Baliele Mathieu Bakima

Assises USA| Communication & Media

Balièle Mathieu Bakima is a Washington-based freelance journalist, reporter, educator, consultant on African affairs, and former French desk editor atallafrica.com in Washington, DC. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Madukustekele, a Congolese satirical weekly paper, and a former contributor to Ouest-France, France’s largest daily paper. He has also been a special event correspondent of La Presse de la Manche, a lower Normandy daily paper, and a contributor toNouvel Afrique Asie, Rue89.fr.

Before moving to the US, Mr. Bakima was the General Secretary of the Club de la Presse Libre and co-founder with Congolese and French journalists’ associations of a private training center for media personnel in Brazzaville where he also was an instructor. The center was supported by the US and French embassies, and the EU Office in Brazzaville.

While in Geneva on a three-year scholarship from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, he worked as a Special Research Assistant with Professor Laurent Monnie at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

In the Washington metropolitan area, Mr. Bakima has developed and taught classes on implementing development projects in some unstable parts of Africa (e.g. Great Lakes, DRC, Guinea-Conakry, Mali) to staff of NGOs such as Africare. He participated in the creation of a communication strategy for the Washington Office on Africa, a faith-based organization that lobbies the US Congress on behalf of its African sister organizations.

For the past ten years, Mr. Bakima has been working with special-needs students as a staff member of the Katherine Thomas School in Rockville, MD.

Mr. Bakima holds a MA and postgraduate diploma in International Affairs and Development from the Geneva Institute of International and Development Studies and a Certificate in Geopolitics from the Geneva Institute of Peace.

He is an Honored Citizen of the city of Lafayette, Louisiana.