Africa: ‘Foreign Policy Twitterati 100′ Ignoring Africans ?

Following  Forein Policy Magazine article on the 2011 ‘Twitterati 100′, blogger Pernille Bærendtsen posted an article:  ‘THE FP TWITTERATI 100′ – WHERE ARE THE AFRICANS?’. The author notes that among the 100 listed, only two are Africans (President of Rwanda @Paul Kagame and Ugandan journalist @AndrewMwenda). @DambisaMoyo, Zambian author and economist, is also mentioned.

7 comments

  • Interesting! Because it’s almost the same thing when it comes to the Middle East. About half – if not more – of the tweeps mentioned there are non-Middle-Easterns. Which makes me wonder, how foreign media perceive a certain region in the world, if they do not really listen to those born and raised and aware more of that region.

    When it comes to newspapers, I might go to a western newspaper for African news because it might be a bigger and easier to reach media outlet, but on twitter! Why should I get my news from a western journalist living in Africa, when I already have tweeps from Africa to follow!

  • jke

    Their list is from a US-point of view, right? I could name a dozen alone from the list i am maintaining at afritwit.com (and it only includes 500 due to Twitter’s limitations). Ah well.

  • Dear GV,

    Thanks for picking up.

    However, I need to say that you must quote me correctly – this is what I blogged: ‘in the ‘Africa’ category only one out of five, namely Andrew Mwenda from Uganda, is an African.’

    I didn’t blog this: ‘The author notes that among the 100 listed, only two are Africans’.

    Greetings Pernille

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