A different perspective - allafrica.com (allafrica.com)

Member Name: stmatth

Product:	allafrica.com
Date:	24/08/00 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Insider perspective, wide range of materal

Disadvantages: You have to choose what to read (is this a disadvantage?)

When did you last read a item about Africa in your newspaper? African events seem to make it into European newspapers only if either at least 100 people get killed, or if they involve a European or American organisation or celebrity (but not even Bill Clinton's recent visit to Nigeria seems to get much coverage). So, is nothing happening in Africa except for wars, famine and desasters? If you believe this, then AllAfrica (www.allafrica.com) is the site where you can get a different perspective on Africa - an insiders' perspective.

AllAfrica is a news portal which collects items from over 60 African newspapers, magazines and press agencies. It is easy to navigate, with the most recent items from the whole continent appearing on the first page, and further pages where the reports are sorted by country or by topic.

The news are not specifically written for a Western audience, which is good and bad. Good, because it gives you a more direct view - the same as a reader of e.g. "The Vanguard Daily" from Lagos would get. Bad, because you will need some time to get acquainted with unfamiliar countries and names. So, at your first visit you probably won't have a clue what a report with the titel "Behind Dr. Abalaka" (The News, Lagos, 21.8.00) is about. But if you have been following the news, you know that Dr. Abalaka claims to have found a vaccine against HIV/AIDS, and is now under investigation by the Nigerian government - quite a fascinating story.

Of course, you might not exactly be interested in an dubious AIDS cure from Nigeria. And AllAfrica certainly contains a lot of newsitems that are of a more regional interest. However, you would not read all items in you local newspaper either. AllAfrica gives you the chance to look around a bit and see what is going on in different parts Africa, and go deeper into the topics that are of interest to you.

I for one found it almost addictive, and go now back to Al
lAfrica as regularly as I read my British and German newspapers. And I do feel that it helps me to have a wider, more diverse view of this fascinatiing continent.

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