Many of you are wondering what it takes to move to Africa to work as a journalist. In fact, over the years, a number of people have reached out to me, usually via email, asking this very question. It’s an important question that I’m always excited to respond to.
So, I’ve decided to start a series called “How to move to Africa as a journalist” to explore this topic. For the series, I’ll have one-on-one conversations with journalists who have worked in Africa as foreign correspondents, photojournalists, videographers, editors, etc. and I’ll learn more about their own career paths and how they found a way to relocate to Africa and share their stories with you.
My own move initially took me from the United States to Kenya in 2010 to work at a TV news station called K24 while I was in my final semester as a Master’s degree student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Illinois. Then, in 2012, I moved to Nigeria specifically because I was interested in working for the international TV news outlet Al Jazeera. After that, I moved to Senegal in 2017 while I was reporting for Voice of America. But my path is just one way to do it. There are so many options and that’s why I want to present the varied experiences of other journalists.
So, here we go. Look out for upcoming posts in this series starting with my conversation with Drew Hinshaw of the Wall Street Journal.
Journalist in Africa 