You know we Africans are great orators. Our great oral tradition is the reason the world has embraced our proverbs and allegories. Remember this one, America? “Walk softly and carry a big stick.” Teddy Roosevelt borrowed it from West Africa.

So you can imagine how hard it is to piece together half a dozen interviews for a story I’m working on about what one of them, Cyril Ibe, a Nigerian-born assistant professor of journalism at Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio, called “an explosion” of African media on the Internet.

Add high education to an African and the quality of the wisdom is elevated beyond the skies. (African immigrants are the single most educated group, per capita, in the United States. I didn’t make that up. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 43 percent of them have at least a college diploma, compared to 24 percent among the general U.S. population. If you don’t believe the numbers, get counted in U.S. Census 2010 and prove me wrong).

Anyway, back to my story.

The interviews have so much information I’m tempted to just transcribe them and post unedited. That would make my editor mad, wouldn’t it? I want to wait until I’m done with the story to tell you about it, but I’m really bad at keeping things wrapped. Don’t ever tell me a secret.

Anyway.

I’m amazed by the ambitions of these Africans. In Boston, Paul Waithaka is launching the Kenya Monitor, both online and in print. Did you hear that? In this recession, this guy launching a print newspaper.

“I’m pleasantly surprised that people are more willing to buy ads in the print issue than for online,” he says.

Waithaka says he is ashamed to reveal how much he has spent out of his pocket.

In Houston, Chido Nwangwu runs USAfricaOnline, a multimedia company that published magazines, books and news.

“We were hit badly,” by the recession, he says. “The motivation driving me is that children like my son, Chido Nwangwu II, will grow up to know that some people made efforts to build the community they will inherit, expand and create their own network with other communities, while fully aware of their heritage. A dignified heritage, not the Tarzan, the 419 scams, you know, the stereotypical nonsense.”

And that’s not the best quote.

In Dallas, Charles Muigai recently spent more than $5,000 to build an Internet talks radio station. He, with his wife and a friend, broadcasts his two-hour Truthsayer Show to Kenyans.

“I’m not a journalist,” he says. “I just have an opinion.”

Then there is Julia Opoti at KenyaImagine.com, which provides “a bridge between the Diaspora and Kenya.”

Opoti and her partners have spent more than $10,000 to develop a reputable opinion, commentary and analysis Web site that the New York Times and the Guardian (UK) list as a resource on Kenya.

And you said journalism is dead? I think the kind of journalism that is dying, in my opinion, is the one that ignores ethnic folks. (60 million strong, baby!)
—Edwin Okong’o