Have you refocused your lens?
What comes to mind when you envision a group of divers exploring the southern tips kelp forests, restoring East Africa’s coral reefs or filming wildlife in warm and wild forest and plains across the continent? What do filmmakers, scientists, innovators and conservation heroes look like, sound like, and dress like?
Africa Refocused is built on a bold theory of change:
When talented and diverse African storytellers receive the training, mentorship, connections, and access they need to advance their skills and careers, they become leaders in wildlife and natural history storytelling. Their voices add vital perspectives to the global conservation narrative, helping to protect Africa’s wildlife for generations to come.
Our Story Arc is a collection of stories that amplify, and powerfully celebrate just a fraction of the trailblazing, compelling, complex, funny, hopeful, nuanced, inspiring, passionate and hard-fought journeys of African storytellers, conservationists and scientists in the NEWF community - on and off continent.
Through these stories, we celebrate our collective agency, and seek to share the value of community-centric impact through warm, thought-provoking narratives that highlight the richly diverse cultures, multidisciplinary talent and Indigenous knowledge systems that play a significant role in the preservation of our wild spaces, species and the communities that coexist with them.
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Fins
Vividly, I remember the night before April 8th 2021. My stomach was in knots and my teeth were locked in anxiety - too wound up to sleep but too exhausted to engage with anything but my thoughts. April 8th would mark the day I would meet 9 phenomenal women from around the continent who themselves had struggled with mixed feelings the night before.