By Nicole C. Lee | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES

(NNPA) - The focus of the world’s sports community is turning to the competition draw for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. By the time you read this op-ed the 32 nations that have qualified for the first ever World Cup on African soil will know who will compete in the first rounds. By the time the draw is over, all of the nations will know their stage rivals and the date of every game during the tournament. The games begin June 10, 2010.

It is so exciting the World Cup is in Africa. I am hopeful that the spring and summer of next year will be filled with hundreds of stories about the good news out of Africa. Very few sports stories will show pictures of dying children, war, or political chaos. The world will be waving the South African flag with an open heart. The cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town are sprucing up for the events. New subway lines are being added, airports being updated and vendors big and small are getting ready to make a financial killing. Restaurants and hotels are getting ready for the onslaught of much needed tourism. It is all so exciting. The news reports that world famous soccer star David Beckham is in South Africa to help England try to get their bid to host the 2018 World Cup back on track. All eyes are on Africa.

A few years ago Charlayne Hunter-Gault wrote a book entitled, New News Out of Africa: Discovering Africa’s Renaissance. It tells a story of Africa’s future. In her writing Ms. Hunter-Gault says that people in the West have been getting only old news from Africa. We continue to be bombarded only with information about what she calls the Four D's: death, disease, disaster and despair. She acknowledges the despair is a real issue but she proclaims it is not the only story from the continent. The prevalence of these images as defining the experience of people living throughout Africa is not only untrue but unfair.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is correct. If one only depended on Western mainstream media for news from Africa it would be easy to develop an Afro-pessimism. This attitude is compounded by celebrities and aid concerts that claim they are saving Africa. Saving Africa from what?

Africa is a rich and diverse land that is filled with a marvelous history of power and might, slavery and destruction. Mother Africa is the birthplace of all mankind and the battle ground for all of man’s greedy enterprises for centuries. The same people who claim to be saving Africa are all too often blind to the international financial institution policies that create more poverty than abundance. They also don’t discuss how world trade agreements work to the demise of the continent and her global Diaspora. They fail to recognize the very real and often detrimental human consequences of political and military interventionism on average citizenry.

Africa needs to be saved from the global blind eye to its role in her pain. The U.S. proudly subsidizes its farmers to the detriment of the African farmer who can no longer compete in the price wars. The subsidies provided to U.S. farmers under-cut prices all over the world. The African farmer is now challenged to feed his family, let alone make a profit.

The World Cup in South Africa is a good thing. A year of new news out of Africa will be welcomed. Stories of joy and coffers filled with money will help not only South Africa but hopefully the entire region. A global warm and fuzzy feeling about Africa can only help. But let us not be lulled into feeling that granting the World Cup to an African nation is enough. Let us accept our joint responsibility to her survival and keep our own government in check when it comes to its relationship to Africa.Viva World Cup. Viva Africa.

Nicole C. Lee is the executive director of TransAfrica Forum.