Redefining How Stories are been told in Africa – Dorcas Sheffy Bello

It is been made
known how Praise Wakulti Illya a Nigerian nurse has been assisting expectant
mothers who are expecting to bring their bundle of joy into the world. Praise
Wakulti Illya has been deeply focused on the major challenges so many
communities, especially those residing in remote areas, through a means of
providing adequate support for them during their nursing period.

In a more enlightened approach and from a cheerful voice, Dorcas Sheffy Bello tells, the beautiful
story of praise Wakulti. Sheffy has been so committed to keeping the good
deeds and the beautiful nursing experience of Praise Wakulti lllya, infusing
her narration with so much love and energy, which most times depends on where
the story is at.

Going through her
storylines, you will find it so amazing and in awe about the extra efforts the extraordinary nurse has put in, it was also recorded how she single headedly deliver 8 babies
in a night.

On the Recent
episode of the “Unzipped Stories of Africa” A podcast that presents details that Sheffy below shared to her audience.

Without coming to a
conclusion about her extraordinary efforts, also other individuals lie to her.  She never gives up on her dreams. Bello
captioned. She did go beyond just capturing not just only her story but also
Bello has captured beautiful details and stories of extraordinary individuals.

Lllya's story
represents a beautiful massage that needs to be passed to individuals in other for
the world to look beyond the disconcerts of the typical African lives.

I have come across a countless African Stories but could find myself within them Bello
said in an interview.

Become very disturbed and discontent with how our stories are been narrated.

As a young girl,
Shaffy Bello couldn’t help how reports of media houses distorted her life and
that of millions of individuals, mostly those struggling to make a living for
themselves

One beautiful
example that can be recalled was the coming existence of insurgents in
Nigeria, which continued to capture global news headlines prescribing Nigeria as a no-go-zone.

Absolutely the
conflict was ongoing with all measures trying to cope with it, but the reports keep
portraying the entire nation as a dangerous place to travel to. She said.

Bello embarked on a career as a journalist, during this period she encountered the wrong notion and
pervasive story narration about Africa, this cut in so deep to the extent that some journalists, started eating into this biased narration.

I came to the conclusion
to confront this narration issue. She Said.

As a journalist who
loves making a podcast, she initially taught of the option of making use of mini-documentaries to cocktail some of these growing issues. But the high cost
which compiled her to seek an alternative means.

Through her
Podcast, it came to her sense that she could really share African story in a
more representative manner which truly portrays the drive of the people, coming
up with this podcast method, enables individuals to listen to beautiful stories
even while driving on the road.

Her stories were represented in different formats and styles ranging from different episodes
which include interviews, storytelling, and audio magazines- styles and
presentations.

Her major aim was
to give listeners a very narrative perspective of the daily lives of Africa
beyond the lens of conflicts and instability.

Bello has currently
produced more than 40 podcasts with a team of over eight anchors spread across
six countries.

During the start of
this journalism journey, our first podcast generated just 100 listeners, but
after the first two years, our podcast reach has spread to over 56 countries, with
some of our popular episodes receiving over 1000 listeners.

Taking concrete
advantage of her background in journalism and her devoted fan base, Bello
leverage the use of social media platforms to interact and promote her podcast
to a larger audience as possible as she could.

“I Leverage every opportunity, as they are potential audiences everywhere”

They have been
challenges during creating this podcast journey, most times
anchors her always far and the possibility of maintaining consistent equipment
and content quality sometimes become very frustrating, because podcast requires good quality.

Despite all these challenges, she remained passionate about fulfilling her course to expand knowledge by consistently hosting an Annual African Story Telling Program. With
the thought of impact the skills of so many storytellers to aid in conveying accurate story narratives.

With over 500
training creatives provided to aid in curtailing the biased narrative of the African
story narratives, she plans to increase this number substantially within the
next two years.

Shaffy Bello
acknowledges that the use of podcast has yet to gain popularity in Africa,
with a lot of social media users still comfortable with video streaming
platforms. Audio still remains regulated to the radio, but not for long if she
can help it.

“Most Africans
listen to the radio because of music, Africans are still inclined when it comes to
podcasts. It is ok, we are content with her current fan base,” we know deep down in
our heart that we are making a huge impact on the lives of those who are listening
to us, she said.

Always staying
tuned to our podcast, we are very optimistic about the limitless opportunities
that come from storytelling that digital Media offer.

“This opportunity must be leveraged by African storytellers, they should
learn to find their niche, their voice, and be consistent in what they are
doing, she said.

In other for one to transform the narrative, a lot of strategies will be
needed to be applied which requires more than one medium.

Bello Shaffy has been consistently been contributing to different news
platforms (including bird story agency) She is also the recipient of the 2018
African International Documentary Festival’, ‘Foundation’s Best Documentary on
Polio’ award etc,

Shaffy Bello “Storytelling is the hope for change that Africa has to
change it narrative of how it been perceive and seen. She concluded.