African Stories: different countries but facing similar challenges

Latest African Stories on DVD and ready for broadcast

I think for any trainer it’s very satisfying after two weeks of intensive television production training to see on the last day, participants proudly holding in their hands the DVD featuring the TV stories they had produced during the course. But most importantly for participants, they’re returning to their home stations from the African Stories workshop in Kampala with feature stories ready for broadcast and motivated to put new storytelling skills into practice.

“African Stories are a new way of looking at Africa. They tell good things about Africa,” said Fred Kyomuhendo, a producer from Uganda. “And, we’ve learned new methods of editing and new techniques of telling a story.”

Getachew Weldeyes from Ethiopia is now looking forward to producing her next story back home. “Before, we used to tell them in a conventional way that wouldn’t interest many people. This training can help me for the future to produce good stories that attract audiences.“

And while African Stories courses are all about examining the processes and techniques required for producing genuine and compelling stories, the crew on the most recent Kampala course, hailing from Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan, all say they’ll be taking home much more. Along with their TV pieces and new production skills they really enjoyed meeting fellow journalists from neighbouring countries.

“It was very important for me to interact with colleagues from other countries, there was a real exchange of experiences,” said Rejoice Samson from South Sudan.

For some, it was the first time that they’d had a chance to work with media professionals from abroad. But like anyone working in broadcast media, whether you’re from Germany or Uganda or South Sudan, you of course find a lot of common ground. As Fred Kyomuhendo said: “Despite coming from different countries we all face similar challenges when it comes to approaching issues, editing and broadcasting.”

Here’s what some of the participants had to say about their experience during the African Stories workshop.

Networking lunch Ugandan style

Now anyone who has been on a training course will tell you that not only is the food for lunch (very) important but it can also be a bit hit and miss – either with participants or with the trainers! But Fred told me, laughing, that the food was one of his favourite things about the workshop. And whether or not you liked the daily serving of matoke and groundnut sauce (it’s good stuff, by the way!) – those lunch breaks remain a memorable part of the workshop as there was always time to discuss politics or get into a good conversation about cultural differences between Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan or Europe. I think everyone looked forward to lunch time and taking a little time out from sweating in the classroom or to rest our feet during shoots. It a simple thing but lunch time was a really important way for our participants to have time to exchange views, and even inspire each other.

“I have found out so much about the experiences of the journalists from South Sudan and Uganda, said Getachew Weldeyes. “They have different ways of telling stories that might help me, too.”

Video editor Sylvia Otyeka from Uganda said she had learned a lot not just from the trainers, but also from fellow participants: “I tried to relate how they do things in their countries and how we do them here. I really learned from them and I’ll try to introduce it to our work.”

Inspiring each other and exchanging different ways of work was a really enriching experience for everybody and it will not end in Kampala. Camera operator Samuel Eliakima from South Sudan thinks that the contacts he made during the course will be useful to his work in the future.

“It is very important for us to know each other because we are moving up and down in all these countries. One day you can be in Ethiopia or Uganda. Now it’s easy to access each other.”

Connecting journalists, broadcasters and audiences

Indeed, as participants go back to their home countries with their phones and address books filled with new contacts, there’s something else to look forward to – the expanding collection of African Stories produced this year from across the continent. Through the DW-AKADEMIE network, all participating TV stations will be able to broadcast all of the stories produced during the different workshops.

That means the links created between workshop participants are extended to another level – TV audiences all over Africa. Not only are broadcasters producing stories for their own domestic viewers but for viewers across the continent.

Keep checking our blog and Facebook page as the African Stories produced at the most recent Kampala workshop will be posted shortly.

Update:

Here are the videos of the workshop in Kampala.

Author: Gönna Ketels