ODINDO'S 'HOUNDED'. AFRICAN JOURNALISTS IN EXILE REVIEWED

           JOSEPH ODINDO, EDITOR OF 'HOUNDED' WITH KONRAD ADENAUER'S CHRISTOPHER PLATE AND SOMALI JOURNALIST AT BOOK LAUNCH

AFRICAN JOURNALISTS IN EXILE BOOK LAUNCHED (UNREVISED)

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (17.March 2021but not published)

Tuesday night’s book launch of Joseph Odindo’s ‘Hounded: African Journalists in Exile’ at the Trademark Hotel in Village Market attracted a multitude of Kenyan journalists who had worked with Odindo in local media over the years.

Some had been with him when he was editorial director of the Nation Media Group. Others had worked with him in his similar role at the Standard Group. And still others had been with him when he was founding editor of The East African.

‘Hounded’ itself reveals harrowing stories of 16 African journalists who were forced to flee their countries for having insisted on speaking truth to power and holding their governments to account. Their struggles have been rarely reported in the world media, which is one reason why the book is an important contribution to shedding light on what has been happening in post-colonial Africa.

The book’s publisher and Director of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) Media Program, Christoph Plate noted that exile has had a long and difficult history in Germany. He recalled that critical thinkers frequently had to flee his country during the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler and then during the Communist era as well.

Following along that line, Joe Odindo said Konrad Adenauer Stiftung had originally planned a conference calling exiled African journalists to come share their stories in person. But once COVID cancelled that plan, Odindo got the call.

“I was invited to essentially transform the conference into a book,” he says. “The book came together in eight or nine months despite our never meeting face to face. It showed me the incredible power of digital communication,” he added.

The 16 countries whose journalists have had to flee include Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopian, Gambia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. The stories are written all by the journalists themselves, including Odindo’s editorial touches.

The only self-exiled Kenyan journalist in ‘Hounded’ is Pius Nyamora, founder of ‘Society’, one of the leading so-called ‘Protest Press’ publications in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the ‘Second Liberation’ loosened President arap Moi’s grip on power.

Nyamora’s story is an important one because it not only reveals the deeply repressive nature of the Moi regime. It also reminds us of other fearless Kenyan journalists who suffered at the hands of Moi, such as Gitobu Imanyara of the ‘Nairobi Law Monthly’ and ‘Finance’s Njeru Gakabaki. And as Nyamora wrote in ‘A reform struggle’s radical voice’, “I believe we had made a difference by denting the confidence and image of their authoritarian machine.”

The only exiled journalist in the book who returned to his country to carry on the struggle of exposing the injustices inflicted on ordinary Somali people by Al Shabab is Abdalle Ahmed Mumin. Abdalle is also the only one who was able to fly in for the book launch to share his story of remarkable courage and resilience.

Copies of Hounded: African Journalists in Exile can be obtained through the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung offices in Johannesburg.