Twenty five years ago, the world held its breath; one country in the palm of the human-verse

Photo Award winning photojournalist, Yannis Kontos - for more of his amazing photos go here

Twenty five years ago, a generation or so ago, we watched, some chewed their nails, others cradled their heads in open palms. Was this it? Was this the moment that humanity would be the victor?

A pariah state, South Africa, that had been ostracised from the world because it legally and plaintively viewed non-whites, black people in particular, as sub human had its chance to put the past behind it.

Apartheid, the word does not easily trip of the tongue today alongside other inequities, but it was ugly, fearsome, and real. To socialise, to challenge, to be, to walk down the road and dare hold the hand of someone white incurred wrath, abuse and assaults from white, even sometimes blacks trying to figure out what they were witnessing.

This, the tail end even of Apartheid (1994). I was walking behind a friend; a Londoner, a model, who’d had a child with a South African. They were nonchalant as they strode downtown Joburg. Me, six paces behind could see the orbit of red emotions flaring towards them.

I’d been in South Africa now for little over 18 months, a strategic attempt on my part two years earlier to get a front row seat to the biggest international story of the decade thus far.

I’d left London, part direct thought; other, escaping the toxicity of a climate in which a mini UK recession meant if you were a young reporter searching for work, if you were a young black reporter searching for work expect lean times ahead.

I had spent eight years previously in Ghana, growing up under a regime that festered corruption, counteracted by coups. This clip here was heard live.

In the late 1990s when I did a job for Ghana TV and they asked me how they could pay me, I asked for the Jerry John Rawling’s recording (above) of the coup on that day.

South Africa was closing in on the eye of the prize and there were many forces, hidden and some known, politicking and threatening all sorts. I was fortunate in my education.

My sojourn to SA prompted by an on-air exchange with its ambassador led to a triumvirate friendship with different figures: a leading theatre director and his friends which included diplomats, a cadre of young progressives black and white, and ANC activists and journalists. Something that would help in creating a raft of programmes in 1992, such as this for the domestic broadcaster, “Through the Eyes of a Child”.

I got to know a world which was uniquely complex, but I could navigate by how I opened my mouth. Shut, I could be any black South African, though many took me for coloured. Open with a London accent I was British. Open with my Ghanaian accent I was an African foreigner. I could, with the help of my friends like Milton Nkosi, get in and out of Townships, and if the feeling overcame me engage in Kwame Nkrumah’s ideals of African empowerment.

Every student, at least in my college in Ghana, was taught about Nkrumah and history told us about Mandela and many of his colleagues whom either schooled in Ghana or had a great affinity with the country.

Strangely, South Africa’s ultimate story was one that precluded others. An irony of mega proportions. Perhaps, it being the catch of any foreign news outlet, and everyone who was anyone was in South Africa, meant the big guns only were allowed in town.

At a Mandela press conference when I was working for ABC News as a producer, and terrifyingly asked the first three questions, this was evident. I was the only black british broadcast journalist, or one of a handful on the ground. If you were there too, please ping me, I’d like to apologies and correct my myth. Diversity wasn’t a badge of note back then, but think today about looking through the archives and how the world is shaped by narratives.

I earned my spurs reporting South Africa from the 1980s on BBC Radio Leicester, attending various Wembley live band conferences, opened by (Sir) Lenny Henry and British pop.

The narratives weren’t a wrongun, but nuance is something you need when reporting, otherwise translated as a having a different world view. Five years later when I produced and directed Africa’s first co-production under the exec production of Edward Boateng, then head of CNN Africa, now Ghana’s Ambassador to China, we looked to at how each country could report through the lens of its own culture, language and historicity.

Twenty-five years ago then, South Africa’s gathered in long unwinding queues to vote in their first election. The day before violence threatened captured below in reports to the BBC World Service.
The day before, a 40 minute documentary would air on BBC Radio 4. A fitting honest tribute, I think, to a country and people anyone could easily fall in love with. It stands as one of the only international documentaries played on domestic South African radio.

Twenty five years ago we held our breath. The elections passed. Nelson Mandela became president and South Africa titled the earth’s axis to humanism.

But as I would find out from many South Africans five years later in a Channel 4 News videojournalist piece, there had been a political transformation, but not a social one. Today, South Africans go to the poll. The world again is watching, thought with less scrutiny around race, but wealth; wealth, its distribution connected to race, nepotism, corruption and class.

And looming in the distance, less we dare not speak its name are the forces that are wanting to tilt the Ukraine, UK, Europe and US away from humanism. Twenty five years ago they South Africa held the world in their palm. Where will they be in another twenty five years?

End

Dr David Dunkley Gyimah is an international award winning journalist and the first Brit to win the coveted Knight Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism. He’s an artist, creative and technologist; a former artist in residence at the Southbank Centre, and was one of the younger members in the 1990s to join Chatham House. He’s been a journalist for thirty years and is currently based at te Cardiff School of Journalism. He’s behind the Cinema Journalism movement. More here

Nelson Mandela - The election, the fight and the resilience of South Africa

South Africa's finest hours: Nelson Mandela is free, Nelson Mandela is president. 

Between 1991 and 1994 I was based in South Africa, Johannesburg (Yeoville). I first visited the country in 1991, whilst working as a presenter producer on BBC London, where I interviewed South African embassy officials about Apartheid.

These three reports detail some of South Africa's finest hours involving Nelson Mandela

The inauguration of Nelson Mandela. It was electric. The whole country came to a standstill.




Violence grips South Africa. The Townships e.g. Soweto has become a conflict zone between ANC and Inkatha factions. This a report from Jo'burg and Durban on the violence. Its scary!





In 1991 I report for the BBC's internal magazine, whilst coming back to the UK to work on BBC Reportage.

It could have all gone wrong . Working for ABC News as an Associate Producer and freelancing for the BBC World Service a bomb explodes on the eve of South Africa's election. Could this be the ene of the dream?

David Dunkley Gyimah reporting from South Africa 1994 - on the eve of their historic election

Right wing groups attempt to destroy the elections. A bomb explodes in Johannesburg, killing people.

South Africa circa 92 - a pending election brings political violence to the front Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert 1990 Wembley - BBC Report with Peter Gabriel, Natalie Cole, Anita Baker, Neil Kinnock MP and Nelson Mandela.

South Africa keen to attract foreign investment hosts US secretary of state Ron Brown and delegation. The backdrop was the ANC's perceived anti-capitalist stance to business.

How doctors are travelling to South Africa for work. One of many reports from rural South Africa for the BBC World Service

My most memorable. BBC Radio 4 commission a one hour documentary. I call it the Successor Generation. It becomes the only international documentary report bought by the SABC and played on the eve of their election.  It features some of SA's emerging talent who are voting in their first election.

I will post that as a special tomorrow.

10 things you must know travelling to South Africa's world cup

Arriving at O. R. Tambo International Airport, Upgrade.

Two thirty pm.

From door to door , 23 hours. In the air it was about 14 hours. You have to love travelling, otherwise like me you simply go numb with the vacuous look of Mr Mcgoo, consigning your brain cells to reruns of old movies and boarding school meals.

The stewardess either resented her job or didn't much like anyone who didn't do things her way and one of those was a red card for lowering your seat rest to sleep when the person behind you wanted to rest their bottle of water.

Rest your head, rest your water, rest your head, rest your water. Clearly water wins.

"Please sir, could you bring your seat up?"

Half a sleep and feeling restlessly drousy I queried her with my eyebrows.

"Sir put your seat back up!"

It was so incredulous that after the third time of her asking and clearly not noticing that when passengers are tired they pull their seats down I relented.

But as I found out later, seat configurations, particularly in the lie down position is to be one of my "10 things you must know travelling to South Africa". First five today.

Swanky
It's been a while since I have been to the rainbow nation, but if my visit were by default a dry run for the World Cup ahead, then there's work to be done.

Swanky, face photography recognitionn at immigration, an meandering string of tourists around their maze like queing system, in many ways it's as if the architects that built Miami Airport provided the foundation here.

South Africa boasts some of the most hospital people, particularly in the townships away from the dreaded "c" word. But Corporate customer service on the scale that will sazzle them next year is new.

And if you thought the hospitality is likely to bring on unsuspected results then here in Grahamstown, you might want to wear a plack saying "please be nice to me".

Next year in Grahamstown, the venue for one of the world's key arts and culture gigs, they'll have the world cup in tow, and a stream of big conferences for journalists and others.

The build up to the World Cup prompted Richard Quest and CNN to examine the system, rolling of a reel of states - from a programme I saw on my flight.

More on those in my next post, but for the meantime an early foray into what you'll need to know at the airports if you're comng for the World Cup, particularly for domestic flight travellers to the Cape and beyond

1. Through to domestic flights, if you haven't changed any money yet, there's no forex etc past on board luggage checking.

2. There's only one small rest room, which is a little daunting when greeted by the attendant: "welcome to my office" and hasn't quite figured that restroom are private. That said please do tip.

3. Don't rely on the Flight departure board for boarding. It got to 10.00 for a 10.20 departure and still there was nothing up so I curiously sauntered over to the gate to find out they had all boarded and the steward telling me how lucky I was to have got on the plane.

4. Don't put you seat back to rest unless you want the steward or passengers to literally scream at you

5. Do remember your please and thank yous.

Afghan Election news Blackout

Reporting and producing about violence in South Africa 1994. Contextual reportage is called upon.

The Afghan incumbent apparatchik would rather foreign networks did not report on violence at the polls. They have a point. Now before I accuse my alter ego of naive stupidity, it goes something like this.

They want people to vote, so want to black out the violence . It could scare voters away.

Agencies and News orgs say the public has the right to know. The accommodation is somewhere in the middle. Reporting what's happening in the polls but in a sensible way.

Take this as an example. If I put together a report on who likes Chilli Peppers in my family chances are I'll find a lot of people. However the default position of my vox pop must give weight to a different opinion, so the minute I find someone who doesn't like Chillis, like me, et voila, I'm on screen. This creates an erroneous impression.

In other words if you're reporting on atrocities, report on all the others, at least with the use of graphics to inform viewers whether the violence is endemic or localised.

David videojournalism reporting from Ghana on Ecomog Forces being trained by US Special Forces prepping the West Africa forces before they see action.

The killing of anyone is to be condemned.

Is there a way though, if, or when these atrocities do occur, media networks find a way to contextualise what's happening geographically et al. That as much is a needed addition to the timeline of reportage.

Schism
There still exist a wide schism in the world to the role of media and even then in UK media sometimes unusual things can happen, such as the news blackout on Prince Harry fighting in Afghanistan.

I always recall stepping into the cauldron of South Africa reportage before the official end of apartheid and to my amazement realising a lot of the violence being reported was localised.

As a news producer I could with a degree of certainty look for it, whilst other citizens blithely went about their day lives unaware of what was going on.

I guess with the Net et all, graphic interface news could do a good job at referencing THE NEWS in a more 21st century way.

Reporting conflict from South Africa-BBC WS

Having posted in Adrian Monck's blog re: him talking about the death of a talented young journalists in Iraq, I started thinking of some of the things I got upto in South Africa circa 1992-94.

Here right white militants have exploded a bomb in joberg on the eve of the election. It shook the house I was staying in. The BBC WS whom I'd now built up a relationship with rang and asked for a two way. I'd been down to the scenes past the police cordon flashing my media badge.

Below is the original post from Adrian's site and my reaction.

Journalism education: my unfinished business

Thursday, 19 March, 2009

Whenever people ask me why I left television news (a world which - I have to say - I loved) to run a J-School, I never give the real answer.

Because the real answer is just the name of someone they (and you) probably won’t ever have heard of: Richard Wild.

Richard is gone now. He was shot dead in Baghdad in 2003. I wrote the letter that got him in to Iraq. [more…]

-- my response.

david dunkley gyimah 04.01.09 at 8:46 am

That’s a tough one to carry around Adrian. I remember reading about Richard in The Guardian and posted briefly on him last year.

It struck me as well, as often when asked by friends wanting to get a relative into journalism my advice was along the lines of ..”travel if you can to the story”.

If it’s a hot zone and you consider you have a good head, then be cautious, but go for it. I gave such advice to a senior exec from Chatham House, who would become my mentor.

For it was while fortuitously in a BBC studio interviewing South Africa’s Embassy head Kent Durr about the Boipatong Massacres with my soon -to-be-mentor there, that following the discussion, I made the decision to relocate to South Africa for 18 months.

One of the then BBC’s producers in Joberg was a savvy, streetwise, six-languages speaking journo who would take me off to see the local Totseis. ” David you just need these people to see you. They carry a lot of clout”, he’d whisper.

Though I was extremely cautious, I look back on those times travelling around the townships; night time drives in some of the worst troubled spots, and sometimes question what I was doing. I was a freelancer. A report brought in 200 UKP, but on one occasion I signed a disclaimer as I climbed into a truck for a night patrol in Katlehong - then designated the murder capital of the world.

My advice to new journalists now has changed somewhat. Richard’s death was one of the straws.

Guns and assailants

Dirk Coetzee wss part of South Africa's apartheid government's death-squads. He commited countless atrocities, the most prublicised was murdering Griffiths Mxenge, the human rights lawyer for ANC personnel.

"We stabbed him 35 times and then burnt his body ... while that was happening we were having a brai ( barbeque) nearby... " Coetzee would later tell me.

I was at the Holiday Inn in down town Joburg with friends eating when a senior South African broadcast manager spotted him. "I want to talk to him. I have alway wanted to talk to him", I said. Whilst I was a freelance correspondent based in South Africa 93-94 the opportunity never arose. Now here I was some years on (98) and he was in talking distance.

It sounds so long ago, but seems like yesterday

"Why don't you go and ask him?" was her reply.

I approached hands in the air talking courteously but loudly so he could make out my English accent. At his table, four friends all packing and his son stared up.

Then he agreed. A journalist who had never held a dvcam in his life was given the camera and a few instructions and then we started to film. I'll post the interview on viewmagazine.tv

What are some of the things his done?
Why did he do what he did?
Did he not feel any remorse?
Is he a free man? ( Coetzee got amnesty for talking to the Truth and Reconcilaition Commission) But is he a free man?

Then after 30 minutes we wrapped up, chatted off camera for a while and the star formation his son and colleagues had formed around us eliminiating any blind spots from a potential assailant dissipated.

What did I get from the interview? The unique opportunity to hear a calm rationale of why he killed and what he felt. He talked about being a reformed person, a Christian. I felt I could have asked him anything and he would not have shirked from it. It's one interview I wil never forget. You can see the unedited version soon.

Footnote: this is one of those incidents that shows videojournalism strengths. I had a camera, sa an opportunity for a story and within minutes had a remarkable film, and because it was on dv, its physical integrity has held well.

12 possibles for looking at gun crime

1. Intervention - accept that the age of intervention to help this generation is far below 15 years - perhaps as young as 8-10 when young boys start to figure out the peverse attraction of a maligned together ness as in gangs. Perhaps what's needed is a heavier dependence on life-skills presented by a 'different' sort of teacher, capable of engaging latch key students after school, who would otherwise be up for grooming in their troubled neighborhoods

2. That at the heart of society ills is a break down in discipline. Children's rights are to be applauded but at the point when they challenge adults, even in the event of being admonished, something's wrong. Progressive liberal laws need to be reexamined, unless like the prime minister you believe gun crime is being committed by a small section of offenders - which it possibly is - but the implication is we (society) shouldn't lose our perspective.

3. Stripping teachers of any power empowers unruly kids looking to fill a power vaccum. I was once physically assualted reporting from within a school. The headteacher looked on powerless.

4. A society can't have it all ways. Some good liberal friends of mine in South Africa carry guns - some are broadcasters. "They need their Glocks for protection, against criminals", they say. I raise a non judgemental eyebrow. Now put a stressed out kid with a grudge, and no reasoning skill in the place of the broadcaster.

5. Accept politicians do not have the answers. Most politicans will never be privy to the level of unaceptable behaviour from youngesters. Yes, their children carrying guns etc. It's a world away from that transcribed to them via news headlines or even from constituents. If politicians were serious about this, they'd be moe aggresive behind the scenes campaigns and embrace of community heads who have some idea.

6. Accept that when politicans want to do something - a priority issue - dangerous dogs act, invasion of iraq - they'll muster all available resources to make it work, irrespective of the odds.

7. Tougher gun laws e.g. lower the age of criminality to 17 will have some effect, but how much. Gangs exploit the law by making minors carry guns. You're only forcing an even younger generation to become the custodians of illegal arms through the actions of those older.

8. The pressure to join a gang is intolerable for youngsters. My nephew attended a good Catholic school. His mother worked double time - white collar job - to keep him their. But in growing up he was lured by the 'intoxicating' lifestyle of friends on his estate, who could do what they wanted, anytime at anyplace. By the time my sister-in-law had a hang of what was going on, it seemed almost too late.

9. There exist in Britain a lost generation. They're gone, unreedemable. They don't respect authority and live by their own code of conduct and summary justice. That much I witnessed also in the townships of South Africa - where the I first heard the term lost generation. If you were an actuarist you'd probably say there's nothing you can do about it. Liberal society believes that a henous cop out.

10. Stronger show of force. Some are bored, some aren't salvagable. Some have no idea what they're doing. Dis them in any number of ways you'd consider irrelevant and the consequences could be dire. They're not bothered by TV News or newspaers, so there needs to be an alternative show of force to demonstrate society's unaccaeptance.
e.g. million man march. It won't stop it over night, but will raise the consciousness of the issues and the legacy.

11. The media has a fundamental point to play. Unlike some countries that use TV as social tool, we in the west haved far advanced on that, so we watch what we want with the understanding that the broadcaster has limited rights, and beyond that its up to you. If there's an audience, there's a buck to be made.
There have been assualts every other day in the UK. The media would have you believe it's only happening now. Before hand it wasn;t interested. And two days after what's happened, it's yesterday's news and has moved onto something else. If this issue merited national emergency we'd see a different media response. Wasn't it the New York Times that ran with the 911 story in some form on its front page for a whole year? Somebody wanted to keep the tragedy in the consciousness of the nation.

12. Yes it's about money, but also aggressve intervention with parents who have lost control of their charge. What can be done? Accept that nothing will change, because after all the hullabaloo, what WILL fundamentally change tomorrow?
New prisons?