From the NAAJ President

What’s Dark about Africa, Anyway? Covering the Bright Continent

That is not a trick question. It was the topic of a forum initiated by Maidstone Mulenga, world editor at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle in upstate New York. Mulenga, a Zambian native, is co-chair of the National Association of African Journalists’ task force on collaborative ventures with the National Association of Black Journalists. He also is the president of the Rochester Association of Black Journalists. He successfully pitched that topic for the concluded 2007 National Association of Black Journalists convention in Las Vegas. I was pleasantly surprised that the August 11 event drew a full house at Bally’s Las Vegas Ballroom IV, considering that a legion of events take place simultaneously at NABJ conventions. Mulenga did a great job moderating the session. The panelists also did a fine job unraveling some of the stereotypes and misconceptions about Africa by the American media. Three of the four panelists were NAAJ members. They were: Getahn Ward, a Liberian and business writer with The Tennessean in Nashville; Mahalia Asanaenyi, born to a Nigerian father and American mother and a community reporter for the Omaha World-Herald at the time. She now works at NBC in New York. Others were Greg Branch, an African American and managing editor at Black Entertainment Television; and yours truly, a Nigerian reporter at The Kansas City Star covering government and schools in Jackson and Cass counties, respectively. Thanks, Maidstone, we need more of such forums.