Howard University has given the National Association of African Journalists (NAAJ) a free office space to use as its national secretariat.
The gesture was approved recently by Dr. Jannette L. Dates, dean of Howard University’s John H. Johnson School of Communications in Washington, D.C.
The deal also has the backing of Prof. Phillip Dixon, journalism department chair and Dr. Larry Kaggwa, Ugandan-born journalism professor and member of the African journalism organization also known as NAAJ.
The new NAAJ secretariat will be located at the lower level of the school of communications near the District Chronicles, an independent community newspaper. It has space for a conference room and a main office.
The secretariat will be rent-free, but the organization will be responsible for expenditure to staff and furnish it.
Howard University also will allow the NAAJ to use the Howard University Television (WHUT) studio for its press conferences with visiting African presidents, ambassadors to the United States and other political and business leaders involved with the African continent.
“This will accomplish one of our goals, which is for the NAAJ to serve as a forum for visiting African presidents and other prominent Africans to address African journalists on the situation in their various countries,” said Eyobong Ita, the NAAJ founder and interim president who works as a reporter for The Kansas City Star in Missouri. “We will be working with African embassies to work us into the itineraries of such people. Hopefully, no longer will they have to go to the National Press Club for their briefings.”
The National Association of African Journalists was inaugurated Aug. 7 at Howard University.
About 60 members that included active and former African journalists and publishers from Nigeria, Mali, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cameroon and other countries, attended the inauguration.
The new association is aimed at promoting unity among African journalists and others involved with the African media, as well as overcoming prejudice against African journalists in the American and other foreign media.
It hopes to assist its members with developing new skills at practicing journalism in the United States.
A Howard University alum, Ita said about 90 percent of African journalists who started their careers in Africa have not been able to practice in the United States, according to a survey before the inauguration. He said that because of their African accent, broadcast journalists are the worst affected.
On Nov. 6, the group will hold a national workshop for its members in New York City.
“One of the reasons for forming the National Association of African Journalists is to give such journalists a second chance at journalism,” said Ita, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and secretary of the Kansas City chapter of NABJ.
PHOTO CAPTION: Ita Eyobong
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