A conservation about 'new African conciousness' in podcast Elke Dag

I recently wrote a report for de Volkskrant about Africa's first afrocentric school, run by Dr Utheri Kanayo (aka Susan Kiragu) and her husband Ọkụ in Nakuru, Kenya. Children learn to be proud of their 'African' identity, origin and background.

I have seen this 'new African consciousness' and the 'decolonization of the mind' more often in recent years. That prompted a conversation with Sheila Sitalsing, for Volkskrant podcast Elke Dag - you can listen to that episode by clicking on the link below.

Migrant stories: three testimonials about working in Qatar

For de Volkskrant, El País and RTL Nieuws, I interviewed three migrant workers. Two who have come back to Kenya, and one Kenyan who is still stuck in Qatar (who is working there illegally). Their painful stories shine a light on how poorly many (black) migrant workers are treated in the small Gulf state. To read more, tap on one of the links below:

• El relato de tres inmigrantes africanos: “En Qatar la gente literalmente trabaja hasta la muerte” [El País]

• Het WK ging beginnen, dus arbeidsmigrant Maina moest plaatsmaken voor de voetbalfans [de Volkskrant]

• Gastarbeider Malcolm werd opgepakt in Qatar: 'Ik had kritiek' [RTL Nieuws]

• ‘Ik moest doen alsof ik gek was om terug naar huis te kunnen vluchten’ [de Volkskrant]

• Activist Malcolm Bidali werkte als beveiliger in Qatar: ‘Er kleeft bloed aan de stadions die je op tv ziet’ [de Volkskrant]

• Nepalezen zien hun arbeiders met veel geld terugkeren, slachtoffers zijn dan even vergeten [de Volkskrant podcast ‘Elke Dag’]

New work: reporting on the Tigray conflict for The Telegraph

Fleeing the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, tens of thousands of people walked days to get to neighboring Sudan, where they are staying in crowded refugee settlements. On assignment for British newspaper The Telegraph, I traveled with Africa correspondents Saskia Houttuin and Will Brown to eastern Sudan, where we were some of the first journalists to talk to refugees.

The Tigrayans told us horrifying stories, about indiscriminate bombings, machete attacks, decapitations and executions. But it’s hard to check if their stories are true, as in Tigray, the electricity and communication services have been cut off for weeks. On top of that, journalists are not allowed to enter the region to do their work independently. And so the only way to get an idea of what might have happened in Northern Ethiopia, is to talk to the many refugees that we found in the camps.

To read some of the stories that Will and Saskia wrote for their newspapers, click through the screenshots below. To read the story I wrote for Trouw’s De Verdieping segment, click here. To hear the radio interview I did for ‘Met Het Oog Op Morgen’, in conversation with Wilfried de Jong, click here. To hear the conversation I had in the ‘NOS Radio 1 Journaal’ with Jurgen van den Berg, together with Africa correspondent Bram Vermeulen, click play on the video underneath the newspaper clippings (or click here). To listen to NOS podcast ‘De Dag’ about the situation in the Sudanese camps, click play on the player below.

In addition to the work I did for The Telegraph, NOS and Trouw, I also worked for NGOs, who are working on the ground to help the Ethiopian refugees. To see some of the work I did for World Food Programme (WFP), click here. The photos I took for Save The Children can be seen here. To see the video interviews and pictures I created for Dutch refugee NGO Stichting Vluchteling, click here. And to see the pictures I took for ZOA, click here.

New podcast for the Tällberg Foundation, recorded in Nairobi

In Nairobi, when meetings were still possible as COVID19 had not reached Kenya yet, I recorded a podcast for the Tällberg Foundation. Anne Goldfeld, Faustin Linyekula, and Saul Griffith shared their ideas on the future and their relationship with it. All three received the Tällberg/Eliasson Global Leadership Prize in 2019. In the podcast, all winners discover how their respective expertise – medicine, dance, and fighting climate change – are all fueled by “the mystery of the unknown” and their desire to explore it.

Click ‘play’ in the player above to listen to the podcast.

Podcast De Dag: a talk about COVID19 in Kenya

In a conversation with Elisabeth Steinz of the daily NOS/NPO Radio 1 podcast ‘De Dag’, Nairobi-based doctor Fleur de Meijer and I told something about corona virus measures in Kenya and the rest of the continent. You can listen to the podcast (20 minutes, in Dutch) by clicking on this link.