Blogging for Dollars $$$: African journalists win top blog awards

It has been awhile since I have written anything about news stories coming out of Africa. Fortunately, Africa’s growing communities of blog authors, citizen and professional journalists and writers who publish their work online have begun to garner the world’s attention over the past few years. This makes my small contribution to blogging about Africa and global issues no less important but it does help to give me and others who write about Africa inspiration.

Just today I made two important discoveries about the success of Africa’s bloggers. Global Voices Online has an update on the first African Blog Awards for Journalists which led me to dig deeper and review the work of a wonderful young investigative reporter in Uganda, Rosebell Kagumire.

Rosebell, who just last year started her personal blog, is one of the winners of the first Waxal Blogging Africa Awards for Journalists. Like Andrew M. Mwenda* and other top African journalists and news professionals who have come to our attention via the CNN African Journalists Awards and the Panos Institute in London, Rosebell Kagumire and the winners of the 2009 Waxal Blog Awards are important new voices in Africa that we should closely follow.

Here is a link to a recent interview with Rosebell conducted by the Financial Times correspondent Christopher Mason:

Radio Slience – a look at efforts to increase access to media in the developing world
The View From Uganda: Multi-platform journalism and more 02/23/09


Be sure to visit the blogs of the winners of the Waxal African Blogging Awards, particularly the work of the award-winning DR Congo radio journalist Cedric Kalonji (Radio Okapi) and the news team at the Lusaka Times. Independent press and news media is under threat in many African countries but thanks to the hard work and diligence of these brave people Africans have a stronger voice on the world stage.

Note*: Some of my readers may remember the Ugandan journalist and newspaper editor, Andrew M. Mwenda, from his excellent presentation on foreign aid to Africa made at the 2007 TED Africa: The Next Chapter conference. Following his talk in Arusha (Tanzania) Mwenda’s popularity soared in the blogosphere and in the international press. Andrew had to fight against arrest on trumped-up charges by the Ugandan government in 2007 and interference by the government with the launch of his new newspaper in Kampala, The Independent. Here is an example of the type of reporting that keeps Andrew in hot water with Uganda’s longtime ruler (23 years and counting), President Yoweri Museveni:

Museveni walking same path of African dictators by Andrew Mwenda, 02/18/09

Kevin Sites, independent war correspondent and the first video correspondent for Yahoo! News (see Kevin Sites In the Hot Zone) wrote an article for Parade Magazine about Andrew Mwenda and the difficulties and dangers faced by independent investigative reporters in Uganda.

Parade.com (Parade magazine online)
'They Can Kill Me, But They Can't Kill My Ideas' by Kevin Sites, 02/01/09


Related articles and resources

PANOS London – promoting dialogue, debate, and change
Global Voices Online – Berkman Center @ Harvard University Law School
Highway Africa – Citizen Journalism, Journalism for Citizens
TED Conferences – where the world’s leading thinkers and doers gather
TED Africa Director Emeka Okafor announces new TED Fellows Program
An Introduction to Africa 2.0 and the TED Africa Conference (Ethan Zuckerman)
Deutsche Welle Best of the Blogs Awards (the BoB’s)
Reporters Without Borders – English site
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Technorati tags:Africa journalism blogging citizen journalism free press media global voices rising voices

Memory books, HIV/AIDS, and Africa: "So that when I die you will never forget me."

Portrait of Harriet, a main character in the film "Memory Books" by German documentary filmmaker Christa Graf.

“We know everything about how Africa is dying but we know very little about how Africa is living.”

Henning Mankell, popular Swedish crime novelist and the author of “I die, but the memory lives on”

I have to admit that for the past weeks I have been rather depressed like many people may be around the world with all of the problems that humanity is facing. From a global financial crisis that is threatening everyone to warlords on the rampage in eastern Congo; to Somali pirates operating with impunity off the coast of the Horn of Africa while their country sinks ever deeper into the Abyss, attacking commercial and passenger ships right down the coast of East Africa to Tanzania; to Zimbabwe’s monster-in-residence Robert Mugabe virtually choking the very lifeblood out of his country and his people while regional African leaders debate whether to act either on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe or serve their own short-sighted interests, to Sudan’s despicable leader Omar al-Bashir & Co. trying to snake their way out of a pending ICC indictment for acts of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

To top things off the attacks and atrocities against innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan continue seemingly unabated despite our best efforts to stop them while terrorists have successfully carried out brutal attacks and mass murder in India’s megacity Mumbai, threatening to turn the Indian subcontinent into a living Hell. These are dark times for humanity, no doubt about it.

And then along comes World AIDS Day 2008 (December 1st) when caring people across the globe reflect upon the loss and ravages of a disease that has killed and continues to kill millions and millions of people. On the evening of December 1st while scanning TV channels for something good to watch I stumbled upon a film at ARTE-TV that I want to share with you. It is a documentary film about HIV/AIDS in Africa, Uganda to be specific, but unlike any other that I have seen on the subject to date. The film is named simply “Memory Books” and was shot and directed by a renowned German filmmaker named Christa Graf. It is a film about hope and self-help groups organized by Ugandan women who are HIV-positive working to support one another and create something useful for the soon-to-be orphaned children of sick and dying parents. This “something” is a collection of tender and loving words and photographs and drawings contained in little books for the children and as the filmmakers remind us, these Memory Books may be some of the most important documents of our time. Handwritten, handmade, nothing fancy, costly, or high tech.

I won’t take up much more of your time with my own words as I would like you to explore Memory Books on your own thanks to the wise choice that the German filmmakers have made to launch a website (English, German) and a blog in support of the film and the Memory Books Project in Uganda. However, I would like to add the following few words:

Regular readers of Jewels in the Jungle may remember that the title of this blog owes its origins to a project for assisting orphans in Uganda as I explained in my Aug/Sep 2008 interview series “Seven Questions”. Parts of the film “Memory Books” was shot on location where that inspirational project took place (in and around the Ugandan cities of Kampala and Jinja on Lake Victoria, and rural villages in the Iganga district). As I watched this excellent documentary I couldn’t help but wonder about the fate of the beautiful children featured in my Yahoo! Flickr photostream on Uganda___ how many of these children are doing well and excelling at school, how many are sick with disease and may be no longer with us? I also was reminded of my friend Fred, a good and highly intelligent man who has been working with AIDS orphans in southeast Uganda and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for years, trying to help these children with meager resources donated by local people without any assistance from the Ugandan government or international aid organizations. I remember our many conversations about the crisis with HIV/AIDS and its impact on life in Uganda as well as our talks about the unfolding humanitarian nightmare in eastern Congo.

Perhaps someday I will create my own “Memory Book” with my two grownup children so that they will have something valuable to help them remember their “old Dad”___ but in the meantime if I happen to die unexpectedly (God forbid) please remember me by what I have tried to express here at Jewels in the Jungle and for my children may they remember precious moments from the past that we have been blessed to share together both at home and abroad. Now have a look at this outstanding and “important” film about dealing with the anguish of loss before and after the death of a dear loved one.

Excerpts from the documentary ‘Memory Books’ courtesy of the official film website

In front of the small brick house Dennis and Chrissi brush their teeth every evening in the dim glow of the oil lamp. The 10-year-old watches his little sister conscientiously as they get ready for bed. Since their mother died of AIDS two years ago they are both orphans, two of more than two million of their kind in Uganda. There are few countries in Africa that have more households run by orphaned children and, despite extensive efforts by the government to raise awareness, experts on the subject predict that nearly 35% of Uganda's population is infected with HIV. When the parents die, the children are forced to look after themselves.

A very special project has emerged in Uganda as a result: Memory Books, written by infected parents, mostly mothers, and their children. Aware of the illness, it is a way for the family to come to terms with the inevitable death that it faces. Openly, honestly and compassionately, the books give the children a chance to prepare themselves for life on their own. Values and traditions are passed on in the form of stories, fairytales and songs and the family’s history is recorded with the children's favorite memories or their parent's wishes for the future.

The books not only capture immeasurably valuable memories, but also allow members of the family to process some gruesome realities and prepare for the future. Hopelessness and desperation are confronted through the collaborative effort of remembering and recording, a process that inspires unexpected strength and even solace in the face of death. These books will likely be the most important guidelines that these orphans have to lead them through life.
--------------------------------------------------------


Excerpts from August 2008 interview with filmmaker Christa Graf courtesy of Documentary.org (International Documentary Association)

Synopsis: In Uganda, AIDS-infected mothers have begun writing what they call Memory Books for their children. Memory Books are a way for families to come to terms with the inevitable death that they face. Hopelessness and desperation are confronted through the collaborative effort of remembering and recording, a process that inspires unexpected strength and even solace in the face of death.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Christa Graf: Until 1978 I worked as a laboratory technician in the biochemistry research department of the Max Planck Institute and at universities in Munich, Berlin and New York. Long trips in Africa, the Americas and Asia inspired my dream of becoming a journalist. In 1992 I began an internship at TELE5 TV station and later worked as a volunteer at TV Freising. Since 1994, I have been a freelance author and producer for various TV stations and have created more than 50 reportages and documentaries for renowned stations including ZDF, 3sat and Bayerischer Rundfunk.IDA: What inspired you to make Memory Books?

CG: In 2006 I went to a reading of I Die, But the Memory Lives On by Henning Mankell, a Swedish author who gained bestseller stardom with his series of crime novels. Because he lives not only in Sweden, but also in Mozambique, he has a special interest in African concerns, so he wrote the first book about the Memory Book project. At the reading Mankell said a lot about the Memory Books and how they might become one of the most important documents of our time, which sparked my interest. I wanted to find out more about the Memory Books, so I decided they would be my next topic.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

CG: One of the biggest problems ocurred right at the beginning. I went to Uganda to find protagonists for the film. Unfortunately, as soon as I told them about the documentary's topic, they all lost interest, turned me down and refused to help. Of course I could understand it because for them it looked just like another European making another film about AIDS and how Africa is ruining itself. But when I explained I was trying to make a film about how Africa deals with this problem and how it lives, not about how it dies, they became very cooperative and friendly.


Additional resources and related articles

Memory Books – the official website of the documentary film by Christa Graf (German, English)
Film trailer (English, Lusoga and Luanda, the indigenous languages of southeastern Uganda)
Note. Film trailer is in Apple Quicktime format, approx. 38MB in size
Main characters
Video interviews with the filmmakers and producer including film excerpts (German)
Note: videos are in Apple Quicktime format, approx. 100MB in size total
The organisation NACWOLA
Dennis and his sister Chrissi
Press Material
Memory Books - a film by Christa Graf (the official blog)

ARTE-TV (a German/French independent television network)
Memory Books: damit du mich nie vergisst (German text and video)
Program airs on ARTE December 1st, 5th, and 10th (check local listings)

Documentary.org – website of the International Documentary Association
Interview with filmmaker Christa Graf about the making of “Memory Books” by Thomas White, Aug 2008

Henning Mankell – official website of the popular Swedish author

TIME.com
Lest We Forget: Africa's AIDS Crisis - Photo Essays - TIME

Photographer James Nachtwey’s XDRTB Project to help raise awareness and action against Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDRTB)

JamesNachtwey.com – personal website of the award-winning TIME photographer

Camera Rwanda @ Flickr – the Flickr photostream of professional photographer Kresta King-Cutcher Venning

Jewels in the Jungle @ Flickr – my humble Africa photostreams at Flickr.com

Plan International
AIDS Memory Books

World AIDS Day 2008 - UK official website

BBC News
Picturing life with HIV in DR Congo, 11/30/08
Personal website of photojournalist Nell Freeman

The pitfalls of Africa’s aid addiction, 11/24/08
Sorious Samura’s documentary on the sorry state of corruption and neglect in public health services administration in Sierra Leone and Uganda

BBC World - Panorama program: Addicted to Aid (aired Nov 24th)

Technorati tags:AIDS HIV World AIDS Day health Africa Uganda orphans children parenting family community global voices

Seven Questions: an interview with the author of Jewels in the Jungle about Africa, Europe and the U.S.A.

In July my dear friend Ana, an economist who lives and works in London, invited me to write a guest post for her blog Koluki. Since Ana and I communicate regularly about a wide range of news and issues it was a pleasure for me to accept her invitation. Some of my regular readers may remember Ana from a previous post at Jewels about the 2007 EU-Africa Summit held in Lisbon.

We agreed on a personal interview based upon the popular 7 Questions format used so successfully in interviews with leading thinkers of the day. Since several of my answers are a bit longwinded (lengthy) I shall waste no more of your time with a long introduction. Part 2 and 3 of this interview will follow over the next weeks and will be posted at Koluki as well as here at Jewels in the Jungle.

Part 1________ Questions Nr. 1,2, & 3 (published Sep 1, 2008)
Part 2________ Questions Nr. 4 & 5 (published Sep 6, 2008)
Part 3________ Questions Nr. 6 & 7 (coming soon)


1. How and why did you get started blogging about Africa and why the title 'Jewels in the Jungle'?

I have had a deep interest in the continent and people of Africa for much of my adult life since my own family heritage is so closely linked to the history of Africans in the New World (the Americas) starting around the beginning of the 18th Century. ‘Jewels in the Jungle’ was launched back in May of 2004 when the blogosphere was still relatively small (approximately 7 million blogs vs. the 100 million+ blogs worldwide today).

After watching the rapid development and growth of online publishing tools and blog authors from a technology point of view since 2001-2002, I felt that using a weblog to share information and news online about Africa with people around the globe was an idea worth pursuing. When I started ‘Jewels’ I didn’t have the slightest idea that it would gain popularity and a global readership of more than 90,000 visitors.

Re: the blog title ‘Jewels in the Jungle’

Sort of catchy, ain't it? Love it myself___ I need to get the name trademarked or something. The title gets its name from a phrase that I used to describe a project organized by a photographer friend in Germany. My friend, Susanne Behnke, decided one autumn day in 2002 that she was going to do something to “help out the poor, helpless orphan children of Uganda”. When she broke the news to me about her project idea for Ugandan children I was filled with dread that this was going to turn out to be a nightmare. Susanne, a professional photographer and high school teacher, is a real go-getter with a big heart for young people. Susanne had never traveled to the African continent but she has visited several countries in Europe and North America. Somehow she was able to pull it off despite the many adventures encountered along the way both in Uganda and here in Germany.

Working together with her friends in Uganda and organizations and companies in Germany Susanne managed to plan, organize, and launch a project to build new schoolrooms for children of the Iganga District (near Lake Victoria and Jinja). The project team also awarded thirty scholarships to young schoolchildren to help them pay their school fees for one year. Jewelry design students from one of Germany’s best known art & design academies (the Pforzheim School of Design) donated their time and work in support of the project. Auctions for the sale of handmade designer jewelry created specifically for this project were held at three locations in Germany. Money collected from these auctions plus generous private donations was used to begin construction on new school classrooms in Iganga District, Uganda. Hence the story of the origin of my blog title ‘Jewels in the Jungle’.

Note: I’ve uploaded photos from the project to my Flickr.com portfolio. Sotheby’s Amsterdam used a similar concept in 2007 for the ‘Jewels for the Jungle’ auction to help raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.


2. To what extent do you think that blogs, social networks, and other online publishing and collaboration tools can contribute to Africa's development?

I feel that blog authors coming from the global pool of private citizens, citizen journalists, news and media professionals, educators and scholars, students and so forth have already contributed a great deal to Africa’s development, especially over the last 4 to 5 years. I haven’t spent much time investigating social networks and online forums so I cannot speak about their impact on Africa’s development.

There is more information about Africa, much of it written and produced by Africans, available to the global public today than at anytime in world history. The simple, easy-to-use technologies behind online publishing tools i.e. Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad combined with the power of blog search engines and blog aggregators has helped to make it possible for millions of people to participate in the World Live Web, the live or near real-time global online communications and collaboration around a variety of news events and issues. Blogs in combination with the array of online communication and collaboration tools and platforms that make up what some refer to as Web 2.0 technologies has helped the world to understand that “Africa is in the House!” Africa and Africans are an integral part of the global community and the young people of Africa today refuse to be ignored and left behind.

Users of these new web-based applications are transforming how local, national, and international news is gathered, analyzed, and delivered. Leading international and national news media companies have started using blogs and reader-generated content on their websites. It is standard practice for the best online news sites to offer reader feedback to editorials and feature articles in the form of comment tools. What is also interesting to watch is the growing impact that blog authors and citizen journalists (and their readers) are having on national politics and elections around the world. This is happening from the U.S.A. to Russia, from Egypt to Ecuador, South Africa to South Korea___ blog authors and their readers are making a significant contribution to news coverage worldwide as well as having an impact on politics and social issues. Jay Rosen, associate professor of journalism at New York University and author of PressThink, goes into more detail about this subject in his August 2007 editorial for the LA Times ‘The Journalism that Bloggers Actually Do’ .

Africa’s bloggers and people around the world who write and report on Africa via blogs and citizen-generated news sites are having an effect on how heads of state, political figures, business leaders, and public officials operate. It is especially difficult these days for many of Africa’s longstanding despots and dictators and thieves of the public wealth (corrupt officials) because they can no longer hide their dirty deeds and deplorable actions from an enquiring world. Some regimes continue to intimidate and persecute journalists, editors, and publishers by keeping a tight stranglehold on a free press and free speech___ but these leaders can no longer easily control the growing sources of reliable information or the delivery channels for news. News today can be delivered from anywhere___ the Internet, mobile phones, miniature storage devices, video cameras, you name it.

This is true not only for Africa but for leaders in regions and countries around the globe. Case in point: Look east, look east to China and the difficulties that the government in Beijing is having with outraged journalists over press freedoms and Internet access. Bloggers were the ones to break the story about 'The Great Firewall of China' first, long before the world’s press and media professionals caught on.

Bloggers are everywhere and just about anyone with access to a computer and a reliable Internet connection, an ability to communicate well through the written word or voice (audio) or imagery (photos, video, graphics), combined with credibility and some authority on a given subject can become a blogger with a worldwide audience.

From the election turmoil in Nigeria and Kenya to the exposure of the despotic rule of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and murderous rule of Omar al-Bashir in Sudan to the headquarters of the African Union and the United Nations, bloggers are having an impact on the way we live and the choices of information that we consume daily.

3. As an American living abroad for many years (Europe), what has been your experience with Africans in the Diaspora?

One of the most vivid images of Europe that will remain in my mind forever will be the day in 1986 that I saw three young African men sitting on a dock in a small harbor town in northern Germany looking out across the North Sea. These were not the first black Africans that I had encountered in Europe or Germany but for me they defined the plight of so many African immigrants to Europe that I have met in the closing decade of the 20th Century and right up to this very day.

At the time I was working for an aerospace engineering firm that had defense contracts with the German government to assist the German Luftwaffe and Marine. My assignment was to support German scientists, naval officers and technical staff on a naval air station at the ass-end of the world. Here in the middle of nowhere, at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries whose armies were amassed on the East German border just a stone’s throw away were these African ‘asylum seekers’. I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

To make a long story short, I soon befriended these young men and shared in many great conversations about Africa and America and Europe until my departure from the area about 4 years later. I still have many fond memories of those days and I miss them dearly, I really do. Unfortunately I no longer have contact to any of those young Africans from that time but I have learned that one of them returned to Ghana and is today a successful Internet radio entrepreneur. I would like to think that our heated discussions and debates about all kinds of subjects combined with my encouragement to maintain a level of self-respect and demand respect from others, to always work hard to improve oneself through education and learning inside and outside of a classroom, that these shared experiences had a positive effect on their lives and their futures.

Of course not all Africans that I have met in Europe have been asylum seekers or economic refugees. Many of my African friends and acquaintances came to West or East Germany (GDR) on academic scholarships back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Over the years I have had the privilege to know a number of young African students, professionals, and just ordinary people from every corner of the African continent who live and work in Germany. These Africans are integrated into European society to the extent that their communities and co-workers will accept them. Based upon my own observations and personal experiences the better educated and skilled African Diaspora in Germany is building a solid foundation for themselves and their families. They are ‘paving the way’ and breaking the ice of racial discrimination, prejudice, and fear to open up new career opportunities for the educated and skilled African people who will follow.

It is evident that immigrants and economic refugees who are arriving in Europe today from Africa and around the globe without a good education and modern job skills are upsetting the apple cart, causing resentment and fear within traditional European society and even within some elite African-European circles. A report released by the German Economics Ministry in August 2007 showed that Germany was suffering from an acute skilled labor shortage costing the economy more than €20 billion Euro per year. A 2008 report by the Washington DC-based Center for Transatlantic Relations (John Hopkins University SAIS) showed that the “vast majority of foreign migrants settling in the EU are poorly qualified ( 85%)…” where skilled foreign workers make up about 55% of the U.S. foreign labor market compared to only 5% in Europe. When it comes to the education and skills needed to fill highly-skilled positions in the medical, technology, and services professions, foreign workers make up less than 1% of the entire labor market across the 27-member European Union. This acute skilled labor shortage is cause for some EU parliamentarians to consider instituting an EU Blue Card program to fill the growing labor gaps in EU member countries.

This acute skilled labor shortage combined with fears over terrorism from abroad, increased illegal immigration and other woes does not bode well for the 10’s of thousands of unskilled immigrants from African countries who have been fleeing poverty on the continent for a better life in Europe. It will be interesting to see what impact these challenges will have on a growing African Diaspora in Europe over the next decade or two.

The path to better job opportunities and acceptance and integration of Africans into European society will be a long and hard fought road, not unlike the problems faced by African-Americans and many other ethnic groups in the United States, Canada, and throughout the Americas over the past few hundred years. It has already taken nearly two millennia for Africans from Saharan and sub-Saharan countries to be accepted as an integral part of European history, culture and society. Let us hope that it doesn’t take much longer because time is running out.

Link to Seven Questions Interview: Q&A Nr. 4 (next page)


References and related articles:

Germany – Die Zeit Online
Europa: Zuwanderer gesucht! by Joachim Fritz-Vannahme, 07/02/08

Germany – DW World (Deutsche Welle Online)
Skills Shortage Could Dent German Economy, Study Warns – 08/20/07

Germany – Spiegel Online International (English edition)
The World from Berlin: Fortress Europe is Taking Shape – 06/19/08
Africa’s Plight: How Europe Lost Africa by Dominic Johnson – 02/28/08
(article re-published from International Politik – Global Edition)
The Onslaught of the Poor: The New Mass Migration by Klaus Brinkbäumer – 01/24/07
An African Odyssey: John Ampan’s Four Year Journey from Ghana to Germany by Klaus Brinkbäumer – 01/25/07

BBC News (UK)
Malta fears 71 migrants drowned, 08/27/08
Migrant Crisis: Destination Europe: maps, graphics and articles exploring migration from Africa to Europe, 07/02/07

Mother’s battle against Senegal migration by Tidiane Sy, 11/06/06

Technorati tags:Africa Angola Europe Germany USA America African American politics economic development migration immigration diaspora

Honoring Africa's Best - The CNN/Multichoice African Journalist Awards 2007

Richard M. Kavuma, a 32-year old senior writer for Uganda’s The Weekly Observer is not a household name in the news business, but he should be. I first came into contact with Richard during the run-up to the 2007 G8 Summit at Heiligendamm, Germany. The London based Panos Institute sponsored a crew of 9 journalists and media professionals from the African continent for the AfricaVox 2007 project to cover this year’s G8 Summit and Richard Kavuma was among these professionals here in Germany. I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Richard in-person; we met via the comments section of his posts to the AfricaVox 2007 blog.

I had quite a bit of fun both welcoming all these fine journalists to the 2007 G8 Summit in Germany and to the rough & tumble world of the blogosphere and my first comment on the AfricaVox 2007 blog was a scorcher in response to Richard’s article about the June 1st frontpage spread on Afrika by Germany’s Bild Zeitung. I had already composed and published a scathing article about the Bild Zeitung Afrika Spezialausgabe before discovering Richard’s piece at AfricaVox.

Since then poor Sir Bob Geldorf and his sidekick Bono have been severely criticized online in numerous opinion editorials and blog posts, but my angle on the story was the overtly negative and stereotypical depiction of helpless, starving, suffering, and clueless Africans in one of Germany’s top selling newspapers (circulation in print over 1 million copies with revenues approximately at Euro 1 billion annually). Geldorf serving as ‘guest editor-in-chief for a day’ at BILD for this despicable characterization of Africa was just a secondary issue for me. Sir Bob should have known better and I’ll bet you he gets the message on his failures at BILD and other media stunts now. Africans can speak very well for themselves in the international media and elsewhere without Geldorf’s public profanity and antics, thank you very much.

Fast forward to July 23, 2007

Tucked away in the corner (Africa news section) of the new CNN.com website was an article about the CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year Awards. I try to keep track of these prestigious awards for professionalism in journalism and media on the African continent because it is a great source of information about Africa’s top news professionals and the award-winning stories they write and produce for print, TV and radio, online news, and photojournalism. This year’s winner of the African Journalist of the Year Award in two separate categories is none other than Richard M. Kavuma!

It’s a bit of surprise because as I stated earlier to the Panos-London staff I personally felt that the AfricaVox 2007 project presented some of the best news professionals in the business and that I was most grateful for being able to communicate with them via the AfricaVox 2007 blog. I had no idea that the Panos AfricaVox crew was that good (like Nr. 1 journalist in Africa good). That Richard Kavuma of Kampala’s The Weekly Observer won this year’s award was also a surprise for other media professionals in Africa as the newspaper where he works has been in publication since 2004. Richards winning entry for the top award was his 2006 8-part series on Uganda’s progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.

So without any further ado I want to extend my congratulations to Richard M. Kavuma (aka ‘Rimkav’) and the staff at Uganda’s The Weekly Observer for bringing home one of Africa’s most coveted professional journalism awards. This is the first time in the 12 years of the competition that the African Journalist of the Year Award has come to the country of Uganda. Yo Uganda, congratulations!

Something else that caught my attention re: the African Journalist of the Year Awards is that up to now it hasn’t received much play in the Africa sector of the blogosphere. Why not? Aren’t these people important sources of information and inspiration to aspiring CJ’s (citizen journalists) and blog authors out there? Have we become so ‘full of ourselves’ that we fail to recognize the hard work and excellent contributions to the profession from Africa’s finest news professionals? I certainly hope not. I couldn’t even begin to produce posts for Jewels in the Jungle without the leads and inspiration of professional journalists who cover the continent of Africa and publish their work to the Internet. And I mean all international journalists and news professionals covering the Africa beat regardless of race, creed, color or nationality.

The African Journalist of the Year Awards is in its 12th season, founded in 1995 by Edward Boateng (Turner Broadcasting Systems) and the late Amin Mohammed. The competition is open to African professional journalists and freelancers who work on the African continent for African media organizations that focus their content primarily on an African audience. This year’s competition attracted 1679 entries from over 40 countries in Africa. CNN has more info about the awards at the official website including the two CNN African Journalist Award press releases below:

Ugandan Richard M. Kavuma named CNN Multichoice African Journalist of the Year

CNN Multichoice African Journalist Award finalists announced

CNN’s Inside Africa aired a short report on the award ceremonies in last weekend’s program. It would be a great idea if Femi Oke, Isha Sesay, and the CNN producers would produce a weeklong TV/Internet special on news reporting and journalism in Africa, highlighting the work and actual reports by some of the journalists and other media professionals honored at the African Journalist of the Year Awards. But that, that would be asking too much of the execs at this renowned international news network, wouldn’t it?

Note: Wait a minute, there’s the problem with these awards right there.
Number One: only “professional journalists and freelancers” who work for a “professional” media organization can participate
Number Two: the content must be primarily focused toward an African audience.

Well, that counts Jewels in the Jungle out and the work of thousands of even better online citizen journalists and bloggers worldwide. Africa’s bloggers are to be found everywhere on the planet and they write for a global audience. Maybe we could talk CNN into sponsoring an African Global Citizen Journalist of the Year Award 2008?

Which brings me to the next subject re: CNN International and the CNN Africa news crew: Where is Jeff? Where is Jeff Koinange? Did he quit or was he fired, is he sick, are the Niger Delta rebels holding him for ransom? With all due respect for CNN Inside Africa program host Femi Oke and newcomer correspondent Isha Sesay, Jeff is the guy who has been the Master of Ceremonies at the CNN/Multichoice African Journalist Awards and this year he wasn’t anywhere to be seen, replaced by his CNN colleague Jonathan Mann instead. What’s up with Jeff? What!? No, you’re kidding? Damn.

While I’m on the subject of awards in journalism and news, Reuters Africa deserves a nod of congratulations for winning this year’s Diageo African Business Reporting Awards for the Best Website category. This is especially interesting for those of us who support the Global Voices Online project at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society as Reuters News is one of the principal sponsors of the project. Here is the lowdown on Reuters winning the Diageo Business Reporting Awards at Global Voices Online and the news article about the award on the Reuters Africa website.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Richard M. Kavuma upon receipt of his award at the African Journalist of the Year ceremonies in Cape Town, South Africa last week:

“In accepting this award, I dedicate it to my colleagues at The Weekly Observer in Uganda, and to my fellow journalists in Africa. This is in recognition of journalism that strives to put people at the forefront. With this award, I give my renewed dedication to act as a voice for the voiceless.”

Right On, Richard. If you’ve got a strong voice for the people of Africa, use it.

Related articles and online resources

The Weekly Observer (Uganda)
Observer journalist best in Africa by Carolyne Nakazibwe, 07/26/07
Mand thirsty for safe water by Richard M. Kavuma, 05/10/06

Punch (Nigeria)
How Kavuma won the African Journalist of the Year Award by Waheed Bakare

IPP (East Africa)
CNN/Multichoice Journalist Award winners announced by Lydia Shekighenda

allAfrica.com (This Day, Nigeria)
Ugandan Kavuma named 2007 CNN Multichoice African journalist, 07/24/07

CNN
Ugandan journalist scoops award, 07/24/07
CNN/Multichoice African Journalist of the Year official website

Panos Institute – London
Africavox 2007: African voices at the G8 Summit
Africavox 2007 profiles: Richard M. Kavuma

AfricaVox 2007 G8 Summit articles by Richard Kavuma:
‘Green’ fuel must not destroy Africa’s forests, 06/08/07
Protesting for/against whom? 06/04/07
Why Geldorf’s image of a rotting Africa is OK by me, 06/01/07

Jewels in the Jungle
Saving the Africa agenda at the G8 Summit 2007 in Heiligendamm, 06/01/07

Africa Media blog
African voices from the G-8 Summit 2007, 06/12/07
What do Africans think of international news coverage of Africa? 07/26/07
African journalists: more than victims, 08/01/07


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