Guinée Décalée: providing news through satire

This week, an interview with Djamilatou Bah from the website guineedecalee.com in Guinea.

Djamilatou Bah, 29, is the co-founder of the news website guineedecalee.com.
Launched in Conakry on 22 May 2017, this website (the name of which literally means 'Offbeat Guinea') aims to shake up the conventional ways in which news is reported online, by using a medium that is rather rare in Guinea: satire.

Apart from the newspaper Le Lynx (where Djamilatou once worked herself), Guinea has no satirical press to speak of. Using this void as a starting point, Djamilatou set up her website with one particular aim in mind:

“I want to report news through the power of laughter. People visit our website not only to keep abreast of the latest developments, but also for a bit of light relief."

Today, Djamilatou is the Director of Publications within a five person team.

Seeking to stand out

Djamilatou and her colleagues spent months refining this ambitious project, which they developed in the 'coworking' area at the Be the change, located in the Taouyah district of Conakry. Since launching the platform, Djamilatou and her team have spent most of their time working from home, favouring teleconferences over actual physical meetings. This has allowed them to significantly cut back on expenses, especially by not having to rent any offices. The team, which is made up of recently graduated journalists, wants to stand out from the crowd, and the formula used seems to be working well, judging by the number of people visiting the website.

“We want to be different from all the other news websites in Guinea, even if this means provoking people in order to make our voices heard," reveals Djamilatou.

To amuse its readers, the articles on the website guineedecalee.com often include French puns and expressions originating from Guinean dialects.
The website is now also seeking to take on a more 'citizen-centric' dimension. It adopts a playful tone when dealing with topics focusing on the traditions and taboos of Guinean society.

Djamilatou Bah, Director of Publications for the website guineedécalée.com in Guinea.

For Djamilatou, going digital was a no-brainer, due to the immediateness and visibility on offer. In the long term, she is planning to create a paper version of the website, in order to reach out to an age group different from its current target group: the over-45s.

Journalism – a difficult profession in Guinea

Being a journalist is certainly no picnic in this country of 13 million people, tucked away in western Africa. Since completing her studies in literature and journalism at the Mahatma Gandhi University and embarking on her career as a journalist, Djamilatou has witnessed a number of blows suffered by her counterparts, the most recent relating to the (untrue) rumours of the death of Guinea's President, Alpha Condé, which were wrongly attributed to Gangan FM. The arrest of one of the radio station's directors sparked clashes between the police and journalists, who had flocked to the sub-urban prefecture of Matam in Conakry to show their support for their colleague.
Despite all this, the situation today is better than what it once was; until 2010, slander constituted a criminal offence in Guinea.

As well as these difficulties, the job is made even harder by the snarling traffic jams clogging up Conakry's highways, which make travelling from one place to another far from easy, and the country's internet speeds, which are still very slow.

Innovative reporting methods

One of the website's primary objectives is to diversify the news being offered to the people of Guinea, by providing a new type of online content. Guinée Décalée has been entirely self-funded, and the website is now finding it increasingly difficult to remain financially independent. The initiative has so far not generated any profits, and Djamilatou is using her savings to pay its journalists. She also covers their transport expenses when they travel to sites in order to verify information. In a media landscape in which many journalists are often unprofessional, those at Guinée Décalée are encouraged to rigorously check all facts before posting their reports on the website.

The satirical format must never be used as an excuse for negligence. In the age of mobile videos and lightweight equipment, the editorial staff works with smartphones, two cameras, voice recorders and laptops.

Screenshot of the website guineedecalee.com

In December 2017, Djamilatou took part in CFI's Naila project, in which she benefited from a week's training in online media management in Dakar.

“It was a real godsend, as it allowed me to consolidate my management skills. It also gave me the chance to meet other journalists from the region who have to face up to the same difficulties as we do in Conakry. I was able to learn from their day-to-day experiences."

In January, Djamilatou travelled to Senegal for the second guidance phase.

Today, Djamilatou is delighted at the direction in which guineedecalee.com is going..
The positive feedback received from its readers forms a significant source of motivation to keep battling on and eventually establish Guinée Décalée as a key player in Guinean news.