Reclaiming the Story of Science, Culture and Connection at the First International Explorers Explorers Festival in Africa
The NEWF Community by Mpho Ramathikithi /NGS2025EXFEST.
As an organisation, we spend a lot of time talking about ecosystems. In the context of storytelling, science — and naturally, wild spaces teeming with life seen and unseen.
One of the most unique ecosystems that we can see and are in awe of is our community of storytellers, conservationists and scientists. Often alone but carrying many with them and standing behind them, they step onto many global platforms to represent their communities and amplify stories, discovery and curiosity inspired by and brought to life close to home and around the world.
Just as natural ecosystems rely on relationships, reciprocity and balance, the ecosystems we are most inspired by and actively invested in are both inspired and shaped by people — Africans and talents in the diaspora carrying histories, languages, disciplines and identities that when interwoven, create a living network of advancement, collaboration and meaning. Knowledge, culture and practices pollinate across fields, shaping perspective, nuance and sense of place.
In this layered ecosystem of science, culture and storytelling, each thread strengthens the next: insights from the field inform creative expression, artistic interpretation fuels public imagination, and community knowledge grounds scientific inquiry in lived reality.
At the first International National Geographic Explorers Festival hosted on African soil, this interdependence became visible — not as metaphor, but as a supportive force for a growing movement that reveals the power of exploration when nurtured by a constellation of voices in dialogue, and how collective curiosity becomes a shared act of advocacy, agency, care and repatriation.
“This [was] truly a special moment, our first ever International Explorers Fest in Africa. And we are absolutely thrilled to [have been] here…
[The] week gave us an opportunity to press pause, to connect and reconnect with one another, and to connect with our shared purpose to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.
And no one builds those connections quite like explorers.”
Here we saw tangible connections between the work carried out by the The National Geographic Society, NEWF and the Africa Refocused Program that it powers.
From the Exploration stage we journeyed through the projects and stories of Geologist Dr.Tebogo Makhubela (Beyond the Bones: The World of Homo Naledi, South Africa), Film Producer and NEWF Fellow Ntokozo Mbuli (The Spoken Land, South Africa), Ethnoecologist and Environmental Anthropologist Kerllen da Silva Freitas Costa (The Soul of Protection, Angola), and Terrestrial Ecologist and Conservationist Dominique Gonçalves (Matriarchs of Tomorrow, Mozambique).
Learn more about Rising Star by clicking the image.
Burial and the fossilised archives of care, culture and ancient knowledge systems consume the reader with every turn of Robert Macfarlane’s words in Underland. Writing about Homo Naledi and the Rising Star cave system in a chapter dedicated to Burial, he notes the early significance of burial — a tender and meaningful show of our ancestors’ culture, emotional intelligence and proof of how much that matters to exists unseen underfoot.
The stories of our caves, customs, callings and custodianship took deeper meaning than even a writer as brilliant as McFarlane can articulate — a bold and true testament to how close we hold the connection to the land we were born to, and that birthed a world of wonder and connectedness that each of us weave uniquely, expansively and unapologetically.
From the spotlight stage, explorers who are also immersed in the NEWF community represented more of our hopes and dreams coming to life.
Stage and social photography by Mpho Ramathikithi/NGS2025EXFEST.
Private session and workshop photography by Baby George Creatives/NGS2025EXFEST.
From NEWF Community mentor Véronique Couttee-Jenkins (Spatial Storyteller, Mauritius) moved audiences as she cited her fearful relationship to water as a child, as defining inspiration for work; while fellows Dr.Shaleen Angweni (Wildlife Vet and Educator, Uganda), Stuart Tibaweswa (Documentary Photographer, Uganda), Ghofrane Labyedh (Marine Biologist, Tunisia), Clement Kiragu (Visual Storyteller, Kenya) and Dercio Muha Gomate (Composer and Visual Artist, Mozambique) stood bold as they shared a snapshot of some of their work in just 3 minutes and 3 slides.
This global community reconnects science, art and the magic of discovery, and strengthens the foundations for every next season of advocacy, preservation and exploration,
“I would be remiss to not mention that when we welcome you to South Africa, and to Africa broadly, we’re welcoming you home.
This is the place where it all began — our search for our understanding of who we are, leads us back here.”
Water and landscapes — all of nature — shape culture and context, setting the scene for discovery and illumination.
Academia seeks to find more and more data through individual and collective inquiry — numbers to compare, materials to study — now powered by more diverse talent than has been known or shown in the past. With this representation comes local knowledge and inspired reminders that indigenous knowledge systems have inspired the very same world of academia being caught up on context, ethical citation and the need to acknowledge the harm of past omissions in this acknowledgment.
So while the language of hypotheses remains, science is more alive through digital media and art, reminding us that the questions being asked are just another language for common, collective questions around the world.
And if science seeks to learn more, art brings meaning forward — inspiring a resurgence in the marriage of art and science from the perspectives of academics and storytellers defining this ever-evolving movement of interconnectedness. Subjective, deeply moving, living archives of meaning and connection now bring science, academia and everything we know and feel into view using more mediums than ever before.
“The event became a beautiful reunion with familiar faces, strengthening connections we had already built, while also opening doors to new exchanges and new ideas.
And through it all, I could feel Ubuntu running through my veins.
I am exactly where I always wanted to be.”
Throughout the festival, themes of ecosystem, continental cultural context and the power of perspective came into focus.
Ntokozo reminded us of nature-led language and the roots of belonging — the way scientific representation is coded with culture and pride.
Indigenous knowledge defines science, yes, but also defines modern preservation and adaptation. The lion hunt as a rite of passage for manhood in Kenya has evolved into guardianship through the initiative of locals - just one example of culture and custodianship meeting to bring balance to local ecosystems.
Mozambique and Gorongosa’s history — shaped by civil war — demonstrates the expansiveness of restoration and adaptation. Community inclusivity marries science and indigenous knowledge, enabling experimentation and ecosystem restoration, something reflected so clearly by NEWF's catalogue of films, the product of the African Science Film Fellowship.
Education everywhere opens a world of possibility, empowering women and girls through initiatives like the Girls Club Dominique spoke about, integrated into Gorongosa’s programs by Educator, Communicator and NEWF Fellow Larissa Sousa — the heart of this work is rooted in the community to expose young girls to a world of possibility and diverse mentorship.
Noel Kok by Mpho Ramathikithi /NGS2025EXFEST.
Kimberleigh Tommy and Pragna Parsotam-Kok by Mpho Ramathikithi/NGS2025EXFEST.
Noel and Pragna’s perseverance to grow and sustain NEWF’s mission is their way of honouring their calling to contribute to bringing Africans together for storytellers, exploration and the celebration of the richness of Africa’s cultures, vast land and horizons, wildlife and oceans.
In the audience representing an organisation that includes the leadership of a female pioneer, Nancy Iraba, who learned to swim and worked twice as hard to leave NEWF’s 2021 Decade Divemaster Storytelling Lab a Divemaster. A National Geographic Explorer whose passion for sharing and expanding access on a community level in Tanzania led to receiving the Wayfinder Award, she has walked the walk and shown how serious she is about bringing others with her, including her team from Action For Ocean.
Team AFO by Mpho Ramathikithi/NGS2025EXFEST.
Demonstrating the inspirational, aspirational and actionable power of coming together this, we have the opportunity to end this story arc with local, African representation by Javis Bashabula — a voice brought into the audience through the work of Nancy and AFO - and those heeding similar callings. He says it best by encapsulating the immense value of platforms that seek to support the visibility of African agency that expands storytelling, science, impact and community-building on their own terms:
You realize Africa’s problem was never talent. It was access.
We have got brilliance everywhere. As Stuart Mathew Tibaweswa said, his work isn’t just about glaciers; it’s about people, belief, and belonging. Catia Dombaxe from Angola put it best: ‘Where you come from should never judge how far you should go.’
Science isn’t foreign — it’s already living in our communities...
In the children who ask why. In women like Véronique Couttee-Jenkins building the Afritech Fellowship so others can ‘breathe and keep swimming.’ [Clement Kiragu asked,] ‘When you see the headline, ask yourself; who is the storyteller?
That’s the mission. That’s the fight... To make sure Africa’s stories aren’t told about us, but by us.
The National Geographic Society International Explorers Festival in Johannesburg wasn’t only an avenue for inclusion but rather [seeing] integration firsthand. Because inclusion is being invited, integration is being trusted to change the room. Innovation here doesn’t wear lab coats. It wears flip-flops, carries a GoPro, and smells like sea salt and courage.
Science must speak human. Data must tell stories.
That’s what we do at Action For Ocean, we train youth to think like scientists and act like storytellers. And as Uncle Noel said — ‘Exploration is a journey that must be travelled with an open heart, an open mind, and an open ear.’
This festival was a mirror — a reminder that Africa doesn’t need validation but rather it needs investment, curiosity, and belief.
