. Too many online profiles are created without a long-term strategy for content. Facebook is indeed, at times, like a graveyard of abandoned pages, faltering groups and underdeveloped ideas. Inactive facebook profiles are symptomatic of organisations who think short-term.

Fourth, think about how your different channels of communication fit together. Take for instance radio, the primary channel of communication across the continent.

Radio is accessible to rural and urban populations alike but too few organisations make use of it.

This is not a mistake that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan makes.

He has almost one million likes on his Facebook page, having used radio jingles to reinforce his brand and drive traffic to his page. Such a large community can create a selfsustaining stream of content.

Finally, without executive support and senior management making the case for digital success it is unlikely that any organisation will reap benefits. This is true whether you are in Kampala or Paris.

Digital platforms have the potential to dramatically close the gap between leaders and their audiences.

Leaving online channels to be solely managed by technical teams is squandered opportunity, and potentially a recipe for failure.

Digital technology continues to play a central role in the changes taking place across Africa. The agricultural revolution, economic growth, political governance, aid policy — all are influenced by digital communications. The organisations that successfully grow their online communities will be consultative in approach, create long term value, integrate channels and have senior sponsors.

TEN INNOVATIONS CHANGING AFRICA 1 Start-ups and incubators The old-school start-up capitals of San Francisco, London and Berlin are starting to face stiff competition from the growing African start-up scene, with innovation hubs like iHub in Nairobi, Co-Creation Hub in Lagos and the Silicon Cape Initiative in South Africa. These communities are being developed to give African start-ups access to capital and the mentoring they need to develop products and take them to market.

2 Afro-entrepreneurs A recent report by Omidyar Network (Accelerating Entrepreneurship in Africa) highlights the growing cadre of entrepreneurs across the continent, as well as the challenges and opportunities facing ‘Afro-entrepreneurs’. These entrepreneurs are able to take advantage of local market knowledge in order to

3

develop products that are uniquely African. One such example is Bridge International Academies who have over 46,000 students enrolled in their

Local technology producers A number of African tech firms have begun designing and producing mobile and computing

4

schools across Kenya. Their unique ‘Academy-in-a-Box’ commoditises schools just as Starbucks have done with coffee. Pupils pay just $5 dollars per month to study at their schools.

6

hardware specifically for local markets. From

Smartphones built for Africa

the VMK’s Way-C, an affordable Android tablet

Not to be left behind by local OEMs, major

designed in the Republic of Congo, to the

firms are starting to develop smartphones

BRCK, a Kickstarter-funded black box

specifically for African consumers. Gone are

developed by the developers of Ushahidi to

the days of the Nokia 1100, replaced by the

address unreliable power and data connections.

likes of the Huawei 4Afrika, an affordable

Self-titled the ‘backup generator for the

smartphone which will let users benefit

Internet’, BRCK is a perfect example of a local

from the growing data connectivity across

solution to a local problem.

the continent.

Greater connectivity With a massive population spread over an equally massive distance (many in rural areas), Africa is on the forefront of developing innovative solutions to limited connectivity. White space technology, in particular, is leading the way. By taking advantage of pre-existing but unused radio and TV frequencies, providers are able to widen data coverage to include countless rural areas. Microsoft has partnered with Kenyan regulators and Google with South Africa’s ICASA to show that broadband can be offered over white spaces. Results of these trials will inform policy for the region.

5 The maker movement

And when a product doesn’t exist to address a local problem, why not produce a local solution? The maker movement has officially reached Africa, with Maker Faire Africa 2012 bringing members of the growing

8

community to Lagos. The main story coming out of Maker Faire Africa was a generator, designed and built by four teenage girls, that uses 1 liter of urine to produce 6 hours of electricity.

mHealth

7

Staying on the mobile front, health organisations

Mobile money

Matt Gould

have started using mobile technology – SMS in particular – to address critical medical needs. For

Easily the hottest topic in African tech at the

example, SMS is being used to share crucial

moment, mobile money is revolutionising banking

information with expectant and recent mothers by

and money management in Africa. Africa is often

groups like the Mobile Alliance for Maternal

touted as leading the world in the application of

Action, or to send reminders to HIV/AIDS

mobile money solutions. Tools and platforms like

patients about taking their antiretrovirals.

mPesa have already proven that mobile

In Malawi, Baobab Health are developing

banking is a game changer. In December

solutions to replace traditional paper-

2012, Visa launched mVisa in Rwanda to

based systems. These solutions help

better serve the unbanked, improve

health workers on the ground and

ATM services across Rwanda, and

provide data to help policymakers

promote electronic payments which will

plan ahead.

contribute to formalising the economy.

9 eLearning Schooling in Africa is being turned on its head through the advent of eLearning. High-profile initiatives like One Laptop Per Child, and Samsung’s e-learning technology platform and solar powered schools are

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innovative ways to ensure that students across the continent have access to up-to-date information,

Matt Gould is an Account Manager at Portland. He was previously a Communications Officer in Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

access to online resources and are able to interact with teachers even when geography or any other obstacle may stand in the way. Major organisations like Wikipedia have quickly jumped on board, teaming up with Orange to open up access to the online encyclopedia (for free) to anyone with a mobile phone in Africa.

10 Social media What list about tech and change would be complete without social media? As we found when we put together How Africa Tweets – a study of Twitter use in Africa – social media use is taking off at an astronomical rate in Africa. But along with the biggies – Twitter,

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Facebook, YouTube, etc. – African markets are developing their own, bespoke social media platforms. MXit leads the way with over 50 million registered users who can use a basic phone to chat and play games without incurring astronomic data costs.

AFRICA’S EVOLVING MEDIA LANDSCAPE Insights from a new survey of leading journalists in six of Africa’s media hubs — Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda Use of social media

Are these social media platforms useful as information sources?

How reliable is social media?

80% 60%

33%

33%

MOST USEFUL

Censorship and intervention

31%

NO PROBLEM

25%

NOT

How comfortable do you feel writing about controversial topics?

E BL TA

SERIOUS PROBLEM

E BL TA

SOMEWHAT

COMF OR

44%

Y COMF VER OR

To what extent is interference in the media a problem?

News gathering

Most valuable sources for news stories

1

Press conferences and events

Print and online

2

News releases and news wires

Online publication is increasingly important

3

4

Social media

38% online

Word of mouth

38% of written content is published online

MOROCCO'S PHARMAC A MODEL FOR SOUTH-S There has rightly been a great deal of discussion about the need to increase South-South trade and economic integration to boost growth and help deliver social and political stability in emerging markets. Since the global financial crisis, this debate has special resonance for Africa as it is clear that the continent’s countries can no longer rely on direct investment from western Europe, let alone aid, to develop its economies.

Countries like Morocco, one of the most developed in Africa and a role model in successfully meeting the expectations revealed by the Arab Spring, have been actively addressing this new reality.

Investment is being sought not just further afield in the Gulf, Turkey and India but also, importantly, closer to home, in Africa.

King Mohamed VI recently completed a landmark trip to Gabon, Cameroon and Senegal, accompanied by leading

businessmen, to encourage crossinvestments in the region. The impact of these milestone visits will take time to feed through but Morocco is already seeing the benefits of active efforts over two decades to provide a gateway to Africa.

Morocco, of course, boasts many attractions for investors looking to go South. It has excellent infrastructure and a qualified workforce that is cost-competitive.

It enjoys proximity to European markets and an increasingly favourable framework for foreign investment.

Not surprisingly, this has already produced an expanding industrial base with particular clusters in automotive, aeronautics and electronics. All of which enables Morocco to play a natural leading role in South-South economic integration.

The Moroccan pharmaceutical industry, which is a pillar of Maera Capital's current activities in Africa, illustrates the huge potential for growing investment and business in the sub-Saharan region. Led by a number of local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), it already generates $1.5bn in revenue.

These firms are mostly family entrepreneurs who learned their skills in the 1970s and 80s as licence manufacturers of big pharmaceutical laboratories. In the 90s, they successfully launched their own companies, producing an off-patent version of drugs with a stamp of quality at an affordable price.

The top five Moroccan pharmaceutical companies now generate $100m+ revenues. They have started expanding in subSaharan Africa through local distributors but also through their own manufacturing when required. And there is no shortage

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Rajaa Mekouar

co-authored by Renaud Savary Rajaa Mekouar is the founder of Maera Capital, a specialist investment advisory firm focusing on agriculture and pharmaceuticals in Africa. She was previously a founding Principal at Lazard European Private Equity Partners.

CEUTICAL INDUSTRY -SOUTH INTEGRATION of opportunities. The African pharmaceutical sector today is already a $20bn market with annual growth of 20% driven by the emerging middle classes and the medical needs of a population increasingly concerned with its wellbeing.

Much of this growth is concentrated on countries with only a fledgling domestic industry, forcing them to rely on cheap Indian and Chinese imports whose quality can leave much to be desired.

For while large international pharmaceutical players, for example, have prioritised countries like South Africa and Egypt with what was seen as bigger potential, they have largely ignored smaller markets and left them untouched.

It has left a space for Moroccan companies to provide high-standard drugs which governments and health authorities want to offer their citizens. This is particularly

the case in helping meet local needs in treating chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardio-vascular problems whose prevalence is high and increasing at an alarming rate.

Their involvement also helps in the transfer of technology and know-how which in turn creates jobs and tax revenue.

Examples of successful African expansion from a Moroccan base include Cooper Pharma and Sothema, the latter a listed company on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.

They now generate up to 10% of their revenue from their wider African operation.

Moroccan pharmaceutical players are showing they have both the means and ambitions to deploy their capabilities in neighbouring markets.

But they are not the only reason why Morocco should be seen as a true regional powerhouse for north and west Africa. There are other sectors, too, with the potential to leverage strong local manufacturing know-

how, economies of scale and an ever improving export platform.

Agribusiness and financial services, for example, are also consumerled industries that offer promising prospects to the discerning investor with a long-term view. Leading groups like Saham or BMCE Bank have been active in acquiring and expanding assets in west Africa from their Moroccan base. A substantial part of their profits today stem from the region.

But with Africa’s performance a bright spot in a still uncertain global economy and demand from a fast-growing middle class across the continent, we are only at the beginning of the rapid expansion of South-South trade and regional integration. Morocco’s success should inspire non-African companies and institutions to look afresh at what the country offers as their base to expand southwards.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS ON THE CONTINENT Members of the Portland Africa Network offer tips and insights to companies on communicating in Africa.

Addis Alemayehou, 251 Communications, Addis Ababa Stephen Laufer, GokoLaufer MSP, Johannesburg José Pedro Luís, Cunha Vaz & Associados, Maputo Nn’emeka Maduegbuna, Corporate & Financial, Lagos Kojo Yankah, Yankah & Associates, Accra Understand the evolving communciations landscape…

Media coverage still tends to still focus on policy issues and political stories rather than focusing on the dynamics of business in Ethiopia, key challenges and insights into sectors. (Ethiopia) Outside the urban areas, direct contact and word of mouth is the main media. When a company wants to communicate to the whole country or to a specific population outside an urban area, it is vital to design a strategy to reach your target audience directly. (Mozambique) Johannesburg has the biggest collection of foreign correspondents on the continent but the media has suffered waves of cost cutting in recent years. This has led to a shortage of specialist journalists, so now they are forced to make assumptions and report about business subjects and areas that they do not fully understand. (South Africa)

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Business media is evolving.

Every major newspaper boasts of a broad business desk that covers diverse areas. (Nigeria)

Top Tips

Ghana

Nigeria

Make sure your communications strategy includes a cultural focus

Select and build a good in-house corporate communications team

Do lots of market research

Choose a versatile and credible corporate communications consultancy

Get to know the local media and media relations sphere quickly

Emphasise thought leadership and the quality of your products and services

Remember that Africa is a continent of many different countries….

Companies trying to break in to the region frequently misinterpret the landscape just because we speak English and look familiar to some other countries. However, South Africa is a country with very particular sensibilities that must be embraced and responded to. It is essential that corporates understand the social complexities. You cannot simply have a carbon copy of how you are positioned in New York, Frankfurt or London.

(South Africa) A number of companies still erroneously think that all African countries are the same.

However, what sparks the interests of the media and the man in the streets is different in Nigeria than in Ghana, or indeed elsewhere. (Nigeria) A few multinational companies have been particularly successful in Ghana because they have done extensive ‘cultural immersion’ of their programmes by doing more community relations, local and grassroots involvement, and direct communication to communities. (Ghana) If companies are looking to roll out a major investment or a strategic plan, it is crucial to have a communications strategy and team that is specific to Ethiopia. Brands that have succeeded have their brand linked to sport, music and other cultural activities.

(Ethiopia) In general, social media has had less of an impact than other digital communciations - websites for example. However, some journalists are using Twitter as a medium to talk to one another and reach consensus on story angles. Business Day has been taking themselves in to the digital arena in a major way and this has changed the news space considerably.

(South Africa)

Have a strategy to harness the growing power of social media…

Ethiopia still has a relatively low internet penetration and there is, in general, limited successful use by the local corporate world. Very few CEOs have yet to establish themselves on Twitter. (Ethiopia) In Ghana, social media is growing as a phenomenon that cannot be ignored.

Facebook and Twitter are very popular, and for businesses, LinkedIn and Twitter are the key platforms. (Ghana) There is a growing number of internet and social media users in Mozambique, mainly in the urban areas. Almost every bank and telecommunications company use some kind of social media work tool, although some lack the strategy to manage it. (Mozambique) The impact of social media is growing in Nigeria. More and more corporate bodies are stepping up their presence in the social media space. The telecommunications companies and banking and financial institutions are the major players. Although the social media audience remains predominately relatively young, we are seeing niches develop in politics, sports, entertainment and IT. (Nigeria)

Ethiopia

South Africa

Mozambique

Get to know Ethiopia and the local culture – 'cut and paste' models never work

Stop: listen, to get a sense of where the country and the decision makers are going

Seek the support of a trustworthy consultant

The economy is government-driven – make sure you understand current policies

Think: understand the country’s history

Hire locally and develop talent rather than relying on imported talent

Proceed: fashion your identity and message around that knowledge

Book a meeting in the Investment Promotion Centre Follow the local news - this is essential to understanding the country

MY MOMENT WITH NELSON MANDELA Charles McLean On February 2 1990, I was sitting in a hotel suite in Cape Town watching a television monitor as Nelson Mandela walked through the gates of Victor Verster Prison.

I had served as Africa Bureau Chief for NBC News for two years at that point, and I'd spent a great deal of that time planning for our network’s coverage of this event.

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In the months leading up to the release, I had tried to look up every person who might have influence with Mandela to lobby for a worldexclusive first interview for NBC. I’d met with old friends of Mandela's in Soweto, I’d flown down to Cape Town to buy lunch for Mandela's former lawyer, and met with African National Congress leaders in exile in Zimbabwe. Some said they would try to help, but no one promised anything.

By the morning of Mandela's release it appeared that no one had the inside track on the first interview. The former prisoner was surrounded by ANC handlers as he was whisked from the prison gates to City Hall. No one could get near him. As he concluded a speech to thousands of supporters from the City Hall balcony, word came down from the ANC that Mandela would be heading to Bishop's Court, the residence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu outside Cape Town, for the night, and that the media would be given a photo op of the Mandelas in the gardens behind the residence the following morning. And no, there would be no "exclusives."

We wrapped up our coverage late that night, and I was back in our makeshift hotel office early the next morning to take in the video feed from Bishop's Court. As planned, Nelson and Winnie strolled arm-in-arm among the flowers as photographers, at a safe distance, got pictures for the morning shows and the newspapers. We fed a story and some extra video to New York in plenty of time for the 7 a.m. news.

I chatted with the crew when they returned from Bishop’s Court.

"Anyone still there when you guys left?"

"Just a couple of ABC guys," they told me.

"Get the car," I said.

We made it back to Bishop's Court in record time. ABC’s anchor, producer and crew were planted under a shady tree, which meant that if they’d arranged an exclusive Mandela interview, it hadn't happened yet. We pulled our gear out of the trunk and set up camp nearby.

An hour later, Jesse Jackson, a prominent American civil rights leader, arrived in a motorcade and was escorted into the residence.

During the scramble to get pictures of Jackson, I managed to slip into a side entrance of Bishop’s Court.

I followed the sound of laughter and crowd noise down an empty hallway until I came to the door of

a large reception room. I opened it and found myself in the middle of a raucous ANC Mandela freedom celebration.

The first person I spotted was Walter Sisulu, a legendary ANC freedom fighter who had spent years on Robben Island with Mandela in the '60s, '70s and '80s.

I’d interviewed him when he was released from prison a few months earlier, and he waved to me as I entered the room.

"Mr Sisulu, nice to see you again.

This must be a great day for you..."

"Just wonderful! We're all so happy...

Have you met Nelson yet?"

"Well, no, I..."

Sisulu waved over my shoulder.

"Nelson, come over here. Here's a friend of mine from American television..." I turned and saw a smiling Nelson Mandela walking toward me. As he reached out to shake my hand I thought to myself, First rule of TV journalism: never go anywhere without your camera crew.

Two decades later, I can't remember much of the substance of that conversation, but I do remember asking Mandela if he would consider doing an interview that evening with NBC News. He politely declined.

And as it turned out, no one got an exclusive.

Charles McLean is General Manager of Portland’s New York office.

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