Copyright: Tomáš Halász https://www.facebook.com/To.mas.photography

As you may have read in earlier posts East4South is a unique journalism project that enables African journalists to research and produce stories with journalists from Eastern European countries.

Ten African journalists recently teamed up with ten Eastern European journalists for the third cycle of the East4South. The European journalists travelled through the home country of their African partner to research stories. Then together they produce their stories at the DW Akademie in Bonn.

The latest group brought back materials to produce a diverse range of stories from milk farming in South Africa, the struggles of Congolese female politicians to the glitz of Nigeria’s Nollywood, the world’s second largest film-making industry.

During their stay in Bonn, we spoke to some of the African journalists to get a sense of what they learned from working with journalists from Eastern Europe. Have a look  video to check out what they said:

For the Eastern Europeans, the experience is also about seeing Africa differently, like Bulgarian journalist Boryana Dzhambokava.
“When I understood that I was going to DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), I was freaking out, and everybody was saying that there could be another war breaking out or definitely violence,” she said.

But her feeling changed once was in Bukavu, a town in the Great Lakes Region of DRC. While working with her Congolese counterpart, Paulin Mushamuka, she saw that the currently political developments in DRC are similar to her own country’s transition to democracy. “They have corrupt politicians, we also have corrupt politicians,” she said. “Bulgaria is considered the poorest country in the EU so you can draw some parallels between the two countries.”

Author: Chiponda Chimbelu

Balazs Simonyi is a freelance Hungarian photojournalist and filmmaker. Through the East4South programme he travelled to the Gulu district in northern Uganda and to Mayuge in the south-east where he worked with Joshua Kyalimpa on two video stories. One was about rehabilitation of former child soldiers, the other examined fishing and how fish caught in Victoria Lake end up on European dinner tables.

Author: Guy Degen