Dar es Salaam – The CNN International
(DStv 401) anchor Isha Sesay whose
parents are from Sierra Leone – the
epicentre of the Ebola pandemic
devastating West Africa – says she is
"an angry black woman" over the media
coverage and the world's inadequate
response to Ebola.
"I am an angry black woman. I have a
very tense relationship with the story
because I'm living in the United States
but my family is in Sierra Leone. My
mother, brother, grandmother – most of
my family – are in Sierra Leone right
now.”
Isha Sesay was speaking as a panelist
member at the Serena Hotel in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania, in one of the media
forum sessions forming part of the CNN
MultiChoice African Journalist Awards
2014.
"I'm in a place where America has taken
this, in my words 'bizarre' approach to
this public health emergency on our
continent and the media in the United
States has made it all about them and
their few cases," said Isha Sesay who
spent much of her childhood in Sierra
Leone.
"I was at the airport a couple of weeks
ago and the driver was picking me up. I
was there at the baggage carousel. And
he said 'Where are you from?' And I
said 'I'm from Sierra Leone.' And he
took a step back from me."
"And I thought: 'Wow. How wretched a
job have we done as the media that
people think that just because I'm from
Sierra Leone, that just being in my
presence, regardless of whether I was in
Sierra Leone or not, that I'm somehow
inherently a carrier of Ebola," said Isha
Sesay.
A lack of knowledge and empathy over
Ebola
"What I'm seeing in the United States is
this lack of knowledge. And not just a
lack of knowledge, but also a lack of
empathy for what we are going through
right now on the continent. So I'm in a
really difficult space right now,” said
Isha Sesay.
“The coverage of Ebola to date – before
we moved to the situation where we're
now where the focus is so much on
America and the fear that the Western
hemisphere is going to be taken over by
Ebola – the coverage of the continent
had fixated on the continent, and so
little on the people."
"It was all about the disease stripping
us of our dignity, that the stories of the
people – what it is doing to individuals
and families and communities – haven’t
been told as much. We haven't as media
been that committed to telling it in as
much as the continent deserves."
"I'm the co-founder of eboladeeply.org
because I want to change the discourse
around Ebola and really bring in the
voices of our people who are suffering,
who may not be suffering from the
disease directly but are being
impacted," said Isha Sesay.
"The media need to hold the
international community to account, to
say 'Where are you?' We have an Ebola
UN emergency fund and there's very
little money in it. We have pledges
being made, but the pledges aren't
being translated into action."
"We have some countries saying they're
going to step up and a lot of countries
sitting on the sidelines."
The clock is ticking
"Where are we as the media asking
those questions and holding people
accountable, and staying on the stories
and not averting our gaze and being
sidetracked to cases of three people in
the United States – people whose lives
are valuable, critical – we don’t want
anyone to die, but again, the epicentre
is on the African continent. The
responsibility lies with the journalists
here in Africa to ask the questions," said
Isha Sesay.
"We have to realise that the clock is
ticking. The world has never anything
like this and the world really doesn't
know how to deal with numbers that is
being put out there that could become a
reality."
"The media needs to do their part in
getting the facts out, asking the
questions, staying on this story and
tracking it and looking at the resources
coming into countries."
"There's a lot of stories to be told.
There's an information gap here. In the
absence of information there's hysteria.
And there's inertia," said Isha Sesay.
"I interviewed a survivor of Ebola from
Liberia who not only has been cast out
but his children are being cast out. He
told me his car broke down the other
day and the mechanics and they
wouldn't touch his car."
Asked how media without the global
reach and resources of a 24-hour TV
news channel or international
newspaper can try and cover Ebola
news more effectively. Thomas Evans,
CNN London's bureau chief said that
"with the story of Ebola, the risk is quite
high, so I wouldn't recommend people
rushing in without taking proper
precautions".
"That being said, that is not the only
story - going into an Ebola country.
That is not the only way to tell this
story. You can talk about what
governments are doing, you can talk
about the issues of health care
systems; these are stories that are
equally important."
"Just because you're not in villages
being completely wiped out by Ebola,
doesn't mean that you can't be telling
the Ebola story economically, socially,
government response," said Tomas
Evans.
Africa’s dilemma with Ebola
"There is another dilemma Africa faces,"
said Kenya's dr. Susan Mboya-Kidero,
president of The Coca-Cola Foundation,
saying African countries' governments
and local media have an attitude of
"let’s not play this [Ebola] too much".
"Just take Kenya for instance. The
country the past year has gone through
terrorism, security issues, tourism is
way down. The last thing African
governments need right now is another
disaster."
"And so for many they're saying: 'Let’s
not overdo this. Let’s not blow it out
proportion. Let’s not give the world
another reason not to come and not to
invest in Africa. And that's the
dilemma," said Mboya-Kidero.
"We need to learn from the situations in
Nigeria and Senegal and we need to
keep telling the stories," said Isha
Sesay.
"eboladeeply.org is just about getting
the information out, it is also a forum to
engage key influencers and thought
leaders to look for further answers and
solutions to this crisis."

karma is sweet

She nor fit vex pass us. We wey the ebola impact, we vex pass her.
Ergrhhm, after all said and done. Africa welcomes her prodigal child back home. Welcome daughter Isha.
We thank you for seeing the light as saul did. and, we thank you for preaching the gospel as Paul did.
Pkele. Na all of us dey vex together be that o.

They don't really care if we all die. Their only concern is a continued access to our resources provided that they don't contact Ebola or other diseases that in the process.

And who is Isha Sesay?

abeg show me the picture of that fine girl. i just want to see her eyes, i dont care about the story

diluminati:
abeg show me the picture of that fine girl. i just want to see her eyes, i dont care about the story

Abi. She's one of those really beautiful dark skinned women i have seen. Really beautiful. By the way, she does not have to worry too much because the same americans who discriminate now have Ebola in their midst. Thats karma.