ANF October Newsletter

Hello Reader, 

Find out which African giant caught our attention, meet our latest narrative changemakers and engage with conversations ranging from vaccines, travel, representation and leadership. 

What's happening at Africa No Filter

1. Bird celebrated a significant milestone: It’s been six months since bird was launched and we’re still going strong with 35 media partners publishing content from 50 contributors in 26 African countries. You can read some of the 360 alternative stories here. They have amassed a quarter-million views – a sign to keep going. Contact bird@africanofilter.org if want your platform or newsroom to partner with bird, or to pitch story ideas. Follow @BirdStoryAgency on Twitter and Facebook. 

2. We partnered with AUDA-Nepad to find Africa’s best visual talent: We asked you to show us the #AfricaYouthWant using visual art for the Youth Arts Festival. Meet the winners - Akinrinsola Babajide (Nigeria), Lungile Mbokane (South Africa) and Dong Aldrine Isaiah (Uganda). They showcased their art at the virtual festival.

3. We looked at how Africans show up globally: The Time 100 list has become one of the most notable global leadership, influence, and power measures while the Nobel Prize is considered the global standard for excellence in n Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace. We went into their digital archives to see how Africans show up globally. The first edition of Time 100 in 1999 featured only one African, Nelson Mandela. The 2021 edition features nine Africans from eight countries. Five of them are women. Of the 603 Nobel awards in 120 years, 29 Africans have made the cut. After the Peace prize with 14 recipients, Literature is the second-most represented category with seven recipients. Read more.

4. We checked out Twitter accounts influencing conversations about vaccines in Africa: Between April and August, the period in which we analyzed conversations, the Delta variant broke out in 22 countries, Uganda approved a local herbal medicine for use as supporting treatment for viral infections, including COVID-19 and the continent’s vaccine roll out encountered hits and misses. Journalists Shen Shiwei, Sophie Mokoena, Samira Sawlani, Charles Onyango-Obbo and Joseph Cotterill held court with close to two hundred vaccine-related posts. 

5. The Hewlett Foundation is the latest funder to join the ANF donor collaborative: We now have 9 amazing funders who are supporting the work we do. We’re grateful and excited to have them on board.
 

Meet our latest Narrative Champions

Achieng Butler, Micheline Ntiru and Musonda Mumba are the Afropolitan trio behind We Three Queens of Africa, the YouTube channel and podcast that was inspired by their lives in Nairobi, Sao Paulo, Paris and Johannesburg. They offer a contemporary worldview of Africans and Africa. 

What have you heard about adolescent girls in Africa? To meet them at their most empowered, check out Memunatu Magazine. It was founded by Mariama and Fatmata Kabia as a way to let girls tell their own stories. 

Rele Art Foundation is the organization behind art-driven initiatives like the Young Contemporaries, Art Summit and Nigeria in Venice project, which have become instrumental in providing regional and global opportunities to emerging artists in Nigeria. It was started by Adenrele Sonariwo. 

Everyday Projects is famous for Everyday Africa, the visual storytelling project that works with photographers around Africa to create a rich visual narrative of Africa. It’s the brainchild of Wacera Njagi & Peter DiCampo. 

Shifting Narratives
- documenting the narrative progress we’re seeing 

Africa’s travelling storytellers are making a significant shift in the continent’s narrative and showing that the so-called Dark Continent is “vivid, varied and alive, full of beauty, hospitality and surprises,” as Othmane Zolati discovered in his four-year journey from Morocco to Cape Town. The Moroccan is among a growing number of storytellers and platforms documenting Africa with authenticity and creativity. Follow his journey in the documentary, Africa and I.

Nigeria, the continent’s biggest economy, is piloting its own cryptocurrency. The eNaira was developed over three years and issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria. This makes Nigeria the first African country with digital currency. It’s also a nod to all the parties involved in making eNaira a reality because Nigeria is the second biggest cryptocurrency market globally and the 15th with e-currency. 

A list of the top restaurants in the world may not be where you expect to see Africa, but the Wolfgat Restaurant two hours outside Cape Town, made the list of the Best Restaurant in the World at number 50. The narrative about Africa’s food is still defined by poverty and hunger, so we’re glad to see global platforms digging into the continent’s rich culinary culture to tell alternative stories. 

That’s it for this edition. Follow us on social media at @Africanofilter. Follow bird on Twitter at @BirdStoryAgency.