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Narrative journalism conference: Telling Africa's stories

11 April 2006

The Nieman Foundation at Harvard University's Narrative Journalism Centre and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, invited Dr Ndaeyo Uko, from the Journalism Department at Monash’s Gippsland campus, to present papers for a plenary session and a workshop at the Narrative Journalism Conference: Telling Africa's Story, held in Johannesburg recently.

Dr Ndaeyo Uko from the Monash Gippsland campus
Award-winning authors who presented at the conference included Mr Mark Kramer, Narrative Programme Director, Nieman Foundation, Harvard University and keynote speaker Mr Adam Hochschild, who teaches writing at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley and is founder and director of the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard University.

Based on the positive responses to Dr Uko’s presentations on “Narrative news gathering techniques: journalistic interview and aggressive observation”, the organisers of this annual conference have invited him to present again next year.

Dr Uko was also invited by editors of three major South African newspapers who attended the conference - Sunday Times, The Star, and Sowetan - to present informal workshops on narrative reporting to their editorial staff.

Monash is one of the very few Australian universities specialising in narrative journalism.

Dr Uko has worked in Nigeria, the UK and the US as a news reporter. He introduced narrative writing to the Pulitzer-winning Daily News (St Thomas, US Virgin Islands) and has the knack for getting the rarest interviews. For example, in Nigeria, he became the first and only journalist to get a one-on-one interview with a Nigerian military dictator. He is the author of "The rock 'n' rule years: A satirist's view of Nigeria's military presidency," and has written a book on narrative storytelling which is under contract with a major US publisher.

Dr Uko founded the International Centre for the Advancement of Journalism in Accra, Ghana, and Birmingham, Alabama, USA. The Centre conducts regular training for reporters and editors in West and Central Africa.