This qualitative study has examined five news media and their news coverage of Africa on Instagram in order to discuss the representation of Africa. Critical Discourse Analysis has been used to examine how the language and images in social media posts create meaning. The social media posts have been analyzed through postcolonial theory to discuss the meaning of the text in relation to stereotypes, colonial discourse and power. The analysis shows that Africa is largely portrayed through stereotypes, colonial discourse, “othering” and through the metaphor Dark continent and Afro-pessimism. Further, the voices of the population in Africa are seldom heard, resulting in a loss of local knowledge and perspective. The knowledge about Africa conveyed through the news media included in the study is therefore that Africa is a place of violence, exotic animals, starvation, and disease.