Hounded: African Journalists in Exile

"Power hates scrutiny. Many of those who rule us will pay any price to be rid of critical voices and the news platforms that amplify them."

This book is a collection of 16 autobiographical essays by exiled editors, reporters, bloggers, and other media workers from West, Central, East, and Southern Africa. The essays share their accounts of how their unrelenting conviction to tell the truth forced them to flee their homelands and live in exile.

Intended as a tribute to journalists and a record of history, the book seeks to shed light on the high price African journalists are paying for unearthing the truth and keeping anti-democratic authorities in check. As explained by the editor, "Stripped of the names of journalist victims and the countries they come from, the stories are depressingly similar. Whether it's the midnight phone threats to a newspaper editor in Sani Abacha's Nigeria or the volley of bullets fired at a news correspondent's car in Somalia, the willingness to lock up journalists or kill them because of divergent opinion makes Africa a numbingly dangerous place for independent reporting."

The book came about as KAS Media Africa, the Media Programme of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, had planned to hold a convention that would bring together exiled journalists to talk about their experiences of persecution. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference had to be cancelled, and the decision was made to produce a book instead.

The following is a list of the articles, including the authors and the countries they come from:

1. Guerrillas in the newsroom - Dapo Olorunyomi, Nigeria
2. Nightmare of news, guns and dollars - Kiwanuka Lawrence Nsereko, Uganda
3. A scoop and the general's revenge - Keiso Mohloboli, Lesotho
4. Haunted by a political blog - Makaila N'Guebla, Chad
5. Nine Zones and a passion for justice - Soleyana Shimeles Gebremichael, Ethiopia
6. Through Gambia's halls of injustice - Sainey MK Marenah, The Gambia
7. Terror and death in Somalia - Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, Somalia
8. Giving voice to a persecuted minority - Mimi Mefo Takambou, Cameroon
9. Escape from Burundi's killing fields - Bob Rugurika, Burundi
10. The split personality of Madagascar - Michèle Rakotoson, Madagascar
11. A reform struggle's radical voice - Pius Nyamora, Kenya
12. Cost of fighting a political dynasty - Farida Nabourema, Togo
13. Behind Eritrea's iron curtain - Fathi Osman, Eritrea
14. Three presidents and a gadfly - Ansbert Ngurumo, Tanzania
15. Newspapers as an opposition force - Wilf Mbanga, Zimbabwe
16. Journalism and genocide denial - Fred Muvunyi, Rwanda