This paper uses the Marxist postulatethat it is those segments of society which monopolize the production of knowledge and information which determine the general ideas and opinions that pervade society to analyse media coverage of Africa from the early days of explorers to the present time. It links the most salient images evoked by the mass media with the prevailing socioeconomic and political climates that have given impetus to current processes of ideological reproduction. Comparison of early reportage of Africa by European explorers and journalists (e.g. Stanley, Lugard) with contemporary media coverage of the continent reveals a persistent reference to Africans as barbaric, noble savages, communists and terrorists. Such references (images) have powerful ideological implications for the maintenance of the hegemony of a particular socioeconomic system over others. Just as they justified slavery and colonialism in the last century, such images now justify imperialism and military adventurism in Africa.
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