What’s the story of Gaston Yamaro, the relentless self-taught man?
Gaston Yamaro has been working with CFI for 10 years, first as a beneficiary, then as a co-trainer and finally as a trainer. Born into a family that was "totally destitute", this self-taught man is now the director of Deeman Radio-TV and a trainer recognised outside of Benin. Portrait.
Long day, little voice. After helping Senegalese journalists edit their reports, Gaston Yamaro, 47, the Beninese coach for the Afri'Kibaaru project, gives an update in his daily voice note. "He's so passionate that he sometimes leaves our radio station late after the driver has called him to go back home! Thanks to him, our Facebook page has become much more dynamic, growing from 7,000 to 15,000 followers", says Bedy Mbow Konte, general manager of Jokkoo FM in Rufisque.
Eight years earlier, at the end of 2016, having taken part in a training course for trainers in Burkina Faso two years earlier, Gaston took part in the workshop to launch Dialogues Citoyens Bénin 1 (Benin Citizens dialogue 1). The CFI team asked him to moderate one of the debates: "To achieve this, I spent all night reading the project. I was then asked to become a co-trainer. Since then, I've told myself that I was right to look for local information and to take an interest in digital, whereas up until then I thought I was just tinkering around”. Falylath Babah Daouda, his cousin, remembers: "As a child, Gaston used to tinker with radios to get them working. At the time he had a very small voice, a woman's voice! To forge a new personality, he isolated himself in the bushland and imitated the voices of RFI... We weren't sure he'd make it as a journalist, but through persistence, he managed to express his imposing voice in his columns”.
"He inspires us to get more out of ourselves"
Radio, Gaston Yamaro's inseparable travel companion: "I was brought up with it, because my father, a carpenter, listened to the news every day at home and at work!” But making a living from his passion has been a struggle: "In our totally destitute family, we sometimes didn't have enough to eat, but I had to go to school and work as a mason's assistant or in the fields to pay for my schooling”. Through his perseverance, Gaston obtained a master's degree in language and communication sciences at the University of Abomey-Calavi. His dream is still very much alive... "His first report for our newspaper was impeccable - not a comma to be deleted! In just three months, he has risen through the ranks. He then went to Arzeke FM. In his columns, he recounted our daily lives as Beninese and dealt the truth to politicians. At broadcast time, the whole town of Parakou would stop breathing to listen! recalls Charles Ahmed Sounon, his first boss at the daily “Le Nouvel Essor”.
podcast
Modest and determined, Gaston Yamaro explains: "I don't think there's anything you can't learn for yourself. I then went to specialists to clear up my doubts and become more professional. I'm trying to get the people who work with me to do the same”. Gaston is the director of Deeman Radio-TV, and has inspired people, in particular his editorial secretary Tairou Saré: "Simple and rigorous, he wants everyone to learn through self-training. He gives you a few guidelines, then lets you get on with it, and when you slip up, he calls you up on it. It pushes us to be better. Today, he travels a lot as a trainer and then shares what he has learnt in our media”.
Sahadou Ali Zato, Gaston Yamaro's coach, looks back over the last 10 years: "He challenges himself and learns from day to day. As a trainer, the gentleman who used to speak softly now speaks in a more assured manner. By learning from others, he improves his own professional practice in the media. He has also done a lot of self-training and has managed to develop his skills, particularly in terms of how to launch a radio station online and on social networks”. A Russian proverb says: "Live a hundred years, learn a hundred years!" Long live the hard-working self-taught man!
In 10 years' time...
A three part plan for the future. In 10 years' time, the jack-of-all-trades Gaston Yamaro would like to "open a 3.0 training school for radio technicians, replace all the equipment at Deeman TV in order to convert it into a community television station where young people can practise what they learn, archive the Baatonu cultural heritage and then create platforms for the public to buy home-grown music". Some of those close to him, such as Charles Ahmed Sounon, still see other horizons for him: "I could see Gaston heading up a press group, because the media is in his DNA”.
Sahadou Ali Zato is almost speechless when faced with "all the possibilities", and imagines him "probably working as an international consultant trainer, or in audio-visual production. Why not cinema or at the head of his country's institutions?” The editorial secretary of Deeman Radio-TV, after a further statement, adds: "Maybe he'll be an adviser to the HAAC (High Authority for Audiovisual Communication) or Minister of Culture!” Gaston Yamaro laughs at these latest predictions: "In our environment in Benin, some journalists set themselves the goal of becoming politicians' communications officers at the end of their careers. I've always kept my distance from politics. I think you lose your principles and you destroy yourself socially”.
Portrait by Emmanuel de Solère Stintzy (https://www.journalistesmediateurs.com/).
To find out more about the Afri'Kibaaru project, visit the project page: https://cfi.fr/en/project/afrikibaaru
