The Africa Reporting Project is an initiative of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the project is a year-long initiative that includes two courses to educate the reporters about global food issues, agriculture, and agricultural history in Africa. A combination of general overviews and detailed case studies, each course is designed to equip reporters with the knowledge they’ll need in their travels to sub-Saharan Africa. Along with the instruction of Martha Saavedra (Africa Studies), Neil Henry (Graduate School of Journalism), Beth Hoffman and Cassandra Herrman, the class offers presentations by experts in agriculture.

The Instructors

Neil Henry worked for 16 years as a metro, national and foreign correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya for The Washington Post, and as a staff writer for Newsweek magazine.  He joined the faculty at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 1993. A former John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, he is the author of a 2002 racial history, Pearl’s Secret. His second book, American Carnival, examining the problems of the news industry’s adjustment to the digital age, was published in May, 2007.  In May 2009, Professor Henry’s appointment as dean, which began on a transitional basis in July 2007, was made permanent. Dean Henry produced important  new initiatives at the School during his first two years in the post, including an award winning digital news initiative in which J-School students in the program’s core reporting classes are producing local news content in multimedia formats for Bay Area communities.

Cassandra Herrman is a documentary filmmaker based in Berkeley, California.  She recently produced a story about legendary Afrobeat singer Fela Kuti for the new PBS global music series “Sound Tracks”.  Prior to that, she co-directed and photographed “Tulia, Texas”, the story of a small town struggling with the aftermath of a controversial drug sting. “Tulia, Texas” broadcast on the PBS series INDEPENDENT LENS in 2009.  For PBS’ FRONTLINE/World, she has produced and filmed numerous documentaries in Africa, including stories about human rights in Zimbabwe; female runners in Kenya; and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, nominated for a 2006 National Emmy Award.  Cassandra received her master’s degree from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2001.

Martha Saavedra is the Associate Director of the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies. Trained as a Political Scientist at UCB, she has taught at St. Mary’s College of California, UC Berkeley and Ohio University. Her research and publications have ranged from agrarian politics, development and ethnic conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan to gender, sport and development in Africa to representations of Africa in Chinese popular culture.  She is on the editorial boards of Soccer and Society; Sport in Society; and Impumelelo: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Sports in Africa. At the Center, she coordinates the UnderstandingSudan.org and the Horn of Africa curriculum projects, oversees public programs and fellowships, and works closely with the African languages program.

Beth Hoffman is a freelance radio and multimedia producer, and a writer specializing in food and agriculture reporting.  She was a frequent contributor at Utah’s NPR station KUER, and airs nationally on NPR, The World, Latino USA and Living on Earth. She completed a series on the artistic, cultural and environmental connections to food called Bite Sized, and a year long documentary radio project with photographer Sean Graff entitled Old World, New Kitchen.  Beth also worked as Senior Interviewer and Researcher for the Center for Documentary Arts (CDA). She currently publishes on bethaudio.com.

The Reporters

Bernice Agyekwena is a native of Navorongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana. She is a graduate of the Ghana Institute of Journalism where she specialized in Economic Reporting. She freelanced and worked with Ghana News Agency for several years, before going back to school and earning a bachelor’s degree in social science and a master’s degree in social communication from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2006. Back in Ghana Bernice joined the Rural Media Network, an Advocacy and Development Communication Non-governmental Organization as Communications Manager.

Noemie Bisserbe is a bilingual journalist who has worked in Asia, Europe and North America. Originally from France, Noemie grew up near Washington D.C., before moving back to Paris. Prior to coming to Berkeley, Noemie spent six years in India where she worked for the weekly business magazine Business World and The Economic Times, India’s largest financial daily. She spent one year in India’s Sillicon valley, Bangalore, covering the country’s booming Information Technology (IT) industry for The Economic Times, before moving to Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, in 2005. Noemie specialized on the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, international trade, security and agriculture. She shifted to New Delhi and Business World in 2008, to focus on policy issues. Noemie has also written for French business daily, Les Echos, Paris-based monthly magazine, Alternatives Economiques and for Montreal-based daily, Le Devoir. She is a graduate from Lille’s EDHEC Business School and Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Management (IIMB).

Bryan Gibel is a reporter and producer in his second year at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He began working as a journalist three years ago as a bilingual newspaper reporter in New Mexico, while moonlighting as a reporter/producer at a public radio station. Since coming to Berkeley he has become deeply involved in-depth  reporting and visual storytelling, spending nearly all his time tracking down documents and interviews or looking at the world through the lens of a photo or video camera.He speaks three languages fluently and has reported and published in English, Spanish and Portuguese. He worked as a foreign correspondent in Brazil in the summer of 2010, and he will travel to South Africa and Burkina Faso in December to produce a multimedia documentary on biotechnology in Africa in collaboration with a radio producer from Senegal. Bryan was awarded a Mark Felt Scholarship for Investigative Reporting in 2010 and holds a B.A. in international studies with honors from the University of Chicago.

Jerome Hubbard is a reporter with a public relations and print background pursuing a master’s degree in multimedia journalism. Before entering the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, he interned with the South Bend Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and four professional sports teams.  In 2009, he co-launched Richmond Confidential, one of the hyperlocal news websites at the journalism school. This past summer, he was a multimedia intern with the Oakland Raiders, where he produced various multimedia assignments for the team’s Website. While Jerome has covered a variety of topics throughout much of his career, his true passions are in covering race, sports and social issues.

Neelima Mahajan is an Indian journalist with nine-plus years of experience in business journalism. She has worked with some of India’s best known publications such as Forbes India, The Times of India and Businessworld. Neelima has a keen interest in management thought and has done extensive work in the domain. Neelima has a special interest in Africa as she was born in Kenya and spent a significant part of her childhood in Uganda and Zambia.

Mwendalubi Maumbi is a journalist with over 10 years of experience based in Livingstone, Zambia. She has extensively worked for different radio stations as Senior Producer, News Editor and Programs Manager. In 2006, she became the producer of a weekly radio serial drama as part of a greater behavior change communication strategy called Modeling and Reinforcement to Combat HIV/AIDS, MARCH. She is also co-owner of Creative South Productions which produces and distributes mostly radio programs on, among other issues, civic awareness, climate change, HIV/AIDS, Business, Agriculture and general entertainment. I co-wrote my debut short screen film in 2008 called When the Music Stops as part of Southern Africa regional One Love Campaign. After her studies at Berkeley, she would like to return to Zambia to continue consolidating my company and its vision of producing distinctive, entertaining, culturally diverse, challenging and relevant audiovisual works that provide Zambia and the world a unique Zambian perspective.

Lily Mihalik is a multimedia and print journalist interested in science, environmental, and national history reporting. Before arriving at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Lily interned at KQED Public Radio and then moved north to work at Seattle’s KUOW. Most recently Lily spent the summer reporting on Grizzly bears, ship anchors and invasive plants in Sitka Alaska. She has a a special interest in science, agriculture and sports reporting.

Laurel Moorhead got her start in the magazine world in 2008 as a part-time editorial intern for the San Francisco-based travel magazine, Everywhere, followed by six months at the photography magazine, JPG. The experience lead her to drop everything and pursue a full-time career in journalism. She’s now working toward her masters and is in her second year at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She specialized in video and print. Two of her short Washington Post Website in July and she has been a writer and editor for etc. Magazine and OaklandNorth.net.

Elisabeth-Laure Njipwo is a Cameroonian journalist based in Senegal. Before coming to Berkeley, she worked as a bilingual radio producer (French and English) for West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR). For the last five years she has been an active member of a broadcast production team covering Africa in general and West Africa in particular by satellite relay, FM and streaming with the immense support of a dynamic team of young reporters in about 15 countries. Elisabeth-Laure holds a Master’s degree in Marketing and Business Intelligence from IAM, Institut Africain de Management (African Institute of Management) and is a graduate of ISC, Institut Superieur de Communication, all Dakar-based institutes. This combination of disciplines has contributed meaningfully in her magazine productions mostly targeting the rural world and all oriented on health, agriculture and rural development as well as environmental issues.

Paige Ricks is a multimedia and photojournalist finishing her second year of graduate school at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Before entering graduate school, she wrote and was the features editor for her campus newspaper, The Collegian. Paige has interned at the Fresno Magazine and the Cal Alumni Magazine, as well as published articles for Oakland North, the graduate school’s hyperlocal news Website, and the Stanford Alumni Magazine. Although Paige has reported and photographed diverse topics, her interests stem from culture, arts, and fashion.

Fabiane Stefano is a Brazilian journalist who for over the last 10 years, she has covered economics, finances and agriculture. She began as a reporter in O Estado de S. Paulo, one of the main daily newspaper of Brazil, and moved to IstoÉ Dinheiro, a weekly business magazine. In 2004, she participated in the launching of a monthly agribusiness magazine, Dinheiro Rural. Since 2007, she has worked for Exame, the leading business magazine in Brazil, published by Editora Abril. Fabiane has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Unesp (Paulista State University) and holds a master’s degree in Multimedia from Unicamp (State University of Campinas). In 2008, she finished her MBA in Financial Markets and Economic Information at FIA (Administration Institute Foundation).