Botswana Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe has called on African communicators and leaders to take ownership of how the continent is portrayed, arguing that Africa suffers not from a lack of achievement but from a failure to tell its own stories with confidence. Speaking at the second Effective Communicators Conference in Swakopmund, Namibia — hosted by the Namibia Press Agency (Nampa) — Gaolathe told hundreds of government communicators, journalists, and public relations professionals from across the continent that authentic storytelling, grounded in integrity, must replace dependence on external narratives. He urged Africans to promote their own foods, cultures, and literary traditions across the continent, and stressed that infrastructure projects such as the Trans-Kalahari Corridor stand as tangible proof of African-led regional integration.