The director of Afrimedia Ltd, Solange Ayanone, is above all a resilient woman journalist. As a mother of children, a wife, and moreover a journalist, she has had to overcome many difficulties without throwing in the towel. Her passion for her work has kept her going.
Combining the responsibility of being a woman with that of a journalist, in her opinion, is impossible. “When I started my work at Radio Rwanda, the same year I got married. It is not easy for a woman,” she says. “The difficulties a woman journalist has to overcome are really huge,” she reveals. You have to work late into the night, sometimes waking up very early or spending your weekend in front of the microphone. “When you come home at 11pm, if the housekeeper hasn’t done the cooking properly, you have to explain to your husband when you weren’t at home,” she said, showing the difficulty of combining work and family responsibilities as a woman. “It takes perseverance,” she says.
Solange Ayanone, is a woman who enjoys being with her four children as a family, being with her husband at home and talking with him. However, working as a journalist has not often given her the opportunity to experience these moments that she loves. Fortunately, her husband has never been an obstacle for her. “I always had my husband’s support because he gave me the freedom to go to the field and spend up to three days there,” she says.
A brave woman despite professional frustrations…
Solange Ayanone does not appreciate that women journalists are given “women’s work”. “When a woman is hired as a journalist, she is given tasks related to society, they say that politics is for men,” she regrets. “I was imposing myself,” she points out. “It’s really a challenge when you’re seen as a woman, someone without strength, someone made for light work, not for very strong subjects like economics, politics, even sport was for men,” she expresses some of her frustrations.
She remembers presenting programs on politics, but each time she was criticized for cutting out men. When it was a male colleague who acted like her, the same behaviour was rather accepted.
According to Solange Ayanone, it is not as possible for a woman to be promoted, to hold positions of responsibility when you are a woman. “You go in with a man, you see him move up because it’s seen as a job for men, not for women,” she says. It’s up to the woman to prove otherwise!
Radio Rwanda’s provincial correspondent positions were reserved for men. When an opportunity came up in Musanze (Ruhengeri at the time), she asked to be given a chance for three months, despite her pregnancy. She confirmed herself as a good regional correspondent and it was off to the other women.
Solange wants a woman to be competitive in the job market. She has to read, take part in training courses to enrich her knowledge. Soon, this brave lady obtained her master’s degree in development projects. She is a hard-working woman. She is often away at home, but when she has the opportunity to stay there, she shows her presence. “When I am at home, I cook. I try to satisfy my husband and children,” she tries to balance work and family.
With more than ten years to go before she retires, she wants to grow old in the hotel business. She has enough intellectual background in hotel management and is preparing to take up this career when the time comes.
To be continued
Gerard Rugambwa
