Utilizing the perseverance they developed from passing through life punctuated by hardship, working diligently with a passion and throwing full weight behind their field of choice some youngsters outshine even before they reach middle age. In expanding the frontier of their knowledge, they give no room for complacence. They as well display personal and professional integrity. In today’s edition of success column we shall introduce you to a journalist-turned-instructor who could be taken as EPA’s fruit. Of late he is internationally published.
Welcome to the Success column of The Ethiopian Herald’s Special Sunday Edition.
Who is Abera Wendwossen? Tell us about where you were born, your upbringing high school life and the like.
Abera – First I want to say thank you for making me an interviewee on your success column. Coming to your question who Abera is, I think I can characterize myself as a Shepherd- turned-journalist-and-instructor.
He obviously did not know he would arrive at this point, while he herded sheep and cows in rural- grassy mountains and bushes-covered hills.
I was born in Northern Shewa, in a historically famed place known as Menz. I only have a blurred memory of this place but I remember that following the divorce of my parents, my father took me to an area called Mile. There I encountered a strange culture. Unlike the culture in my former abode, I had to eat camel’s beef and drink goat milk. I had also to adopt a different Oromiffa dialect. As the saying goes “Do in Rome as Romans do,” my father had to pretend that he had accepted Allah. I think that had helped him to acquire some plots of land for farming. We left Mile in 1988 and moved to Asella where my grandfather was living. I was eight then. So I grew up there.
Brief us about your academic pursuit all the way up to where you are now?
Abera – The move to Asella was decisive for my education. I attended my primary education in a school known as Goah, located in one of the hills that make up Chilalo Mountain. We took bird’s eye view of Asella town from there. Born to illiterate parents I was not that an active kid in my early school days. Anyways, with great passion and interest for my education, I made it to high schools and preparatory schools there. I must not hide that I passed through a serious of challenges that might have deflected my fortunes had it not been for God’s miraculous intervention and help. However tricky life continued to be, my passion to move forward helped me a lot. Attending school I had to simulteniously fend for myself. I had to go through drudge including farming, masonry and casual works.
I joined Dilla University in 2001 and studied Journalism and Communication.
It was somehow amazing that I studied journalism and later became a journalist because my language teachers who used to teach me back in my high school days always advised me in Oromifa “ Atti Gazexessaa ta’u qabda” which means, you better become a journalist in the future. Their prophecy came to pass.
I had interest in law too. In fact, I performed to the best of my capacity in Dilla University because it allowed me to dedicate much time to focus on my courses. I graduated with distinction and few months after that, I joined The Ethiopian Herald newspaper as junior reporter. Some solid years later I became an instructor of journalism at Dilla University. There I got a chance to pursue post graduate education at Addis Ababa University. I received MA in journalism once again. I graduated with CGPA of 4:00 having an excellent-graded thesis/research. I was in fact the 2017 MA student Medalist from the college of Social Sciences and Humanities. Currently, I am a fifth-year student of Law at Bahir Dar University.
Journalism was my first career. As a novice journalist then, I had passed through days of trying one’s hands writing news and articles. I cherish those days because innumerable assignments honed my skills. I always prefer to learn the hardest way. I count myselfe so lucky to have joined The Ethiopian Herald newspaper. As a young reporter passion was all in my skins, blood and bones.
I was eager to cover stories of every nature. I remember days when I made two reportages— covered two political and diplomatic events in a day. Of all these, the day I stayed past midnight at the Ethiopian National Palace waiting the end of the reconciliation between rival groups of South Sudan remains seared on my memory. That day, I called EPA’s driver to take me to my small lodging in Saris (I dare say the lodging was a room not wider than a bed size). He was afraid to get into a dark ally. He dropped me by the road side. Hence, I had to walk on foot groping in the dark. Luckily, those gangs were not on my way.
As a viewpoint columnist and reporter, I was relatively focused on political and diplomatic events. So, you can imagine how much experience I had drawn from the interviews I held with prominent personalities and officials including the then prime minister. I did attend innumerable daily press conferences, reconciliations, international high-level summits and parliament meetings. As a young journalist, I was fond of field trips. Through the exposure I sensed the world more practically. The experience helped me to write the story of people that suffer in refugee camps, cultural amalgams Ethiopia boasts and civilizations that hovers high the name Ethiopia on the global arena.
There were different challenges though. You know that journalism was sometimes a prototype of public relations, where one has to defend the ruling party and one’s employer inured to conscience pang. Guided by and bristling with the then TPLF commandments, truth had to be compromised and the government had to be flattered by reportages colored by hyperboles and appreciations.
While I was a reporter, I was sent to an event that had no public importance. I was forced to make news out of such an event as the then boss was ordered to do so. Sadly, we had to make news on something the veracity of which we cannot assure. I think one of the reasons that pushed me to desert the field and join a university as an instructor is the cumulative effect of these dissatisfactions in the nature of politics and organizational corruption.
How is it like being an instructor of journalism after having a firsthand knowledge of reporting at Ethiopian Press Agency? Also how did you find Ethiopian Press Agency?
Abera – It was an opportunity for me as I had interest to continue MA education. A year later I joined AAU. The knowledge and experience that I drew from Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) became a cornerstone for me both as an instructor and writer. I do not believe there could be a good asset for journalism students than to be instructed by a man who knows what is meant by writing quality news in the nick of time and producing readable articles meeting deadline circumventing language barriers like those seasoned journalists found at the EPA.
I was never short of examples in my teaching. Off hand I could present instances borrowed from those experiences whenever I teach media research, Newspaper production and contemporary writings. I tell students about the challenges and opportunities of modern journalism from the logic derived from those big experiences. It is like a jig saw puzzle. I have tested that one who teaches journalism must at least have some experiences. Otherwise, it would be like a father that does not have inkling about agriculture lectures his boy how to plough a land.
You have now become an internationally published author and a journalist-turned -instructor? Could you brief us about that? How is life in Hawassa Univercity\
Abera – Yes, the material that was published was the research I conducted during my MA study. It was about how the popular Oromo protest was portrayed and framed by some newspaper organizations in Ethiopia in contrast to the narratives created by the international media organizations like Aljazeera. As I said, my thesis was labeled excellent by the research committee of AAU school of journalism. I had a good advisor, Dr Getachew Dinku who has now become a Minister for Ethiopian Broadcast Authority. I tried to get the paper published soon after I graduated but I preferred to add some ongoing media scenarios. I think this research is something that I did best provided my journalistic background. And
I am very thankful to great editors who used to be my friends too. Even later they were by me as researcher. In this work, I was able to show how the government through its media controlling power manipulated realities to construct the otherwise ideologically oriented bad narrative against innocent protesters in the Oromo Community. Many will be amazed by those news stories and articles if they now read them in the appendices of my research. It was totally a public betrayal. Anyways, that is not a surprise anymore because the media transformed from the old bad instrument to a new revalorizer of hate.
What messages do you convey to youngsters who want to join the field?
Abera- We need an alternative journalism these days. And I believe that an alternative journalism demands an alternative new journalist in whose heart race and ethnicity are not entrenched. Therefore, youngsters have to join the field and have to replace the old that is tight tied by the ethnicity belt. A young journalist has pop up on the media platform with a good training. Such a journalist that sees people as people not groups must prevail over those who want to divide us.
What ways forward do you recommend to Ethiopia in utilizing the media (including the social media)
Abera – Journalism can protect a country only if it is well handled. My message to those who have owned media as their private property is you must stop conveying and dumping their self-seeking ideas. We are in a critical situation and any media that want to ensure Ethiopia’s furtherance must exercise care. This threat of clashes must signal to them the importance of being impartial to all people. Social media users who fuel violence are few in number but have millions of followers. The solution to deter this social media war is not chasing the millions but to legally stop the few that fan the fire.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 1 December 2019
By ALEM HAILU
