ANF January Newsletter

Hello Reader, 

2022 kicked off on a high note. We started year two of Africa No Filter on a high note with our first annual report. Two ANF projects got the media talking, and our community of narrative champions now includes our first cohort of the Emerging Artists Fellows programs and Ivory Coast’s first food blogger. 

What's happening at Africa No Filter

1. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So we’re shifting Africa’s narrative one story at a time, whether it’s told through research, funding, community or disruption campaigns. We kicked off year two of Africa No Filter with the Why We Invested report. You’ll meet all the vloggers, bloggers, journalists, platforms, painters, photographers, filmmakers, curators, founders, authors, collectives, organisations and researchers we've partnered with and get an insider’s view of our mission in action.

2. The Global Media Index got the media talking: Leading African and global media platforms covered the launch of the Index. We’ve partnered with UCT and the Africa Center to work. Read more here.

3. The media also paid attention to our innovative storytelling project: In partnership with Meta, we launched a continent-wide call out for XR creators to participate in the “Future Africa: Telling Stories, Building Worlds program. Six creators will be funded, mentored and supported to work on a dream project. More here. 

4. We’re giving sex talk a makeover: The Storify Africa Fellowship is our latest narrative shifting project. It’s aimed at telling sexual health and reproductive rights stories from a more diverse and nuanced perspective. We’re looking for four female journalists based in Southern Africa, West Africa, and East Africa for the first cohort. More info here. 

5. Want to get attention on Twitter? Talk about sports, conflict, Tigray conflict, Covid, and music. They were among the most prominent conversation starters in September, October, and November 2021. Our Google Trends analysis shows that soccer is a continental obsession. Read more.

Meet our latest Narrative Champions

New year, more investments that support African storytellers to tell Africa's contemporary, innovative, and alternative stories. Welcome our latest #NarrativeChampions. 

1. Yasmine Fofana is Ivory Coast’s first food blogger and the brains behind Abidjan Restaurant week. She’s also using her platform to tell food stories that are rich in diversity and flavours. Find out why she is eating her way around West Africa by tuning into our InstaLive here. 

2. What does a formerly enslaved Gambian have in common with Basotho food, the kitenge textile found in East Africa, African spirituality, Dada pottery from Nigeria and political leadership in Cameroon? These are some of the stories being turned into films, installations, paintings, a novel, a cookbook, multimedia essays, digital art and even emojis by the first cohort of the Africa No Filter Emerging Artists Fellows program. They are from Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Benin, Cape Verde, Nigeria, Cameroon, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Meet them here. 

Shifting Narratives
- documenting the narrative progress we’re seeing 

Rwandan Salima Mukansanga shattered a 65-year-old glass ceiling when she became the first woman to referee a match at the African Cup of Nations. She officiated the Zimbabwe-Guinea game. 

South-African-based Cameroonian geneticist, Professor Ambriose Wonkam, is the latest director of the genetic medicine department at Johns Hopkins University. He’s known for his contributions to research on sickle cell disease, hearing loss, medical research ethics and genetics education. 

Kenya is not the first country that comes to mind when talking tennis, but it’s set to change thanks to Angella Okutoyi. The 17-year-old became the first Kenyan woman to win a junior grand slam tournament at the Australian Open.

Destination Africa just got a boost that proves that the continent is travel-ready and fabulous. Global travel brand Big 7 released their annual list of the 50 most Instagrammable places in the world. Cape Town, Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya and Marrakech made the list! 

Chicken Yassa, Mafe and Thieboudienne are just some of the Senegalese dishes that are becoming part of London’s menu. And it’s all because of Little Baobab, the pop-up restaurant that’s created its own lane in London’s vibrant food scene... creating a delicious narrative for African food in the city! 

That’s it for now. Remember to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin at @Africanofilter. Follow @BirdStoryAgency on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with alternative stories about Africa.