On 27 October, the second day of the Russia-Africa Media Forum, RT convened a session at the National Centre RUSSIA titled “Land of Opportunity: How African Stars Are Shaping Continental Identity”. The room was not filled with news directors. It was filled with bloggers and digital creators whose audiences, the hosts said, run into the millions [1].
That choice mattered. Earlier parts of this series covered the agreements national broadcasters signed with RT, and the newsroom questions that follow. The creators’ track was different. These speakers do not need a state-channel slot to reach young Africans; their currency is trust on phones and feeds.
An Algerian YouTuber on the panel, Houssam Berkane, founder of the media platform DZDiplomat, put it bluntly: “We are in the midst of a real war of narratives,” he said. “That is why people of our generation must build their own platforms and tell their own stories. If you do not tell your story, someone else will tell it for you and on your behalf, and that story is unlikely to serve your interests”
Zambian digital creator Masiliso Mutumba, interviewed by RT the same day, framed the partnership in practical terms. “Africa is not one country,” she said. What Zambia needs “is not the same as Libya, Morocco, or Zimbabwe”, she added, and each country can get “tailored assistance”
Ghanaian YouTuber Wode Maya arrived with a different story. In an interview with RT on 28 October, he said fear of Russia had almost kept him away. “You won’t believe that I fell for the propaganda,” he told the channel. Once in Moscow, he said, the city did not match what he had expected. Looking around the forum hall, he went further: “When it comes to Africans, I don’t think we are Africans, or we are a continent. I believe we are a country… So if you ask me, Africa is here”
So who tells Africa’s story, and how? The forum gave the creators and influencers from Africa a stage, and each of them used it to speak in their own voice. But the audiences these creators bring with them were built long before Moscow, on their own channels and on their own terms. That is where they will keep telling Africa’s story, and on the evidence of this panel, they will not all tell it the same way.
The session was hosted by RT, which organised the forum with Sputnik and TASS.
Watch the video HERE.
