{"id":18698,"date":"2023-02-19T16:43:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T16:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barazalab.com\/?p=18698"},"modified":"2023-11-27T12:38:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T12:38:08","slug":"the-africa-media-festival-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tuwele.com\/baraza_update\/the-africa-media-festival-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"The Africa Media Festival Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Curator\u2019s Desk<\/b><\/p>\n

Greetings friends:<\/span><\/p>\n

Last April, my friend Sipho Kings and I were texting \u2013 he was in Perugia, Italy, for the International Journalism Festival (IJF), the annual media event that attracts hundreds of attendees every year from all around the world. Sipho is the editorial director of The Continent, my favourite pan-African weekly newspaper, distributed on WhatsApp and Signal which you must <\/span>subscribe to<\/span><\/a> if you haven\u2019t already.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s our text exchange:<\/span><\/p>\n

Sipho<\/b>: Greetings. Good day. [<\/span>Note: this is how Sipho really greets his friends<\/span><\/i>] Let\u2019s create an African journalism festival. Your lab could be a perfect host mechanism. If we can solve Nairobi\u2019s traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Me<\/b>: Are you in Perugia \ud83d\udc40<\/span><\/p>\n

Sipho<\/b>: I am. It\u2019s making me angry again at the whole system.<\/span><\/p>\n

What he meant by \u201cthe system\u201d can be unpacked extensively, but in summary, it\u2019s the marginalisation of African voices and perspectives at an <\/span>international<\/span><\/i> journalism conference, and the inaccessibility of Italy- Europe for the many, many media professionals from countries where getting a Schengen visa would need jumping through multiple hoops.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, we thought, let\u2019s do an African media festival, in Africa. I set up a four-way call between Sipho, myself, Maurice Otieno – Executive Director of Baraza Media Lab, and Simon Allison, editor-in-chief of The Continent. And that\u2019s how planning for the Africa Media Festival began.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ten months later, I\u2019m yet to process the incredible energy, insightful conversations, dynamic co-creation sessions and general upbeat vibe that was in abundance at the just-concluded Africa Media Festival. We had about 500 attendees at the Radisson Blu in Upper Hill, Nairobi, nearly 70 speakers, and dozens of panels, workshops and sessions over the course of three days. We really did it!<\/span><\/p>\n

We have a lot to learn and do better next time though \u2013 and there will be a next time! We\u2019ll do more to make sure that Africa outside of Kenya, South Africa and Uganda is better represented. We\u2019ll strive to provide more workshop sessions where media products and prototypes can actually be created on-site. And we\u2019ll intentionally curate more sessions for multiple media tracks, including in a way that would bring unusual collaborations in the same room and spark organic connections.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m really proud of our team in bringing this idea to life. We have a lot to reflect on, but in the meantime, here\u2019s:<\/span><\/p>\n