Colin and Marie: Two of a Kind
“Marie sensed that she was speaking a language that Bevil understands much better and seeing the fire in the black lady’s eyes, she backed down and stormed out of the room … Marie is a pest who seems to enjoy her pestilence.”
Colin Legum just proved something beyond any reasoning doubt: that journalist have the thinnest skins of all. Legum refused to acknowledge me after the parallax world discussing his exchange with Liberian lady was published in the Daily Times. Legum, of course, is a British journalist. He is an associate editor of the Observer of London and writes mostly on African matters. Later, I found out that Legum is also a citizen of South Africa where he lived until the late 40s before emigrating to Britain. He is not known to favour apartheid, nor is he known to favour vigorously genuine black majority rule in the troubled territories of South Africa. The short exchange, not lasting more than five minutes, appeared in the parallax world column. The lady with whom Legum had the argument is named Ms. Brooks and she was the supervising officer on the hotel ship. Ms. Brooks rebuked Legum sharply for the indelicate and improper language she said the journalist used in addressing her.
News of the publication of the story reached Monrovia on the day it appeared in Lagos. Mark Webster of the Financial Times of London brought a copy of the issue of the Daily Times with him from Lagos. Ken Mackenzie, editor of West Africa, first told me of the publication at breakfast that day. I chuckled when he told me of it. I told him that someone ought to start exposing these little things that are not so little when viewed in perspective considering that the so-called First World will not stop looking down at the so-called Third World. The Legum story quite a big talk among the journalists at the OAU summit from that day to the end. I doubt if I would talk to Dele Giwa if I were Colin.
…
Marie Joaniedes is a Greek journalist with a sharp tongue and fading voice. She is fat and quite rude. She is a reporter for the French News Agency, the AFP. She arrived early in Monrovia, secured a table in the press room and put a “reserved” sticker on it. Bevil Rooks is a black American from San Francisco. She too arrived early in Monrovia to cover the OAU summit for a number of black American papers. She didn’t reserve a table in the press room; as she knew she shouldn’t. One day, Ms. Rooks found herself writing a story on Ms. Joaniedes’ so-called “reserved desk.” Seeing that, the Greek lady got quite furious and went to challenge Ms. Rooks.
“Didn’t you see that table is reserved?” Ms. Joaniedes yelled at Ms.Rooks.
“Don’t know you can’t reserve a desk in a briefing room?” Ms. Rooks shouted back.
At that, Ms. Joaniedes mouthed an obscenity beginning with “F” and ending in “G”. Ms. Rooks said: “What Repeat that word,” Ms. Rooks challenged Ms. Joaniedes. When Ms. Joaniedes sensed that she was speaking a language that Ms. Rooks understands much better and seeing the fire in the black lady’s eyes, she backed down and stormed out of the room. A couple of hours later, Ms. Joaniedes ran into trouble with another black, also an America. Peter Onu, the Nigeria who is the Assistant Secretary-General of the OAU, came to brief the reporters on the day’s activities. Randy Daniel, a dandy reporter for the American CBS Television Network, was asking a question when Marie Joaniedes interrupted him. Randy turned towards her told her not to interrupt him with such an icy gaze and in such an icy voice that Ms. Joaniedes visibly cringed. In another instance, Mr. Onu had to reprimand Ms. Joaniedes openly in the briefing room. She misreprensented the Tunisian position on the Western Sahara and Mr. Onu announced what he called her misreporting to the entire press corps. Ms. Joaniedes simply smiled her apology and went right ahead to ask Mr. Onu a question on an entirely different subject. Ms. Joaniedes, despite her stoutness, is a pest who seems to enjoy her pestilence. She would be easily shout in the briefing room for everyone to be quite, even though she is playing back as loud as possible her tape recorder.
When the head of state, General Olusegun Obasanjo, met the press one evening at the conference centre, Ms. Joaniedes was late, and when she arrived the door to the VIP lounge was already locked. She went right ahead to pounce on the door. On being admitted, she challenged the security officers to tell her why on God’s earth they locked the door when Marie Joaniedes of blessed manners was not yet in the room. As she seemed to like to hear at least twice a day, one of the security men told her to “shut up.” Marie just smiled.
©Daily Times, July 25, 1979
(Pp.27-29)
