"The world isn’t telling our stories, so we have to tell them ourselves." That was the message acclaimed Canadian author MG Vassanji gave at a recent conference on Africa and its diaspora organized by SFU’s Community Education program. Kenyan-born Vassanji, reminded the audience that Western media typically focus on the continent’s negative aspects. "Even books and movies about Africa are about Europeans," he says, wondering why there are no novels or biographies about flamboyant figures such as Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya. The three-day conference was the fifth in SFU’s annual Focus on Africa series and drew attendees from Canada, Africa and elsewhere to discuss the economic, political and social impact of people who’ve left Africa to settle abroad.