A MoJo's journal of reportages, multimedia & resources
[Nairobi, Kenya 29°] A return to Nairobi after a heavy schedule across seven cities and countless villages throughout Southern Sudan leaves me tired and ready for a holiday in Tanzania. First a safari near Arusha, then a beachside break on the island of Zanzibar.
I haven’t had the opportunity to post in the last two weeks as I continued to visit sites, interview people and learn more about the complexities of Southern Sudan.
[Abyei Town, Abyei Transitional Area, Sudan 40°C] Abousfian Abdelrazik is a man from Montréal whose been living in ‘temporary safe haven’ in the Canadian Embassy in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, since late April 2008. He has been in Sudan since March 2003, when he went to visit his mother. According to a timeline of his [...]
Exactly three weeks ago, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the President of Sudan, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur. Like many people in Sudan, I was glued to the television set to view the announcement. It was 4 p.m.
[Warrap Town, Southern Sudan 40°C] Eight of us climb into the Land Cruiser and leave the World Vision compound at around 11h00. We drive to the brick storage room, where refrigerators store vaccinations for the immunization program that takes place in different villages every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Tonj North County. We load tables and chairs onto the roof of the vehicle; carefully place coollers of vaccines against meningitis, tetanus, measles into the back, and toss boxes of syringes, gauze and rubber gloves under the vehicles back benches. Five children congregate by the passenger door to get a closer look at the khawaja: me the white man in the front seat. Half of them are naked. All of them reluctent to shake this khawaja’s hand, despite customary protocol.
[Warrap Town, Southern Sudan 38°C] When I started BurningBillboard.org, I began work as a mobile journalist. ‘MoJo’ for short because it sounds cool. You know, “MoJo Rising” à la Jim Morrison. A MoJo by definition must be autonomous and self-sustained, able to gather information, edit it and forward it for publication or broadcast; from anywhere, to anywhere. To do this, the MoJo needs equipment, media contacts and the ability communicate with them. The MoJo also needs to the capacity to edit and communicate the audio, video, photographic or text-based information. Mobility suggests that the equipment should be compact and easy to transport during news gathering projects. It also suggests that movement is perpetual.
Sudan in Transition South Sudan New Agency AllAfrica - Sudan