WC-ARP-funded article wins SOPA award

Jenni Marsh (L) with a colleague at the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards ceremony. Photo: Twitter.

Jenni Marsh, assistant editor of the South China Morning Post’s weekly Post Magazine, has been awarded a Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for 'Excellence in Feature Writing' for her article about Afro-Chinese marriages in Guangzhou, "Till death do us part?", which was produced with a grant provided by the Wits China-Africa Reporting Project. The article is an "absolutely fascinating story of how China's emergence as Africa's biggest trading partner is playing out on a very human level," reads the judges' comment.

We congratulate Jenni on the award, and feel it validates one of the objectives of the Wits China-Africa Reporting Project, namely to partner with journalists to better explain the growing relationship between Africa and China.

Jenni holds a Master’s degree from the University of Sheffield, and has worked as a journalist for seven years in the UK, South Africa, Hong Kong and China, writing for publications including Al-Jazeera, South China Morning Post, The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Mail. In early 2014, with a Wits China-Africa Reporting Project grant, she visited Guangzhou to research Afro-Chinese marriages, examining what these personal unions revealed about political ties between Africa and China.