Stephanie Nolen is without a doubt one of my favourite
journalists. Based in Johannesburg, she travels around Africa writing lengthy
features not just about the latest humanitarian crises (though she covers those
beautifully too), but also about the “good news” stories she uncovers: a
seed-sharing program in Malawi that’s turned the country around from famine to
surplus, or an AIDS clinic in the heart of the Congo – essentially a lawless
no-man’s-land – where the doctor and nurses continue to distribute
anti-retrovirals to HIV-positive locals. I saw Stephanie speak a couple of
years ago (she’s a graduate of the journalism school at the university where I
did my undergrad) and she said then that as far as she knew, she was one of only
two permanently-based Canadian journalists in the entire African continent.
That may have changed now, with “Africa” being such a hot topic these days
(somebody has to be on hand to cover the latest celebrity adoption…) but I’ll
take her coverage over just about anybody’s. I don’t know if you can call her
pieces “human interest stories”, given the often-grim subject matter, but each
and every one of her stories incorporates the political background without
forgetting that there are actual people involved. When she writes, there is
never any way to escape the fact that she is describing the every-day
experiences of real human beings.

Her latest story, about a specialized forensics team that is
still searching for the remains of South Africa’s missing in the
aftermath of apartheid, is a prime example. It’s available for free on The
Globe and Mail site for a few days, then it will go to a subscribers-only
set-up. Check it out while you can!

Stephanie also has a few of her older pieces up on her website, in
html or pdf formats. Be forewarned that the piece on Rwanda, one in a series
she wrote for the 10th anniversary of the genocide in 2004, is
probably the single most horrifying thing I’ve ever read – and considering I basically majored in crimes-against-humanity studies in college, that is saying
something. Having said that, I think it is absolutely worth reading.

She publishes a new feature in The Globe and Mail most
Saturdays – if you’re at all interested in contemporary Africa
and tired of brief Reuters reports filled with all the usual clichés, I’d
suggest keeping an eye out for her latest.