From the TED Blog:
In 2012 Omoyele Sowore‘s home country of Nigeria overtook South Africa as the biggest economy in Africa. Yet as the country’s celebrated growth and progress, earlier this year 273 school girls were abducted in northeast Nigeria. The government put out reports that the abductions were planned in order to disrupt the presiding party, and then reports that the girls had been released. For Sowore, this was a clear mandate: “To use everybody who is willing to liberate themselves from the clutches of a media that went into remission by itself.” So he founded Sahara Reporters, a media platform that draws on the potential of citizen journalists to capture photos and videos of corruption in the region. When accused of portraying Africa in a backwards light, he says to his fellow citizens: “Africa has a reality that has good and bad. Take control and tell your own stories.”
