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The CBC crew in the Ethiopian desert. (CBC Photo/Brian Stewart)
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INDEPTH: ETHIOPIA
Covering the famine
CBC News Online | December 14, 2004
By Brian Stewart
Senior Correspondent CBC News
There were five of us who comprised the CBC team in Ethiopia in 1984. We all went in believing we had imagined the worst we were likely to face, and we were all wrong.
Although we were experienced in covering crises and war zones, nothing prepared one for suffering on that scale.
Only at the very beginning, before we'd seen the first famine camp could we even attempt a smile.
That's cameraman Philippe Billard on the left; next to sound recordist John Axelson. Then me, and on the right, producer Tony Burman.
Weeks later, we would leave the famine zone physically and emotionally drained by the sadness of it all and by the constant race to get stories out of one of the most isolated areas of Africa, which was in the midst of both famine and civil war.
Producer Tony Burman was the driving force behind the 1984 coverage. He'd fought the regime's hostile bureaucracy to get us into Ethiopia in the first place and, while there, always carried the heaviest responsibility, in charge of everything from overall planning to logistics.
And when the regime looked set to block our famine reports Tony risked imprisonment by smuggling the first items out, taped to his back. To my relief he was the perfect leader at such a time, calm in any crisis and seemingly tireless. He also encouraged me to write the story as I saw fit.
Cameraman Philippe Billard was an improbable-looking figure to find in the famished dust bowl of Northern Ethiopia. Tall and invariable elegant, Philippe was a cosmopolitan Frenchman always anxious to explore the finer restaurants of the world. And yet in Ethiopia he captured some of the most striking images of the later-20th century with the finest camerawork under stress that I've ever witnessed. Even looked at today, his camerawork has a stunning emotional impact and, at the time, his images truly shook the world.
Phillipe Billard (CBC Photo/Brian Stewart)
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As we raced from one famine zone to another in an attempt to portray the enormity of a crisis that threatened seven million lives, Philippe had to fight constant fatigue as well as the emotional stress of witnessing so many deaths before his lens. Given the time pressure he often worked even without benefit of a tripod, yet his video was invariable steady and his composition flawless.
At all times Billard's work in Ethiopia was suffused with extraordinary sensitivity and humanity. It was Billard's shots of tiny Birhan Woldu, on the verge of death that later became the famous "Face of Famine."
Our team was from the CBC London Bureau, except for sound recordist John Axelson, who faced the extra stress of being a late replacement flown in from Toronto. Yet he was a perfect fit and somehow managed to remain good-natured under the most daunting circumstances, which included near-sleepless nights and days filled with crisis under a withering sun.
John Axelson (CBC Photo/Brian Stewart)
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Another member of the team had in some ways the most emotionally upsetting job of all, our remarkable editor Colin Dean. Also from the London Bureau, Colin edited all our items in a small hotel room in Addis Ababa. This meant he had to work under extreme pressure fighting to make deadlines. The older editing equipment of the period was unforgiving. If a shot didn't work the whole item often had to be disassembled and begun again. We simply had no time for mistakes, and Colin made none even while doing it all in less than half the time usually available.
But Colin also had to know every "frame" of our work in the field, which meant, quite simply, that he had to screen hour after hour of heartbreaking images for days on end.
What we saw once, twice, Colin witnessed 50 times. Emotionally overwhelmed by the experience, and unable to sleep, Colin sat up all one night and put together his own music video as a memorial to all famine victims.
It was a stunning achievement and became one of the most influential videotapes in history. Played months later during the Live Aid Concert, Colin Dean's video provoked the greatest surge in humanitarian giving in history.
Each of us was pushed to the very limits of our professional abilities and Ethiopia marked us all. Years later many of us can't talk about it without considerable emotion, not only for the horrors we witnessed, but also for the supreme acts of courage and endurance that we so often saw around us.
Producer Tony Burman and soundman John Axelson on a plane leaving the famine zone. (CBC Photo/Brian Stewart)
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We were five. Of these John Axelson is the only one I've lost touch with.
Today Tony Burman is editor-in-chief of CBC News, Newsworld and CBC Current Affairs.
Philippe Billard, after covering many more of the world's hot spots and crises for CBC, now lives a more peaceful life in the south of France.
Colin Dean, increasingly famous in television circles because of his video, worked in London and Paris for CBC for over 15 years and is now Operations Manager for international event staging consultants Eventechs.
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