Africa No Filter (ANF), a non-profit organisation supporting the development of stories challenging stereotypes about Africa, has revealed 11 emerging and mid-career artists to receive support from the Kekere Storytellers Fund.
The Kekere Storytellers Fund pays micro-grants to content creators, wordsmiths, performance artists, visual artists and journalists to create and publish unique and compelling content that shifts prevailing stereotypical narratives about their communities or subject.
These creatives have won micro-grants worth between US$500 and US$2,000 to work on projects that embody their experiences of Africa and being African, representing originality, freedom, creativity and innovation.
They include CEO and founder of the World Refugee Film Academy Cedric Bichano-Isingiro from Uganda; creator of YouTube series This is Uganda Nadia Matovu; founder of the Animated Animation Festival in Cairo Youhana Nassif; computer animator and 3D artist Ambassadeur from Rwanda; and Cameroonian scriptwriter, film producer and CEO of Mbisah Studios Eveline Mbisah.
Also among them are South African actress Cheraé Halley; South African author of a vegan food blog Anda Mtshelma; Zimbabwean artist Erhuardt Muchemwa; Nigerian editor and journalist Chisom Job; co-founder of Drum Circle Sudan Salma Mahmoud; and Kasiva Mutua, founder of Motramusic, the first all-female percussion collective in Kenya.
Jessica Hagan, arts and culture programme lead at ANF, said: “Our mission for Kekere is clear and remains the same: to empower African on-the-ground storytellers through funding and other support. Once again, we were looking for innovative, passionate storytellers with fantastic projects that showcased Africans and the continent in an interesting and refreshing way.”
“Our first cohort of Kekere grantees introduced us to the wonderful world of young, often unsupported African storytellers,” added Natasha Kimani, media and research lead at ANF.
“This has inspired us to focus even more on trying to amplify storytellers and content creators who rarely have access to opportunities. We hope that this investment will be the beginning of more diverse and nuanced stories and partnerships across the continent.”
The Kekere Storytellers Fund was launched in November 2020 as part of ANF’s way of disrupting traditional funding by ensuring that no voice remains unheard and also ensuring that funding, which is limited and rarely accessed by up-and-coming storytellers, reaches everyone with a compelling story to tell.
tagged in: Africa No Filter, Jessica Hagan, Kekere Storytellers Fund, Natasha Kimani