The Africa Channel
the africa channel finds a new frequency
2007-11-14
By Terry Glover

As Don Cheadle says in the December issue of EBONY, "Africa is in need of some good P.R." Indeed, the motherland has long been saddled with stereotypes of famine, poverty and illiteracy -- yokes which, we know all too well, are difficult to shake loose. In the face of CNN, the BBC and Angelina Jolie, it is damn near impossible to promote the idea of Africa as a continent supporting talented, forward thinking, cosmopolitan populations brimming with resources and ideas. The Africa Channel has plans to floss that and more.

Launched in late 2005, the network's directives revolve around bringing a more celebratory, more realistic portrait of Africa to the viewing masses. Currently in production on more than 1600 viewing hours, the Los Angeles-based channel works with producers on the ground in Africa to develop original multi-genre programming including news ("Africa Journal"), soaps ("Isidingo," "Generations") and the ubiquitous reality show ("Big Brother Africa").

Banking on the appeal of all-Africa-all-the-time is Africa Channel Founder and CEO James Makawa, a native of Zimbabwe who cut his media chops in the West, including a stint as an NBC correspondent in Chicago and New York. Makawa partnered with Jacob Arback, a former vice president at DirecTV International and former Columbia Pictures Television executive, Richard Hammer. Backing the dream are names worth noting: Houston Rockets' center Dikembe Mutombo and Minnesota center Theo Ratliff. Former United Nations ambassador Andrew Young is chairman of the board.

Makawa recently took time to talk about his venture and dispel a few myths about his homeland:

Covering 53 countries is a monumental task. What's the plan?
What we have never professed to do is do 53 countries justice. But we can open up a window and we can do that using music -- we have about nine hours of music on every day, hosted by our own veejays. The music stretches from Egypt to Ghana, Zimbabwe to Namibia. Same with our movies, which are from all over the continent. And our news shows covering stories across the entire continent. Think of us as Reuters with African correspondents, bringing everything to you from an African perspective. That's our mantra.

Outside of Africa, how is Africa perceived?
Well, thanks to the media, Africa has been dramatized by death, war, destruction and a place of no hope; a belief that there is nothing good over there. Africans are people who are portrayed as poor, uneducated and constantly begging for a hand out. And those are the myths and perceptions we continue to shatter every day.

Yet, the Africa Channel is not broadcasting in Africa. Why?
When Ted Turner created CNN, Ted Turner was about bringing the world to the world. We are about bringing Africa to the world. And we will eventually come back to Africa. Africans need to see each other, don't get me wrong, but the ignorance is really rife elsewhere. And the economics for this venture are based on what we are able to do outside.

We are going to be able to open up this window where people will say, Oh! There are some great business opportunities there; Oh! This is a great place for a vacation! Oh! There are wonderful golf courses there. Wonderful safaris. Opening up this place that is so undiscovered -- this is an enormous land mass. The United States of America, including Alaska, fits into Africa more than 2.5 times, and so the opportunities for travel, investment, food, fashion are just exponential. We're excited to bring that to the world. We think we will actually play a key role in helping to set right Africa's future.

So, you're not so much interested in making people care about Africa as educating them about Africa.
It boils down to one thing: I'm from Zimbabwe, a country that continues to have its challenges today. One thing we're very clear about: the most powerful medium on the planet is television. If you show the viewer a quality product -- if it's well shot, well written and well promoted, they will appreciate it and they will care. It's really that simple. In Africa, we've got landscape like no other place on the planet. We've got fruits and food and animals and beaches like no place on earth. All the world needs is a place to sample it, and watch what happens. Black Americans will also see a different side of Africa than what has been pumped into their systems for hundreds of years.

That's great, but you need dollars. Where is your sponsor support coming from?
We're getting support from the States and from the Continent, but we're also bringing advertisers to the table who have never been on television -- North American Airlines, Ethiopia Airlines, South Africa Airlines. Lots of airlines and people in the hospitality industry want to reach audiences in the West. What are the chances of them being able to advertise on CBS? They don't have those kinds of budgets. With us, they can get the frequency they want in a very targeted environment.

Our production factory, which is in Africa, doesn't produce product in the U.S. at Hollywood prices. The difference is that we have quality product. Let me use Nike as an example: they produce elsewhere. The Africa Channel is that way. Our factory produces stuff at a fraction of the U.S. costs, and it puts Africans to work! That's the only way we could do this. We couldn't operate on a $500 million budget. I would not be sitting here talking to you.

Simply put, we are producing programming never before seen in the western world. We see this as an opportunity to demystify this place called Africa. Africa is not just about famine, war and AIDS. The Africa Channel is not ignoring those issues, but it takes you down a different path to a place that most people don't even know exists.

How will you gauge your success?
Domestically, our success will be predicated on the kind of distribution we have across this country. If we get 30-40 million homes, we are hyper successful. But, we have an entire globe to deal with. If we're in more than 500 million homes, worldwide, The Africa Channel will have earned its rightful place in the media landscape.

Terry Glover is Senior Editor at Ebonyjet.com. She writes about current events, popular culture and trends.