Sa Majesté Magazine Issue X

ISSUE #010 - SEPT 2021

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Hello everyone, Welcome to the TENTH issue of Sa Majesté Magazine.

TEN!!!

The number 10 in the Bible is a symbol of perfection, harmony and creation. This number is one of the most powerful and most widely spread so this issue will be very special.

In this issue we will focus on Women In Public Relations (In Cameroon). In recent years, women make up more than 61% of the PR industry. Women may be drawn to PR because they feel they’re collaborative and social, but we’ve also socialized most of our women to be that way. Regardless, this is repeatedly said as one of PR’s biggest draws; that it’s because women are better at multitasking, which is also very essential for PR. The profession of public relations is defined as a “strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” (PRSA, n.d., para. 5). And note that the profession was founded by men to refute criticisms of big businesses during the rise of muckrakers known today as investigative journalists; but women are taking over!!!

Enjoy this issue and please let us know !

Drop us a mail!

We care! xoxo

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Mbacham Santher 4 1

At a time when any controversial figure with a substantial number of followers on social media platforms could be looked up to as a role model or considered the next example to be emulated, a cross section of Cameroonian millennials have found themselves in a labyrinth.

No wonder, it is gradually becoming unusual to walk the streets and get any positive attributes associated to Cameroonian brands.

In the face of this great blow dealt on the Cameroonian P.R sphere, three ladies: Santher Mbacham, Mafue Forchu and Velveeta Viban have stood to the task of redefining the way Public Relations is done in Cameroon.

Their agency, ImageNation is steadily building a reputation for innovation and creativity thanks to their thinking out of the box approach.

Sa Majesté Magazine took a close look at their activities and brought these wonderful insights.

A PR specialist is a person who builds, raises, strengthens and protects the brand profile of an organization by ensuring smooth and clear communication to their public in different formats via the media, individuals and any other communication means.

A typical day in a life of a PR specialist involves a lot of planning. This is because we are simultaneously working on at least 5 clients’ profiles and there is a tendency on missing out on deliverables. So, planning is primordial for client satisfaction, lest you’ll be penalized After the planning phase, then comes the emailing phase. To be very honest, this is probably the most consistent yet time consuming phase because you have to go through a sea of emails of offers for both the agency and client, respond to them, turn down some and accept some depending on which part of the PR strategy we are implementing at that time.

My Mother at 10 am on Saturday: “Santherrrrrrr what are you doing?

Come and make food for your grandmum » Santher: “ Mama, I’m sorry, I can’t at the moment, I am in a meeting”.

Mother: « Abeg which kind meeting for Saturday?? » Welcome to the life of a PR professional where the work never stops. It is a forever grind that leaves you working round the clock but you don’t feel the stress of it because of we love what we do. So, to whoever said the official working hours for a PR is 9-5 definitely lied because we work 24/7.

What is a day without meetings with potential clients, to pitch our services, clients or team members to know how well we are executing our different tasks and what can be done to make them better and achievable? During campaigns, we can have at least 5 meetings/day because a PR strategy is always up for amends if we realize it is not being successful at that moment.

We also spend a chunk of our day, monitoring and evaluating our clients’ brands on social media. This info is very vital to how we proceed

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with our activities on what is being consumed by the audience and what is not. This is where we carry out all of our activities and campaigns, thus, feedback from their audience is key to success.

The not-so fancy part about our jobs is research. We are on 15-20 websites at once, gulping down info, learning how to be better and be the difference, reading articles and reports on trends and projections, so we can always adapt to our ever-changing environment and be the best at what we do.

When we aren’t behind the computer crafting the best strategies, we are preparing to get on a podium to educate through talks, lectures, or to fold our sleeves to give back to our community or to attend fancy events to network and build meaningful and strategic relationships.

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OUFFFF!!!!! Crazy right? But it actually doesn’t feel like you do all these things because it doesn’t feel like work, it is fun and you are excited to wake up every day and repeat the same exercise but with a million and one ideas to implement.

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Velveeta Viban 8

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ver heard a story about you and wondered if that was you they were referring to?

Yes we all have at least one of those stories. I have always been one to write stories, and write story books and went as far as advocating for children’s rights when I was just the age of 5. Now if you consider your reputation as a child and the number of times your rights (which you had no clue about or how to claim them) have been infringed, then in the same way I considered how PR works. Meaning PR (public relations) isn’t an abstract concept to specific people, or groups and organizations. PR can be used to protect, enhance or build reputations through the media, social media, or self-produced communications. The moment I realized that reputations are ‘CREATED’ concepts, and that everyone had a chance to tell a different side of a story – and I could be part of the process of how these could be shaped or handled, I knew this is where I belonged.

My first paid job, I worked as a personal assistant to two of the most influential executives in a well-known brewery company.

As a young lass working with various execs across the nation and managing correspondences from top level directors even outside the region (different countries), I was quickly exposed to relationship management and adapting to people expectations beyond just doing my regular tasks. Fast forward to working in employee relations and internal communications I learned how we as employees had no control over

the perceptions that came from external parties – I was tasked with building the corporate brand that matched employee expectations and perceptions. Reminiscing my high school days, I played the role of “socio” (social prefect) a position that expected you to be a good communicator, meander trends with a spur in people skills. In hindsight, this was technically my stepping stone into who I became today, a female in Public Relations space.

In 2016 in a conversation with my now business partner, we strategized about hosting an event that gathered just friends and people from our network around a basketball game to help raise funds to children in need. The effort we put into making this “an event to remember”, and how we intended to leverage on our various skills, media and influential people (a concept we now implore very strategically in most of our PR client campaigns – Influencer marketing). Barely a year out and we were soon contacted by a very renowned female business coach

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Regina Huber who was going to be visiting Cameroon, a testament to the fact that we had been recognized and trusted for unconsciously pushing a narrative of ‘positive impact’.

This was proof that we needed to formalize it.

The PR landscape in Cameroon prior to date had been primarily dominated by persons who had been expected to develop thick skin and characterized by the “who’s been here before” syndrome.

Although one of the PR KPIs is pretty much the appreciation value attached to relationships established over time, we only saw fit to prioritize the “quality” of relationships over longevity.

It is also sequel that such a space be predominantly male, and it proved overly ambitious venturing into such fields but this was a challenge we were ready to embark on.

Today, our approach has

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been simply to challenge the status quo, by while creating opportunities that encourage disruptive and innovative thinking and promoting an “It is Possible” narrative especially by starting up a firm like IMAGENATION, which is founded by and run by women, because we believe that when women unite; ‘le feu sort’ (in every positive sense of the phrase).

As a creative, one of the challenges has been attaching a value tag to our skills/craft and even more challenging the readiness and receptiveness of the market to female forward thinkers. There is little or no flexible room for to hop on to creative PR and narratives and that has been an approach my team and I at IMAGENATION embed. Our creative strategies, are intentionally inclusive from choice of influencers, writers and even graphics designing on some major campaigns have been intentionally inclusive and using and showcasing female talent.

People may confuse this for flinching on the quality of work, but just as we focus on creating opportunity for micro scale individuals who are putting out quality work, we make sure we follow up to the T on the strategies we provide and go just beyond the usual PR. One of the key highlights

about me being in PR is the room it has given me for self-expression. As someone who may have been hiding in the back burner, it is always a joy watching little concepts I work on come to life. My approach has been “use the skills we have to change the things we need to change”. While I always wanted to be in marketing, I remember my creative abilities got questioned because I possess the ‘degree’ or certification to go with. There is little or no room for people to take chances on your abilities. PR is a field that opens up multiple alleys.

Hence my reason for wanting to start up a firm that relied on abilities and passion, rather than the “How it is usually done”. Today, I co-run an agency IMAGENATION which doubles as a creative PR agency; a new modus operandi. For creative enthusiasts like myself, we get a chance to choose to work with vendors/people who are genuinely skilled and crafted regardless of their popularity bringing unique talents to Cameroon scape, and this allows us room to shape the narrative and control perceptions on by anyone who comes in contact with our work and how they react to the brands we work with moving forward.

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Mafue Forchu

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About 10 years ago, as a fresh Journalism graduate, I started acting as PR Officer for a young music label. I had been hanging around industry people long enough to know I could add value by contributing my knowledge in PR. At the time even I could not draw the line between my role as PR and being makeup artist/ personal shopper/background singer/motivational speaker and cook. I had to explain what PR was to everyone and what exactly my PR activities were supposed to lead to in the business.

Today in 2021, I can confidently say that in terms of PR in the entertainment scene in Cameroon we are slowly getting to the point where we actually understand the role of PR in entertainment and understanding that it is a long-term consistent effort. And it is amazing to see the rising number of PR professionals doing amazing work everyday.

I still think however that there are still those who confuse the roles of a PR with those of a manager or PA and also restrict the PR’s job to promo and media relations. This is all good and fun till… a crisis hits or a sponsor request falls through and then we realize that PR brings its own unique flavor.

As entertainers; whether comedians, musicians, actors, artists, etc, we need to understand the central role PR plays and not just on making one look good and popular but on creating long lasting relationships that promote the business of entertainment.

We need our entertainers to listen to their PR agents/agencies. If we need to build lasting and profitable partnerships with brands we need to get intentional about our public perception and image. We need to live and breathe our brand values. We need to not just build numbers but build INFLUENCE. Build fans and not followers. What is the difference? Followers would like your posts and all; but fans would buy, they trust you.

Also we live in times where a crisis can erupt from a tweet or caption at any moment. We have seen brand deals get cancelled, performers banned from certain platforms and even legal battles erupt from misplaced words or sentiments online or in public

spaces. The PR’s job is to anticipate and avoid these crises. Take Taphis’s statement following Tenor’s accident.. We all saw the effects firsthand.

Our public figures need to realize that with every statement, image or body of work; they represent their brand, their sponsors and the nation. Great PR starts from the quality of the work produced, rests on creating a great rapport with the media and thrives on seizing every opportunity to tell your story to the right people at the right time.

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My r o f h c e T g n i l l e t y S tor h c a o r p p A

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he same way we glorify the adage “hair and nails ‘on fleek’” , is the same way I am keen on driving an engine of stories where we are ALL ON FLEEK and the world gets to hear of strong women who are disrupting the narratives in their various communities. There are tons of women who have honed new skills in this digital era and which have indirectly /directly shaped their personal brands and how opportunities have opened up to them.

As a female in creative PR space, it may be hard defining angles from which your craft, or talent can be showcased, but equally what tools are readily available and how to

exploit them for greater good.

This is what we call PR for IMPACT. The cyberspace in Cameroon can be ruthless and people rely a lot on cliques and ‘connaissances’ to push stories that everyone expects to hear or what they have been used to, and often, the narrative looks lopsided or is seen to be fanning the challenges/ difficulties rather than the potential or the opportunities.

Albeit the fragile internet and technology landscape coupled with a delayed receptiveness to newbie concepts, in this part of the continent, the current pandemic has arguably opened up a gateway to using tech to our advantage and has fueled a lot of digital storytelling.

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Digital stories are simply video-narratives created by combining recorded voice, still and moving images, and music or other sounds and often produced with non-professional equipment, hence a method that’s very friendly to your pockets. As such, amateurs and non-professionals have been given an alley to raise their voices through their stories. Digital story telling is commonly used in underrepresented communities and this has been a tool used by many marginalized women for storytelling or better still just sharing their craft or work.

Contrary to popular belief that tech and the digital space is usually for science inclined persons or related disciplines, I can say that creative thinking is the NEW ‘on fleek’ science and this has been a wagon I have always been riding on. As a young girl – I often got teased with the name “forming-forming” because of my ability to imagine stories built from abstract things often under looked, and I would tell those stories with conviction. Now fast forward to today’s world where I need to optimize that creativity. What better way than using tools we

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have at hand?- Technology!

Technology has always been at the crux of the capturing of a story. The typewriter became the laptop, the film camera became the digital camera, in-camera experimentation became visual effects; all of these tools brought down barriers in the realizing of what’s in our imaginations. Meaning everything starts with our ability to THINK it. Technology has helped digital storytellers in the sense that, each storyteller can tell her story with her own voice, with her own words, and get to choose the pictures that visualize and bring the story to life.

I can personally say, I have grown fond of this magic - yet - often neglected device I call a phone and how just being able to sit from the back of my phone; I have been able to build content (visuals, graphics, motion graphics) for brands and campaigns using a few apps and built-in voiceovers which received high reviews.

Today the internet being the greatest communication alley ever invented, has empowered women like myself to think like there was no box; use our imagination and produce content for huge brands like Jameson, Ballantine’s , Mama Makala etc. Our greatest challenge so far would be living in an era that doesn’t frown at mediocracy. While we encourage more women to hop on digital spaces and storytelling especially given that there are so many doing amazing work that the globe needs to hear about, we need to be able to find a right balance between telling success stories and pushing poor quality content that will kill all the efforts of everyone making good use of it.

Velveeta VIBAN

Co-Founder/Creative Lead IMAGENATION

MOVIE PREMIERE - OCTOBER 15, 2021

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well, 6

actua

lly ;)

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Meet the Faces of Niki Heat There are some companies whose public image is shaped by their most recognizable faces.

Niki Heat is one such place. Keep reading and find out why their PR strategy is a winning one.

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eautiful, funny, quick witted with a non-nonsense personality are some of the words which describe Joan Ngomba. She is an award-winning blogger, red-carpet host extraordinaire, event MC, and public relations consultant. As one of the pre-eminent media personalities within the entertainment space in Cameroon, Joan is considered by many as the flag bearer of her generation

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when it comes to entertainment news coverage.

Joan started her media journey in 2007 after graduating from the University of Buea. She did some radio and TV work before landing at Pulse Media in Nigeria where she worked for four years as writer, producer, and TV show host. In 2017, she returned to Cameroon and founded Dcodedtv, an entertainment news organiza-

tion. which manages an online news site and produces TV shows. She currently hosts the widely popular cultural critique show, Freaky Table, which airs weekly on YouTube. Dcodedtv is today a division of Cameroonian fashion and entertainment company, Niki Heat, and more TV shows are in the works.

Visit dcodedtv.com for more information.

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f you’ve been paying attention to Cameroon’s gospel music scene over the last 2 years, you’d have noticed the emergence of a new breed of singers taking gospel music out of church walls to the streets. No one embodies this movement better than AkuBai whom some have labeled the “AkuBai phenomenon”.

The award-winning gospel artist is also an ordained minister

of the gospel and doubles as CEO of Impact Makers for Humanity, an organization which extends compassionate support to vulnerable communities. In October 2020, she won her first international award at the Gospel Touch Music Awards in London, UK. The latest addition to her growing discography is a Live EP titled The Genesis and she’s working on an album due later this year. Born in Wum, Northwest

region of Cameroon, AkuBai currently resides in the capital city Yaoundé with her family.

She is signed to the Niki Heat Entertainment record label.

Learn more about on akubai.com

Joan and AkuBai are the most visible faces of the Niki Heat brand and through their talent, professionalism and consistency, they project and maintain a positive image of the company in the public eye. Visit www.nikiheat.com to learn more.

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C I T N A M O R THE N E E W T E B P I H S N O I T A REL

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efore the advent of the internet and social media, Public relations and marketing activities were exclusively carried via traditional media outlets, TV, Radio, Print, billboards to impact purchasing decisions of their target audience. But with the coming of internet and social media, brands have resorted to using websites, blogs and influencers to amplify their activities.

Blogs and websites where were and still are where brands go to, to amplify their activities, via articles, reviews, banners etc. etc. Brands found articles to be of so much value in amplifying their activities and metrics could be gotten from number of clicks and visits to website or article views.

We then ask ourselves why brands patronize the influencers more than blogs in recent

times? Before we get into the crux of the matter, let’s start by refreshing our brains on what Marketing communications, Public relations and Influencer marketing is.

and power of popular people on social media.

Why are brands into influencers more than blogs in recent times?

Marketing Communications is the different media brands adopt, advertising, peer-topeer, public relations, direct marketing etc, to convey messages on a product or service they sell either directly or indirectly to the customers with the intention to persuade them to purchase.

People say Public Relations is the art of persuasion and according to the Public Relations Society of America, Public Relations is a Strategic Communications Process that builds relationships between an organization and its public.

Influencer marketing is the process of building a reputation and visibility for your brand by using the popularity

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CONTENT! Whoever said, on the social media sphere, CONTENT is KING, did not lie. Social media was created for content and not the other way round. People come to social media to relax themselves, feel good about themselves, and have a good laugh. The influencers started creating different content that serve their purpose of being there and in no time, they amass a following and sometimes an engaged one, exactly what a brand goes after.

VIRALITY For those influencers who are content creators, with the help of social media like Tiktok, and Instagram reels, they have virality potential. The funny and super creative ones are most likely to go viral across the social media sphere. This is why countries like Nigeria, patronize these types of influencers. They are sure their brands will go viral from the content created.

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FOLLOWING ENGAGEMENTS Due to the content, they create, they amass a huge following with people of similar interests following them to see what they’re doing, what they have on, what they are making and what they say. Some influencers have hundreds of thousands, and millions of followers that cut across the globe, which is key for brands for visibility purposes. For example, We have Khaby,a struggling Senegalese teen residing in Italy who couldn’t even pay house rent, through his sarcastic content has amassed over 100Million followers on Tiktok and is now worth $2million. He is a brands dream come true as he embodies exactly what they need to make their brands visible and lead to a sale. It should also be noted not all influencers are content creators.

The advent of social media has made it possible for brands to measure PR activities in real time. This helps brands see how engaged the public is with their product or service via these influencers and they can be able to employ tactics in real time that are beneficial to their campaign. Great engagements (likes, retweets, shares, comments, video views, story views and shares, clicks on media etc) with great feedback is a great sign the campaign is doing well.

Contrary to popular belief, Influencers are not only marketing tools but rather social relationship assets with which brands collaborate to create value, and credibility. If we recall, PR is all about persuasion and implementing strategic strategies that will build relationships between organizations, and their public. Blogs don’t have the human factor and are quite often detached from their audience which can be hard to persuade them to purchase any good or services or build sustainable relationships with brands audiences.

This is not the case for influencers because they have that human factor where they are accessible, they are knowledgeable about their area of interest, authentic, they use the products or services and this wounds up to building an influence over their audience’s purchasing choices. Their audience in tend, loves, respects, trusts, and upholds them and their opinions in high esteem and this is influence because if they say, “purchase this product”, their audience will yield. Both influencer and audience build a strong bond over the years and if done well, they keep on growing, which is key for brand longevity, building and maintaining relationships with their audience.

These are the reasons why brands will definitely flock more towards influencers.

I mean why go after others when you have that one person who gives you everything you need and more? Brands & Influencers are definitely in a more than romantic relationship. It is a marriage made in marketing heaven.

Talk about a love story.

Mbacham Santher

Co-Founder/CEO - IMAGENATION

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’aussi loin que je m’en souvienne, à l’école à chaque fois qu’on nous parlait de Relations Publics (R.P), on parlait de faire connaître, de faire aimer, de créer une relation de confiance entre une entreprise ou une personne et son public cible.

Les “professionnels des RP” comme les appelaient alors mon enseignant, jouissaient -jouissent toujours- de divers moyens afin de façonner une

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BONNE réputation à l’entreprise auprès de ses publics internes comme externes. Je me souviens aussi qu’il avait une vision très noble de ce métier. Pour lui, un professionnel des RP n’était certes pas là pour vendre mais son action sur le long terme constituait l’un des leviers les plus rentables au sein de l’entreprise. Il n’était donc pas question de verser dans une pratique approximative où hasardeuse lorsque nous serions en entreprise. Nous aurions son futur entre nos mains.

Maintenant, considérons une entreprise qui étend ses locaux sur un TRÈS grand territoire. Elle est divisée en succursales, toutes de taille assez considérable pour constituer des pays.

Chacune ayant des particularités qui lui sont propres, bien que le tout forme un ensemble cohérent au sein de ladite entreprise. Son

Brooke Zambo

Étudiante en Communication des Organisations

principal soucis : elle a mauvaise presse. Tant auprès des personnes censées contribuer à sa rentabilisation qu’auprès des personnes externes à son fonctionnement.

D’après vous, que faudrait il faire pour changer celà ?

Que faire pour améliorer la réputation de l’Afrique ? Parceque c’est bel et bien l’entreprise dont il est question ici.

Et ses pays font ici office de succursales.

Laissez moi vous présenter une nouvelle équipe de professionnels des RP constituée d’ un collectif de femmes – pas toujours liées entre ellesqui depuis quelques années, a choisi de s’atteler a une tâche bien précise, forger une bonne

réputation à l’Afrique en racontant son histoire.

Mais attention, pas à la façon classique des griots. Non, elles elles ont revisité la tradition et en ont fait une arme encore plus puissante. Et à coup d’études, de stratégie, et de nouvelles technologies, elles ont débuté le périple vers une Afrique dont l’image est modelée par sa vraie histoire.

Exit les retrouvailles le soir sous un arbre, nos “griotes” 2.0 ont optés pour une approche en rapport avec le temps. Des ondes radio, aux émissions télés, en passant par des magazines actu ou people, des meetings ou même des campagnes qu’elles conçoivent pour des grandes marques,

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tous les moyens sont bons pour raconter l’Afrique telle qu’elles la voient.

Dans le but de briser les stéréotypes.

Elles ont chosies de procéder à un retour aux sources et aux valeurs usuelles reconnues a l’Afrique.

De présenter le décor tel qu’il est réellement sans une musique dramatique en fond ou le classique discours sur la pauvreté et la famine.C’est l’histoire d’une Afrique dynamique et engagée, valeureuse et fière qui transpire dans la plupart de leurs actions de communication. Se recentrer sur son

histoire afin de partager avec le monde ce qu’elle a de meilleur, voilà le leitmotiv de cette grande campagne menée par ces conteuses hors paire pour l’Afrique.A moi, elles ont racontées des histoires d’outsider qui finissent en tête de liste. Elles ont fait d’un carrefour populaire un lieu grâce auquel je me sens engagée à bâtir mon pays.

Elles m’ont montré que mon histoire, ou plutôt l’histoire de l’entreprise dont je dois accroître le rendement, devait être changée pour que mes chances et celles de mes

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collègues soient celles que l’on mérite vraiment.

Parceque qui dit mauvaise réputation, dit mauvaise estimation de notre potentiel, et mauvaise utilisation de nos compétences.

A travers toutes les actions qu’elles ont mené et continuent de mener, elles prouvent que, tant que l’Afrique ne racontera pas elle même sa propre histoire, les autres le feront à sa place. Et jamais ce qu’on ne dira de nous ne nous conviendra. Alors, il faut prendre le stylo et changer le narratif. Effacer les parties de l’histoire qui omettent la vérité et réécrire celles qui ne disent pas tout, en y rajoutant un très bon jeu d’acteur.

Nos professionnelles des RP qui dans leur quotidien sont soient présentatrice télé ou radio, entrepreneure média, journaliste, directrice d’agence créative, chroniqueuse ou responsable de communication, ont choisi de façonner une image à l’Afrique à travers un storytelling qui se sert des outils classiques de RP en y rajoutant le lien émotionnel propre aux histoires.

Le mouvement n’en est encore qu’à ses premiers pas visibles, mais lorsqu’on voit les femmes qui le portent, on peut dire que l’histoire n’a qu’à bien se tenir, de nouvelles conteuses vont remettre les choses en place.

Brooke ZAMBO Étudiante en Communication des Organisations

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