"I encourage young journalists to apply for an AFC-USA Scholarship"

Kimon de Greef is a New York-based freelance journalist and an AFC-USA scholarship awardee. Kimon spoke to Foreign Press about how the AFC-USA has helped him start his career in journalism, economic inequalities in his home country of South Africa, and his book Poacher: Confessions from the Abalone Underworld. 

For de Greef, a difficult part of the pandemic has been the disconnect he’s experienced from South Africa. “Watching stories unfold back home and feeling unable, in many cases, to cover them has at times been frustrating” de Greef explained. 

De Greef’s journey with journalism and his book Poacher started out with a conservation thesis, his original area of study. Diving deeper into the illicit trade of abalone led him to discover his passion for investigative journalism. De Greef has continued to write about this extensive underground trade to this day. 

On the dangers of covering poaching as a beat, de Greef expressed that the experience is more dangerous to the poachers than to him. De Greef also talked about how he approaches the topic of poaching. Moral judgement aside, he prefers to ask questions about poachers’ experiences in the trade. De Greef also stressed the importance of building trust with subjects and his advice to younger reporters is that they shouldn’t rush that process. 

De Greef spoke on the complex narratives within his beat such as South Africa’s past and present. He also discussed his recent article covering the harvesting and appropriation of white sage. De Greef feels that he doesn’t seek these stories out but rather they find him.  

On upcoming projects, De Greef hinted at an exciting project he’s been working on but is also preparing for his graduation from NYU. De Greef sees himself continuing to freelance post-graduation. 

In closing, on the topic of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents, de Greef strongly encourages young journalists to apply for AFC scholarships. De Greef emphasizes how his journey in the U.S. would not have been possible without the support of the Association and advises other students to seek out that same support. “Studying in grad school has been very productive and useful for me, but the state of journalism is such that I think it’s unwise to go into too much debt if you can avoid it”.