Iyabo Adebowale

Sky News just got caught doing exactly what we've been saying for years.

They flew to Burkina Faso. Got a rare, exclusive interview with President Ibrahim Traoré. Filmed a whole documentary. Then uploaded it to their YouTube channel with footage from Mali and Benin — presented as Burkina Faso.
Not a small mistake. Not one wrong clip.

Footage from two entirely different countries, used to illustrate the reality of a third.
And here's the question I want you to sit with:

Would this ever happen in a documentary about France? Germany? The United States?
Would a major news network accidentally use footage from Spain and Italy in a report about London? We all know the answer.

This is the story behind the story. When Western media covers Africa, the continent is treated as one large, interchangeable backdrop. Borders don't matter. Faces don't matter. Context doesn't matter. What matters is the narrative they came to tell — and any African footage will do to illustrate it.

Burkina Faso is not Mali. Mali is not Benin. These are sovereign nations with distinct histories, distinct peoples, distinct struggles. Traoré's revolution is specifically Burkinabè. The Sahel crisis is not one monolithic thing. The details matter.

But to too many Western editors sitting in London, it's all just "Africa."
Sky News was forced to quietly re-edit the video and admit the error in a small disclaimer. No major apology. No accountability. Just a silent swap and move on.

We notice. We always notice.
So I'll ask you directly — how can we trust the framing, the analysis, the "journalism" from outlets that can't even get the right country's footage in the edit?
Drop your thoughts below. 👇🏾