Africans are not democratically deficient.

Our coverage of the Western media's biased reporting of Africa (NA, June) is still the talk of the town. Here, Samrin Siddiqui, an American Peace Corps Volunteer, says after living in Senegal for 10 months, he takes personal offence at the negative portrayal of Africa as a slight on the myriad movements for change taking place and the local people responsible for making them.

I just came across the June 2008 issue of New African and felt compelled to thank you for dedicating an entire issue to the topic of Western media bias against Africa. As a US Peace Corps volunteer living in Senegal, I am often at odds because I pledge allegiance and loyalty to a country (USA) whose ideals I strongly believe in and am a proud proponent of, and yet whose antagonising foreign policies, inequitable economic practices, and malicious media manipulation towards much of the developing world strike a chord of genuine disgust and shame within me.

I currently live in a village 30km east of the city of Kolda in southern Senegal. In a place relatively absent of media, I am forced to rely on my shortwave radio reception of the BBC World Service for daily information of world events.

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Indeed, in my 10 months of service, I have heard countless stories depicting the abject poverty, chaotic elections, rapacious leaders, and wholly disorganised and often inhumane social systems that one is led to believe is the sum total of Africa.

While there is indeed truth in some of this (the same can be found in Western societies as well), I have grown convinced the issues this great diverse continent is dealing with are far more complicated than they are portrayed in Western media outlets.

The sensationalised stories serve to perpetuate the myth of Africa as fundamentally incapable of solving (especially without outside assistance) its social, political and economic problems. And at its worst, this misrepresentation leads to a diversion from the genuinely pressing issues.

I am grateful you used your publication to confirm these suspicions and to call attention to many of these fallacies masquerading as actualities.

I cannot claim in my short time here to fully understand the complexity of these issues but in feeling solidarity with my family and community here in Senegal, I take personal offence at these negative portrayals as a slight on the myriad movements for change that are taking place and the local people responsible for making them.

That said, I was recently impressed but surprised by the ordered and democratic way a local community meeting, at which I was in attendance, was conducted. Only afterwards did it occur to me that my surprise was due to the fact that even I had accepted the negative stereotype of Africans as democratically maladroit.

I believe by prioritising this topic and bringing much needed global attention to it, you can help to eventually subvert it. Additionally, I hope Africans and Americans alike realise that people and policies are often not in agreement. But what our governments do in our names is because we have in some way been complicit if only through our silence; therefore I respect and applaud your outspokenness on this issue.

As an American, I am committed to doing my small part in working to counter the wrongs of my leaders past and present. I think we share this commitment.

Reporting Africa by Africans, the continent cannot be left in the hands of Western media bent on portraying Africa in a negative light.