Sahel journalists inspire. Also, more pain au chocolat, please
I’ve never felt as good about an event as I do today in the afterglow of a stimulating workshop last week for 21 journalists from the Sahel region of Africa. We gathered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast for a week long workshop to discuss “Strengthening the Role of Media in Countering Violent Extremism.”

My positivity can be described in three words—fraternité (to borrow a term from my French colleagues), determination, and relief.

Fraternité: In the last two years, I’ve given dozens of online workshops and lectures, and they have been uniformly adequate. We all did the best we could with the online format. However, this in-person workshop was a stark reminder that face-to-face interaction can’t be duplicated on Zoom. The participants, from Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire in French), Morocco, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Algeria, and Niger, immediately and strongly bonded. There were some serious discussions, of course, but many of their interactions featured laughter. At the end of the workshop, one participant told the group that “we have created our own family.” Indeed, many of their end-of-workshop comments featured the word family—a development that would've been impossible if we had only met online.

Determination: I leave the workshop truly inspired by the grit, courage, and determination of the participants. I’ve lectured in many troubled places like Kashmir and South Sudan, but nowhere I’ve been are journalists faced with such daunting challenges. Journalists in the Sahel have to stare down Al Qaida or Boko Haram; repressive government officials; and menacing police and army representatives. Add to this suffocating poverty and Covid-19, and finish it off with climate change manifested in the shrinking of Lake Chad, which has always been the source for water, irrigation, and food for millions in the region. The lake has shrunk by 90% since the 1960’s, according to the UN, creating unimaginable misery.

One can’t help but be encouraged and energized by the journalists' stubborn insistence on making their countries and regions a better place, despite the hurdles.

Relief—It is an indescribable relief to finally get back out there in the field teaching peace journalism. It was exhilarating being there in person. I loved chatting with the Sahel journalists. We held many memorable visits over breakfast, lunch, or tea about their countries and our collective hopes and dreams. I saw delightful pictures of their kids.

Oh, and the food in Ivory Coast was spectacular, especially the seafood and pastries. I could eat a pain au chocolat (a croissant-like pastry stuffed with chocolate) every day for the rest of my life.

I still feel relief being back on the road there even though Covid-era travel has become nightmarish, with Q-Tips up my nose (WAY UP), countless forms to fill out, and lengthy question and answer sessions at airline ticket counters, soul-crushing places where time actually moves backwards. My trip home was 29 hours door to door. Still, I can’t wait to do this all over again soon, perhaps in Nigeria and/or Pakistan this year.

See you out there. For my visit, please stock up on the pain au chocolat.