Why I blog

On September 9, we were on the road. The Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI), a one-day event about blogging in Africa got under way. But more than making a diary simply public, discussions started by asking why vloggers, photobloggers and bloggers actually blog.

On September 9, we were on the road. The Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI), a one-day event about blogging in Africa got under way. On the Rhodes University campus in Grahamstown, South Africa, many bloggers, students, journalists and media-makers met-up to discuss the different aspects of making a diary public.

But more than making a diary simply public, discussions started by asking why bloggers actually blog. Remmy Nweke of Nigeria who’s the man behind itrealms.blogspot.com, said he does it for improving journalism. With more than 50,000 visitors a month, the senior reporter with Champion newspaper defines blogging as no more than “push-button journalism”. So how does that make journalism of better quality then?

“What happens,” he answers “is that material about Nigeria is pushed onto the internet. This not only contributes to increasing local and African content on the web, it also helps getting feedback.” Especially in the context of controversial stories. Some of these stories can’t make it into a mainstream paper for political reasons. This is why Mweke prefers to have it online, in his own space, and thereby gather different points of views, refine his research and understanding of the issues at hand and only after, does he use the fruit of these efforts to write a more comprehensive and solid story for his paper.

Vlogging

On the same panel about “Why I blog”, Khaya Dlanga a South African Vlogger says he’d wish more Africans and South Africans would use the popular video platform You Tube to “blog”. Not really considering himself a blogger as such, Dlanga is nevertheless quite prolific, publishing videos that have seen thousands of visitors as of today.

His technique is somewhat different. He likes to provoke a little and by doing so, stir some debate. He even satirised a Martin Luther King Jr. speech, turning it into his own blend of “I have a dream”. This, needless to say, was picked up by many African Americans and denounced. From his South African lens, he also discusses the way African Americans act.

His most widely viewed video he did is about the use of the word “**gger” that some African Americans use to identify each other. In the video, he argues that it’s the African American’s fault if they are called “**gger” on the street by other people than their brothers and sisters. “They use it themselves.” For that one, he received threats.

“When you talk about race, religion, much debate comes up.”

Apart from his interest in debates, he also does it because he acknowledges that many things can happen through You Tube. From record deals to book publishing, film-making, many eyes are on this medium as it’s gaining momentum worldwide. Latest numbers indicate that more than 30 million unique users view You Tube videos every month. But “it’s just the internet,” he said, “don’t be afraid to invest it”.

Photoblogging

Philemon Msangi of Tanzania on his part is a photoblogger and he’s doing it for several reasons. “I want to show the positive side of news, of life, the side that’s not found in big news media.”

Msangi accompanies his photos with text in Swahili language and he’s convinced this does not prevent him from getting his word out. “Blogging makes me bigger than life. I’m toe-to-toe with CNN,” he adds, with a broad smile on his face. But he also does it because he sometimes feels lonely, is in love and a load of other reasons.

For whatever reason vloggers, photobloggers and bloggers make their contributions public, one common motivation seems to be to shed a different light on Africa. The DCI is in this idea, a great place to start exploring alternative views of Africa.