At our first Masterclass on Foreign Policy Reporting, “Covering the World from Africa”, KAS Media Africa brought African journalists to Berlin from 26 to 30 October 2026. Together, we explored how global politics looks when African interests, perspectives and voices are placed at the center of the story.
The masterclass was guided by senior journalists and foreign policy experts, including Heather Thuynsma from the University of Pretoria, China-Expert Cobus van Staden from Johannesburg, former German ambassador and journalist Christoph Eichhorn, Africa-Expert and book author Michela Wrong and South African journalist Nickolaus Bauer.
The discussions moved from theory to journalistic practice. Participants examined Africa-EU relations, Germany’s Africa policy, China’s engagement with the continent, Russian disinformation and the role of African institutions in peace and security. Rather than accepting official statements at face value, they learned to read between the lines of policy guidelines, agreements and summit communiqués, asking whose interests were reflected, which perspectives were missing and what the real news story might be. The journalists developed precise questions, assigned roles within the group and learned to recognise common evasions, from procedural deflections to attempts to reframe the premise of a question.
Beyond the theoretical sessions, the programme took participants into the institutions where foreign policy is analysed, shaped and communicated. Visits to the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and Megatrends Afrika, the Federal Foreign Office, the South African Embassy and Deutsche Welle provided valuable opportunities for direct exchange, critical questioning and learning through practice.
