For most of Barry’s forty year broadcast career as an international broadcast journalist spanning five continents, his main area of interest and focus has been on the African continent.
Both his children were born in Ethiopia while he was employed in Addis Ababa between 1969 and 1975 as both a broadcast and print journalist. He had the distinction of being among a handful of embedded foreign journalists who told the world about the long, sometimes bloody coup that ultimately toppled Emperor Haile Selassie in September, 1974.
Barry and his colleagues were also the first to bring to the world’s attention the catastrophic drought and subsequent famine that killed countless hundreds of thousands of people in the northern Ethiopian province of Wollo.
In between his two tours of duty in Ethiopia, Barry and his then wife, Suzanne completed a solo overland journey in a Volkswagen Kombi Bus from Egypt to South Africa, visiting fifteen countries along the way. From Addis Ababa onwards, they were accompanied on that odyssey by their one year old son.
From 1976 to 2000, Barry broadcast to Africa on a variety of subjects ranging from politics to sports via the Voice of America’s English to Africa Service in Washington, DC. Long before becoming Service Chief the last five years, Barry broadcast a daily sports program to millions of listeners throughout Africa under the name of The Ole Sports Emperor.
You could say Africa is in Barry’s blood. And you’d be right, both literally and figuratively. During his many forays far and wide on the continent, Barry contracted a variety of diseases including malaria, typhoid, para-typhoid and a couple of other ones either too complicated or not worth explaining.
His memoir, Beneath the African Sun, details both his personal and professional life during the six years after first setting foot on the continent.
Alexandria, Egypt
Morocco
Ethiopia
Radio Voice of the Gospel
Financial Times, Uk
AP, UPI, New Zealand Broadcasting
Classic Cinema With the Sage Sisters, YouTube
Mississippi Masala (1991)
PodMatch for Podcasters
This episode is brought to you by PodMatch, the dating service for podcasters. They introduced me to Barry Maughan, and I’m so glad they did. I hope you’ve enjoyed our conversation and remember that if you have a podcast or something to share with the world, check out PodMatch at my affiliate link at PodMatch and tell them Lucinda sent you.
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Prolific Writers Life
My husband, Barry and I are members and experts at Prolific Writers Life, which offers members a variety of free online work sessions and discounts on coaching with industry experts. They offer opportunities to hone your writing skills, develop your author brand, and connect with a supportive community in live events. You can participate in group chats or send private messages to members through Prolific Writers Chat. If you’ve got a writing project, or are an expert who can help members finish their books, come join the community.
They also offer fun events like Films for Writers, which is free for anyone who wants to attend. It’s like a film club. We watch the movies about writers often with tidbits about their writing life, and then come together on the last Friday evening of every month to discuss the movie. You can check out Prolific Writers Life with a free 14 day trial to see if this the community you have been looking for.
Story-Power on Patreon
I’m so passionate about stories that I created the Story-Power Patreon Community so I’d have an excuse to talk story with other story lovers. Patreon is $5 a month for content not found on the Story-Power podcast, or on my Sage Woman Blog. They have recently instituted a free tier so you can try it out before you buy. If you’re passionate about stories, and want to talk about what you’ve learned from your favorites, come join me at patreon.com/StoryPower. Let’s share what we’ve learned from the stories we love.
Classic Cinema With the Sage Sisters
Stories are a huge part of the way humans communicate with each other. Celeste and I think all stories are allegories where we can learn all kinds of important things, not the least of which is how to understand ourselves and others better. The best stories can be told over and over from one generation to the next and still teach great lessons. Emotional Intelligence and critical thinking are two of those lessons. Celeste and I think there are many classic movies that show us the progression of where humanity is today and we want to share them with you.
Shakespeare was right, “All the world is a stage and all the men and women merely players.” The stories we tell and consume are us trying to figure out who we are, why we’re here, and the kind of world we want to live in.
Come join the conversation on YouTube and our Facebook group.
Sage Woman Chronicles 