Meet the Narrative Champions ANF has partnered with to fund storytelling projects that are using art, culture and media to challenge prevailing stereotypes about Africa. These range from a podcast tour around University towns in Kenya, a writing programme to boost African authors through workshops, and a multimedia editorial series profiling young women leaders in Africa.
Ayomide Aborowa
ìrìn Journal
Ayomide Aborowa is the Founder and Creative Director of Irìn Travel and Lifestyle Media. The Lagos-based media company publishes innovative content and curates immersive experiences that champion a modern and multifaceted portrayal of Africa.
Charity Gondwe
Lusaka Film Festival
Charity Gondwe has extensive work experience in the Southern African film industry as a production manager, production coordinator, project manager fixer and location scout.
Reanne Olivier
Africa Matters Initiative
Founded in 2015, Africa Matters Initiative is a youth-led organisation that’s empowering African youth to change their communities and Africa’s narrative through leadership, social entrepreneurship and advocacy.
Hamadou Tidiane Sy
E-jicom
Hamadou Tidiane Sy is the Founder and Director at E-jicom, a pan-African tertiary education institution that trains aspiring and mid-career journalists.
Haleema Mekani
Tamba Africa Circus
Part of the We Are Campaign that works to change the climate narrative about Africa by using creativity, Tamba Africa Circus’s Caravan of Hope/Caravana da Esperença project brought about new methodology for new initiatives, events, performances, productions, convenings, experiments, practices, and other possibilities related to social impact and community engagement.
Abaas Mpindi
Media Challenge Initiative
Awaze Media was founded by Ethiopian radio personalities, Tigist Amare and Hawi Bussa, who were frustrated with the lack of representation in media.
Princely Glorious
Ona Stories Group
Princely Glorious and Tulanana Bohela are the co-founders of the Ona Stories Group, a storytelling and extended reality production business. OnaStories Group includes Ona Kesho, a lab for the future of storytelling technologies, and the Ona Stories Expert Network.
Gemma Bradshaw
One World Media
One World Media is on a mission to demystify the global media industry and open it up to new talent.
Sal Jalloh
Blog Freetown Media
Journalist and blogger Sal Jalloh is on a mission to showcase the beauty and charming side of Sierra Leone.
Ijeoma Onah
Nigerian International Film Summit
Ijeoma Onah is the founder of the Nigerian International Film Summit which takes place annually in Los Angeles, London, Toronto, and Lagos, and the Nigerian International TV Summit which is also an annual event in Paris and Lagos.
Efe Paul Azino
Lagos International Poetry Festival
The Lagos International Poetry Festival, founded by Efe Paul Azino in 2025, has brought together some of the biggest writers, poets, thinkers, artists and public intellectuals to Lagos for four days of readings, performances, workshops, panel discussions, and a celebration of creativity, establishing itself as one the continent’s key cultural highlights.
Jide Martin
Comic Republic
Jide Martin is an illustrator and author who is shaping the African narrative with authentic stories. He is the CEO of Comic Republic, Africa’s first digital comic book company, renowned for its commitment to shaping Africa’s image through captivating art and authentic narratives in the form of illustrations, comic books, and animations.
Stephanie Kapfunde
Arterial Network Zimbabwe
The Africa Foundation for Young Media Professionals is a pan-African media skills development organization empowering journalists with critical skills.
Yinka Olaito
Africa Foundation for Young Media Professionals
The Africa Foundation for Young Media Professionals is a pan-African media skills development organization empowering journalists with critical skills.
Dan Aceda
SemaBox
Dan Aceda has worked across multiple industries including film, music, theatre and architecture and has won multiple national and regional awards.
Marie Mbullu
Habari Njema
Marie Mbullu is a Tanzanian American student and Africa No Filter’s TikTok grantee, thanks to the Habari Njema platform that she uses to share fresh and exciting content about all things Africa, from pop culture and politics to history, travel and innovation.
Otosirieze Obi-Young
Open Country Mag
Otosirieze Obi-Young founded Open Country mag in 2020 to provide in-depth context for African literature and film. He has worked extensively in African literature — covering important conversations, editing defining projects, and judging major awards.
Muna Ahmed
Freelance Scriptwriter
Muna Ahmed, known as Mullaaxo, is a bilingual writer and activist based in Hargeisa, Somaliland. She has written extensively on Somali culture and society, as well as using her work to promote literacy and advocate for reading, self-development, gender equality, and cultural identity among Somali Youth.
Oluwaseun Babalola
ṢOJU
Oluwaseun Babalola’s work celebrates Black identity using film, television, and digital media, and two, build sustainable outlets and funding for Black media professionals. She’s worked as a producer on television series such as the Emmy-nominated United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell (CNN), Africa Everywhere (The Africa Channel), Streets of Dreams (CNBC), and the feature documentaries, Trichster, Picture A Scientist (PBS, Netflix), and forthcoming Frederick Douglass In Five Speeches (HBO).
Moses Kiboneka
I AM UNCLE MO
Moses Kiboneka is the passionate actor and creative writer behind Uncle Mo, a comical character created during Uganda’s Covid lockdown in 2020 “to give Africa something to laugh about”.
Tiffany Andrews
Zeitz MOCAA
Cape Town is fast becoming a major global art centre. The Zeitz MOCAA is ensuring that contemporary African art takes the spotlight through an extensive portfolio of work that collects, preserves, researches and exhibits contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora.
Yasmine Fofana
Afrofoodie
Yasmine Fofana is a pioneer when it comes to promoting Côte d’Ivoire’s culinary scene. She is her country’s first food blogger after launching Afrofoodie in 2012 and continues creating new ways of turning food into the language she uses to change narratives about African food, including launching the first Restaurant week of Côte d’Ivoire in 2017 and currently getting ready to launch the country’s first food tour.
Tomiwa Aladekomo
Big Cabal Media
Big Cabal Media is building the next generation of African media brands and creating some of the most exciting content about Africa through tech and youth publications.
Nana Richard Abiona
New Africa Nation
New Africa Nation was founded by Grammy Award-winning musician Fuse ODG (Nana Richard Abiona) and Andre Hackett.
Mariama & Fatmata Kabia
Memunatu Magazine
Memunatu Magazine is a non-profit media organisation that promotes literacy, leadership, and empowerment for adolescent girls in Africa and the diaspora.
Achieng Butler, Micheline Ntiru and Musonda Mumba
We Three Queens
We Three Queens of Africa is a lifestyle, mentoring and empowerment YouTube and Podcast platform hosted by Achieng Butler, Micheline Ntiru and Musonda Mumba. They draw on their wealth of international and multi-dimensional experience to provide diverse multi-faceted stories by Africans.
Thando Mgqolozana
The Ultimate Book Show
Thando Mgqolozana is an internationally acclaimed novelist, curator, filmmaker, and researcher. His seminal novels include A Man Who is Not a Man (2021), Nursing in a New Era (2009), Hear Me Alone (2011), and Unimportance (2014). He was selected as one of the Most Influential Africans (2016), awarded the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship (2006), Canon Collins Scholarship (2018), and JIAS Writing Fellowship (2019).
Africa Podfest
Josephine Karianjahi & Melissa Mbugua
Africa Podfest is driven by a clear, singular focus: Inspiring and elevating African podcasters by building a sustainable and inclusive podcasting industry across Africa. The organisation’s intention is to achieve this by simplifying podcast learning, placing a spotlight on African podcasters, and centering voices that have been in the margins, including youth, low-income communities, women, activists, LGBTQA+ people and people with disabilities.
Richard Mudariki
artHARARE
artHARARE is an artist-run project dedicated to promoting and supporting the development of the contemporary art scene in Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean Diaspora. The project takes advantage of the adaptation of the art world to the digital space and the rising interest in contemporary African art.
Claude Grunitzky
TRUE Africa
TRUE Africa is a media-tech platform launched by Claude Grunitzky in 2015. The platform champions young African voices globally and works with over 200 journalists to report on issues that affect young Africans, from sport, culture and music to politics, activism, social issues and health. TRUE Africa’s funding will be used to develop an editorial 25-part multimedia series called Limitless, on gender equality and the power of young women across the continent, starting with Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. The content will be produced by young, female journalists from the three countries.
Tokini Peterside
ArtX Collective
The partnership will support young African creatives in their use of digital media to create cutting-edge artistic projects that can yield a shift in the global understanding of African identity.
Akosua Hanson
Moongirls Live
Akosua Hanson is the creator of the thrilling and philosophical Ghanaian graphic novel series, Moongirls Live, which follows the adventures of African queer supersheroes fighting for an Africa free from corruption, patriarchy and the legacies of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. She also founded Drama Queens, a grassroots youth organisation for social change.
Adelle Onyango
Legally Clueless Podcast
Legally Clueless is a weekly series that documents the human journeys of everyday African people. The podcast features #100AfricanStories, a segment where Africans worldwide share authentic stories that let us into their world and their experiences.
Dr Ainehi Edoro
Dr Ainehi Edoro is an Assistant Professor of Global Black Literatures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of English and Department of African Cultural Studies. She has an M.A. from Kansas University and a PhD from Duke University. Dr Edoro teaches and researches African literature and digital culture. She is working on a book titled Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Thinks. She founded Brittle Paper in 2010 when she was a PhD student of literature at Duke University.