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African artists to produce career-defining projects as part of the Africa No Filter Emerging Artists Fellows program

Watch the video here.

Johannesburg – Monday, 24 January 2022: What does a formerly enslaved Gambian have in common with Basotho food, the kitenge textile found in East Africa and Dada pottery from Kwara State in Nigeria? 

These are some of the stories produced by 11 emerging artists taking part in the Africa No Filter Emerging Artists Fellows program, making it possible for upcoming and mid-career artists to work on career-defining projects.  

The program is part of Africa No Filter’s mission of supporting storytellers in Africa and the Diaspora whose work shifts stereotypical narratives of the continent. The artists will get funding to help develop and produce their projects. There’s also ongoing mentorship and opportunities for networking and collaborations. 

“Creativity and art, in general, are powerful tools in creating and presenting relevant narratives about the African continent. We created the Emerging Artists Fellows program to offer storytellers an opportunity to experiment with ideas and creative methodologies that they’ll be able to reuse for the rest of their careers. The program will offer them the time, space and development needed to take their careers to the next level,” said Moky Makura, Executive Director at Africa No Filter. 

Participating artists include a graphic designer, podcaster, photographer, author, food artist, painter, cartoonist, filmmaker, actress and producer, 3D artist and multimedia essayist. They are from The Gambia, Benin, Lesotho, Cape Verde, Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Ivory Coast. 

They’ll produce films, installations, painting, a novel, a cookbook, multimedia essays, digital art and even emojis. Their work will explore identity, spirituality, landscape, women in leadership, oral traditions, representation, food, and resilience. While the projects and artists are as diverse as Africa, they all have three things in common – innovation, creativity and telling an alternative story of Africa. 

“We also wanted highly motivated artists who are intentional about their art practice and put deliberate and consistent efforts towards creating,” said Essé Dabla-Attikpo, Program Facilitator. 

The Emerging Artists Fellows are: 

1. Ivorian digital artist, graphic designer and illustrator O’Plérou Grebet, 24, is known for designing more than 300 free emojis that portray African cultures. He is working on a multiplatform project called Zouzoukwa, which aims to create content around African emojis and curate a database of free cultural information. 

2. Self-taught Nigerian photographer and painter Haneefah Adam, 30, works with experimental food and digital art. She is producing a documentary that will be part of a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring the photography of the women of Dada pottery, installation and visual art paintings. 

3. Mpho Ts’uene, a 27-year-old visual artist from Lesotho, uses art as activism against gender inequality and stereotypical narratives about Africa. She’s working on a cookbook that uses Basotho’s cuisine and food culture to contribute to the growing body of work that engages with food in Africa beyond poverty. 

4. Gambian creative consultant and multidisciplinary artist Baingor Joiner, 28, is working on a historical novel, a photo essay and an interview video series on the life of Thomas Joiner. The latter returned to The Gambia after his enslavement.  

5. Cameroonian actress and filmmaker Stella Tchuisse, 27, uses cinema to tell impactful African stories for Africa and the world. Her project, ‘Elle Aussi, She Too’, uses the arts to encourage female political leadership in her country. She will produce a photo series featuring prominent female politicians.   

6. Ghanaian filmmaker Prince Ardayfio, 26, works with traditional film and Virtual Reality. He is producing a documentary to challenge the stereotype that black people can’t swim by highlighting African people’s cultural and historical relationship with water and water bodies. 

7. Progress Nyandoro is a 24-year-old Zimbabwean artist who specializes in multimedia art that uses paints and textures to explore society and social life in Zimbabwe. She is producing mixed media paintings for a series called ‘Rich, I am’. It will have a digital and physical exhibition. 

8. Katanu Sanna, 23, is a Kenyan visual artist who works with kitenge fabrics, oil paintings, acrylic paintings, 3D art.  She is producing images set in Mariakani, Kenya.  

9. Dylan Habil, 23, is an award-winning Kenyan filmmaker, producer and media strategist. He is developing an animated docu-series called Mizizi, a contemporary take on African folktales.  

10. Yuran Henrique, 28, is a Cape Verdean artist who uses expressionism to explore contemporary identities. He also works as a cartoonist in the newspaper Expresso das Ilhas newspaper. He’ll produce a multimedia series called ‘Small Island Landscape’.  

11. Mahoutondji Kinmagbo, 21, is a self-taught visual artist from Benin. He’s producing a short animated film about a teenage girl passionate about living in a world where creativity is a way of life. The film will be made using 3D design software.

The Fellows have 12-months to complete their projects. Their mentors are Ghanaian TV producer Nicole Amarteifio, Senegalese-American journalist and podcaster Selly Thiam, Gambian playwright and director Maïmouna Jallow, Nigerian writer and editor Bukola Oyebode and Ugandan Teesa Bahana, director of Kampala-based art trust, 32° East. 

WATCH: The ANF Emerging Artists Fellows 2021/2022

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