African Ringer’s bell gets louder
Ringing the giant African bell through storytelling
The renowned Austrian-born American journalist, Henry Anatole Grunwald once said, “Journalism can never be silent. That is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph, and the signs of horror are still in the air.” I always reflected on this quote as the only top female editor in my publication.
This was because there were days I dreaded attending editorial meetings. This was because at times when I proposed that a story about women or children be given the front page, my male colleagues often gave priority to business news or politics.
Women, children and health stories would always find themselves hidden in the middle of the newspaper. This disturbed me as a woman journalist who was keen on gender sensitive content. I also wondered why some of my male colleagues would not root for such content. Well, my hands were tied since I had no control over the newspaper. I only held on to the hope that someday, I would be able to pave my own way for gender inclusivity in the media content.
So in April when Covid-19 pandemic brought about economic challenges across the globe, I lost my job. That night instead of throwing myself a pity party, the idea of Africa Ringer was born. The following day I called Anne Kidmose, a colleague I had worked with in my newsroom team and told her about African Ringer and asked her if we could partner and “ring the bell” about women, children and health issues in the continent. Since Anne and I are passionate about the same issues, it was an affirmative and soon we were hitting our keyboards registering our newsletter on Substack. African Ringer is a newsletter dedicated to great conversation about African women and children plus health.
And soon enough, we were doing thorough reporting through the pandemic, we were ringing our bell loud enough through solutions based story telling which appeals to wider audience like affluent women, parents, academia, diplomatic corps, activists, policy makers and health practitioners. All these groups have keen interest in nuanced reported stories.
African Ringer focuses on news and analytical articles bridging disciplines about women, children, and health in Africa.
It is hosted by Substack (africanringer.substack.com). We take a deeper look at neglected women, children and health issues. We also publish photo essays and infographics.
And while we were busy with how to sustain our project, came the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY which we jointly applied. Fortunately, I was accepted. The fellowship took me on a journey which completely revolutionized my thinking about journalism.
I learnt how to move African Ringer from one level to the other and adjust many things about our previous approach. The idea of building membership, developing business model and prototype, networking with partners and sponsors were all introduced during the 100-day intense course. It also helped me develop new perspectives about independence journalism. This is because since I graduated from the university I have spent all my time in the newsroom editing and writing stories. So this was an opportunity to loosen the mainstream newsroom chains and embark on our own media path.
The program actually gave us all the tools we needed to run African Ringer and turn it into a mini-media empire. And while at it, I am going to inspire younger generations about journalism by introducing journalism clubs to some schools in Tanzania and Kenya. We are also going to create a children corner to develop their curious minds.
The front-page of African Ringer shows recent published stories, a mix of features and analyses. We also boast personal stories and reporting from the ground that offers explanations or sheds new light on under covered issues.
African Ringer stories combine on-the-ground reporting, real life stories and data, and has a solution-oriented methodology. We are looking at solutions to problems that affect women, children and their communities daily. To receive updates and more stories from African Ringer, readers are nudged to sign up:
After signing up, readers receive a weekly email with new published stories. While some stories will be free, others — such as investigative pieces — will be behind a pay wall. Anne and I hope the sound of the African Ringer bell will get loud enough and all the off-beat pieces that mainstream media ignored about women and children plus health issues will get the attention they deserve and bring impact to the society through solutions based storytelling.
