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.
Did you know that Ghana’s coasts are home to Coral Reefs?
George Amado is a man on a mission to re-story Ghana’s coral reefs. A passionate teacher inspired by how life in the ocean and on land is connected, he teaches drowning prevention and plans on establishing a new dive industry in Ghana.
How does Virtual Reality contribute to real life impact?
When award-winning marine scientist and Mandela Washington Fellow Nancy Iraba joined the 2021 Decade Divemaster Storytelling Lab she could barely swim. Passionate about ocean access and science communication, she has a gift for turning barriers into opportunities.
What does freediving have to do with Ocean Access?
The largest Ocean Access Program for African Scientists, Conservationists and Storytellers, NEWF dive labs create opportunities for freediving certifications too. Recently, a cohort met in Sodwana Bay to calmly descend and ascend along a 10m buoy line, one breath at a time.
What role does documenting the past play in bringing stories about the African experience to life?
To build the future, we must look to the past. In a long-anticipated exchange between NEWF and DWP, we had the opportunity to welcome these divers who are part of the African diaspora, home.
If we trusted our bodies, how far could we go?
African representation (throughout the diaspora) has been recolouring the recreational and professional dive industries. So, what happens when you’ve been diving for ten (10) years - would being called an athlete feel out-of-body? NEWF fellow Megan-Rose grapples with this very reality as we speak.
What does the Africa you dream of look like?
Dr.Aristide Takoukam Kamla and eight (8) prospective open water SCUBA divers from Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal were welcomed to eKhaya Storytelling, Research and Dive Centre in Sodwana Bay. Straight off accepting a highly acclaimed Whitley Award for Nature, he shares how a small Weevil helped Lake Ossa breathe again.
In Retrospect: #NEWF2024 Fellows Summit and Congress
#NEWF2024 is a whirlwind that starts our community's year and sets it on a busy course to bring ideas to life and keep the momentum created through networking, inspired dialogue and interactive learning at large. But this year was different. Word on the street is that it was our best yet - with more impact on the horizon.
eKhaya: We are HOME
Our mission has always been to create strong communities for storytellers, conservationists, and scientists to help each other grow and take up space. At NEWF, we have watched this community grow from one group of fellows pitching their films in 2017, to more than 200 fellows from more than 25 African countries. If only these walls could talk!
REMAIN TEACHABLE
A Marine Biologist by profession, this emerging documentary filmmaker, foodie and NEWF fellow known as TJ is peeling back layers on and off-screen. More than the sum of her achievements and the brief bios sprinkled across the internet; her vision runs deep - tempered by a sober practicality that leaves all who she encounters with a new perspective.
The World Underwater
Noel Kok is a man of passion and energetic ideas for changing the narrative of Africa. One way Noel seeks to do this is by providing access to the ocean through a series of programmes called NEWF Dive LABS. These programmes offer access to Africans who may have not had the ability nor the access to experience the ocean in a way that one can only dream of.
THROUGH MY EYES
For a person who had been longing to learn how to dive, the NEWF Dive and Story Lab could not have come at a better time. To begin with, diving is a necessary skill for anyone studying or working in the marine field - I have been part of a team of researchers, community members, and other stakeholders working to restore degraded coral reefs, amongst other things. To make it even better, storytelling and filmmaking were a part of this too!
CAPTURING THE VISION
When I found myself being invited to the NEWF Wildlife Cinematography Lab in partnership with RED Digital Cinema and Wildlife Society of Filmmakers for a 4 Day REDucation Workshop, how could I not drop everything and anything to take part in this experience?! Especially when the Mission of NEWF has always been so clear ‘to remove the barriers to entry and build capacity to enable access, support inclusion and create a culture of equity”. So, I packed my bags, boarded the plane and uttered my mantra as I prepared and made the intention to always keep my eye on the goal post.