The burden of being Anas
Thalefang Charles | Friday October 14, 2016 16:55
“He will be wearing a mask,” one of them stated.
As expected from a fellow journalist also looking for an exclusive, I immediately contended against the masked interview, reasoning that since I had brought no cameras and it would only be a worthy story if the interview was face-to-face – without the mask. I even added a threat that, “If your guy refuses to take off the mask, then I won’t do this interview”. INKCIJ appreciated my argument, but said the decision was up to the interviewee.
Anas is an undercover journalist from Ghana whose unconventional investigative journalism has brought him worldwide fame. He was a guest of INK Centre of Investigative Journalism during the Southern Africa Investigative Journalism Conference dubbed the Frontline held at the University of Botswana last week.
Anas is the master of disguises and has risked his life to expose corruption and human rights abuses by the very powerful. In 2015 he dropped a bombshell investigation report titled, ‘Ghana in the Eyes of God – Epic of Injustice’ that sent disparaging shockwaves throughout the country’s judiciary. The investigation implicated 34 judges and magistrates who were caught on a hidden camera receiving bribes to influence court cases. Anas’ report led to mass axing and suspension of judges.
Other remarkable investigative works by Anas include albino ritual killings in Tanzania, Chinese mafia’s sex slavery ring that trafficked young Chinese girls into Ghana, Nigeria’s fake doctors, abuses of mental health patients, deplorable prison conditions, and how multinational companies were robbing Africa of its natural resources like gold, cocoa, and timber.
Anas has won numerous awards and has been named in the lists of ‘Most Influential Africans of the Year’ by New African magazine, ‘Leading Global Thinker’ by Foreign Policy magazine, to name but two. US President Barack Obama has cited him in his speech during his first trip to Africa in 2009 saying, “An independent press. A vibrant private sector. A civil society. Those are the things that give life to democracy… We see that spirit in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth.”
He has extensively travelled the world, giving interviews and talks like TED Talks and at various world leading universities like Harvard, but few people have seen his face. Anas has exposed deep-rooted graft and in the process made powerful enemies. As a result, he has made anonymity a tool for his investigative work. He wears a mask when appearing in situations where he is likely to be identified. But not all the time. His handlers in Gaborone, for instance, were hanging with him without a mask. So this interviewer too demanded he must take off the mask.
Behind the mask, which is made of colourful beads, with the whole head covered in a hood of his stripped dress, Anas talked softly and slowly - almost robotically. He has a very rich Ghanaian accent that kept me begging for his pardon to repeat himself because he was inaudible. Like when he pronounced “cocoa” for the first time and it came out as “koko”. I was completely lost.
After appreciating my demand for the mask off, Anas explained that he was constricted to give an interview without the mask saying, “What if the Aljazeera, BBC, CNN or the GuardianUK heard that I was in a newspaper interview without the mask? There is a brand issue involved. I cannot take off the mask in an interview because our partners would not be happy about it”.
The explanation sheds light on the honesty of Anas. He is not only pulling the obvious security element in his mask, but he admits too, that it is a brand and the multinational news organisations that fund him to do his exposures expect him to protect the ‘undercover Anas’ brand.
“The people deal with me because I am undercover. So if I take off the mask some people would not be free to deal with me,” the masked man said.
Anas said investigative journalism requires a lot of collaborative effort. “I work with various people – a team. We collaborate with either international news organisations, governments, police or NGOs to expose the wrong doings.”
When speaking to media students, Anas often defends his type of journalism. “My style is not written in media studies books and when addressing students, there is a need to explain it,” he said.
He makes journalism sound like it is an all out war and journalists are foot soldiers in precarious trenches who must never sleep.
“We have to sacrifice our personal comfort for the people. I sleep with one eye open. I can’t afford to sleep at night and I don’t trust anyone,” Anas disclosed.
Anas said he is motivated by the people. He believes that Africa needs his type of journalism because it is still in the developing stage. He speaks holistically about Africa, making references like, “our continent, our people”.
He said he gets satisfaction from seeing bad guys being sent to jail for their evil deeds. “I use my mantra of ‘naming, shaming and jailing’ and it gives me satisfaction when I know that the bad guys are jailed for a long time, like the Chinese mafia who were sentenced to 41 years in jail.”
He uses ‘honesty’ as a tool to overcome fear. With mafias, powerful officials after him, Anas says staying fair and being honest drives him and makes him continue to expose the bad guys without fear or favour.
Anas said if he were not a journalist he would be a “police officer, a detective to be precise”. He described himself as a very shy person and I searched for his eyes through the bead openings to see if his eye-contact was that of a shy person. And as he picked my eye contact, he suspiciously focused on my Smartwatch that looks like a camera and listening device.
And that is when an INKCIJ official approached to inform us that Anas’s time was up. The interview was happening between his breakfast and check-out time to go catch a flight.
Will he come back to Botswana on assignment? Anas disclosed that he would surely be back in Botswana.
“Just tell your people that, I’ll be back (it sounded more like a famous line by Hollywood star Schwarzenegger in his action movies). I can’t disclose everything, but will be working on something in Botswana”. It almost came out like a warning.
Anas will come back to “name, shame and jail” someone right here in Botswana.