Philipp Sandner
DW journalist focusing on Africa
SandnerPhilippPhilipp cares about the undertones behind stories, and distrusts simplistic narratives. For him, a good story focuses above all on one thing: people.
Philipp cares about the undertones, and distrusts simplistic narratives. Because when it comes to people and their actions, things can become complex rather quickly. And that's where a good story begins for him: with people.
One of Philipp’s preferred approaches to accessing different lived realities of life is through language. A graduate of African studies and cultural anthropology, he found his way to DW via an internship in the Kiswahili editorial department. To this day, Kiswahili remains an important part of his work languages. His travels to Africa have taken him to the Great Lakes, to Ethiopia and to West Africa.
History and sciences are equally close to Philipp's heart. From 2016 to 2023, he was the coordinator of the DW project "African Roots" — an exciting journey deep into the history of Africa diving into all the continent’s facets from personal narrative experiences to national identity politics, to oral tradition and archaeological artefacts. Here, too, Philipp got to focus on the undertones of these rich stories and histories.