African Stories: Sharing know-how with African TV journalists

Three media makers from the Congolese state television station Radio Télévision Congolaise are deep in discussion. They are planning a training curriculum for colleagues at their broadcaster and are deciding how to structure their first session.

One of the group is Frédérique Missamou Bakebelamio, a reporter who has been part of the "African Stories" project since its inauguration in 2011. Missamou has already attended several trainings in TV production. Now, she's just finishing a two-week DW Akademie train-the-trainer workshop in Berlin, where she's learned how to share her TV production skills with other journalists.

Future trainers from Guinea, DR Congo and Senegal with DW Akademie's Gerlind Vollmer and Charles Achaye-Odong (3rd and 5th from left)

"When I produced my first professional TV reports, colleagues kept following me around wanting to know how I'd done them!" she laughs.

Now she'll be able to pass on this knowledge to them.

"I'm still a bit nervous," says the journalist from Brazzaville. "My job as a reporter has had a lot to do with listening as opposed to speaking to groups. But here we've learned new methods and techniques on how to do this and I feel more confident to train others back home."

Taking a different angle

African Stories is one of DW Akademie's most comprehensive projects. It gives television reporters, camera operators and film editors additional training in TV production. But it's main priority is to offer African media workers a chance to report professionally on their continent from different perspectives.

"'African Stories' is a great opportunity for me," says Fodé Moussa Camara, film editor from Guinea (left)

"This project proves that there's a lot more to Africa than poverty, famine and war," says film editor Fodé Moussa Camara from Guinea. He works for Radio Télévision Guinéenne (RTG) and will be training his own colleagues after the workshop finishes.

"Because of our participation in African Stories, we have taken on a special status in our own stations - DW Akademie has turned us into professionals," says Camara. "Now we'll be able pass on our skills to others."

He is convinced that his station, and the viewers, will benefit from his newly-acquired knowledge.

Continued learning

In the initial phase of the project, participants from 28 countries produced approximately 50 TV reports. Next, the best production teams were selected to produce longer 12-minute documentaries together with editors from Deutsche Welle. The documentaries, which were later aired by partner stations as well as DW's Global 3000 program, focused on portraying people and projects that encourage others. Examples include a farmer in Guinea who is reviving the country's banana industry, and a Tanzanian blacksmith who makes special parts for agricultural machinery.

Gerlind Vollmer, DW Akademie project manager

DW Akademie project manager Gerlind Vollmer has been involved in African Stories since the very beginning. "This project offers us a rare opportunity to support participants over a number of years," she says. "This way they can really absorb and apply their new skills."

Those attending the Berlin train-the-trainer workshops come from nine African countries, with one partner station from each country sending a total of three participants.

"These workshops are important for me, too," says Vollmer. "Our relationship with those taking part has changed: participants have now become colleagues."

There's also been another development. The workshop participants will be staying in contact with each other and have decided to create a network and share their new training expertise with other TV stations in Africa.