Speakers

Lulama Njapa is a freelance travel writer and music fanatic who left the corporate world to fulfill her long held dream of seeing the world. She is currently exploring  and slow traveling through Malawi and Eastern Zambia where she is also learning the history of the Zulus and Ngonis tribes respectively.

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Josiane Faubert is the creative behind PICHA Stock, an Afrocentric visual collection she founded 4 years ago. Originally from Gabon, she jumped into the world of photography after a few years of working in marketing research.

Photography led her to PICHA Stock with the mission to provide representative and authentic content of Afrocentric communities. Josiane is a creative building a community of visual content providers that are also interested in redefining Afrocentric visual stories.

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Phillipe Nyirimihigo is a Rwanadan based photographer who had previously spent 10 years in Toronto, Canada working and studying. During his time in Canada he had his work featured in many magazines,  photographed fashion as well as having worked alongside renowned photographers. He then decided to relocate to Rwanda and focus his attention on what was happening at home. His relocation was with the intention to rediscover his country and continent as well as contribute to the growing creative community in Africa.

Phillipe is also the Co-Founder and Director of Visual Content for Illume Creative Studio. In this role he is expanding the business of video and photography as well as taking photography to new heights.

His work has gifted him with global travel from countries like Rwanda, France, Ghana and more. Phillipe forms one half of a publication titled; “This is Rwanda” which is co-authored by Gael Ruboneka Vande Whege, this publication is just at the forefront of his lifelong journey.

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Artist, writer, Filmmaker and Film enthusiast Kenyaa Mzee, is a respected and celebrated creative mind based in Cape Town, South Africa. Among several accolades and exhibitions, the most recent being in March 2020 when Kenyaa represented South Africa as their Ambassador for the worlds largest female artist exhibition hosted in Dubai, UAE consisting of 100 women all over the world- Art Connects Women 2020. As a young African creative her goal is simple, to be happy and content within herself and her craft while leaving a legacy of brilliance and empowerment in the world and in The Arts. This courageous, self-represented conceptual thinker can be found dancing to the cool tunes of Jazz, African and Afrolatin music or taking long walks when she is not writing a script or compiling her next work of art.

Luladey was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Completing her bachelor’s degree in Sociology, she started her career in education where she served as a program associate and taught art at Mother Caroline Academy in Boston, M.A.

She is currently serving as a director of college and career counselling at Maranyundo Girls’ school in Nyamata, Rwanda. As a result of her exposure abroad and career experience, she saw the importance of depiction and representation of the African culture and the African people.

Luladey has been drawn to art since childhood. She started with recreating existing artwork and it stuck with her ever since. The joy felt when creating, led her to exercise her creativity through different mediums; painting, designing, photography and ink sketch.

Luladey describes art as the mother of all existence and believes that artistic creativity is conceived, developed, defined and redefined until it’s free to exist in a space to create. Her art is inspired by her African Roots, her relationships, and her pursuit of her personal truth.

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Katlego Tshuma is a self-taught multidisciplinary conceptual artist with an emphasis on design as a vehicle for driving ideas, solutions, conversation and messaging in public and private spaces.

Katlego started his career in 2013 after quitting his job at the airport and taking up photography. Six months later, he published his first body of work titled: Seeds, a township monologue.

While working on Seeds, Katlego launched and ran Shots011.com. A photography website geared towards helping emerging artists navigate the South African art industry between 2015 and 2018.

Katlego then moved into the advertising space working in and with brands such as The Market Photo workshop, Corium Skincare, Telkom, Vodacom, Mondelez and other well established brands and agencies as an Art Director, Motion Graphics designer and 3D Artist.

In 2020, Katlego won the Nando's Hot Young Designer competition with his show stopping Sangu Bench which saw him crowned the overall winner of the competition out of over 200 entrants.

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Bright Shitemi is the Founder and Executive Director of Mental 360, a non-profit social enterprise that promotes mental health by raising awareness and supports the mental health needs of the youth in Kenya by providing holistic and affordable solutions. This is done through art, physical wellness, therapy and peer support systems.

A highly stigmatized topic in African communities, Bright is driven to change perceptions and beliefs on mental illness. Mental 360’s approach of leveraging technology and use of art and experiential learning as a form of expression and in awareness has enhanced the mental health conversation in Kenyan communities.

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Nosipho Nxele is a young, Self-taught Female Illustrator and Conceptual Designer. She has a great passion for women empowerment and breaking stereotypes carved on women by society.

Having been raised by religious values, Nxele has always been very opinionated towards everything. Her illustration work is mostly influenced by expressionism, mental illness, religion and other topics that affect women in society.

A lot of mediums have been used to capture emotion and show mental illness but the power of illustration lies in the use of colour, emphasis on line, shape, space and texture. All of these elements are found in illustration to influence the mind, heart and body of the viewer. Nxele’s hope is that people find some sort of healing in her work.

Born in Cape Town, Shakirah Dramat is a social entrepreneur, speaker, and Managing Director of THAT Network.

A social enterprise that bridges the gap between the creative community and the clients who need their services.

She's a community activist and plays a vital role in advocating for the preservation of Cape Malay oral history. Shakirah is passionate about youth development and believes that by fostering a nation of entrepreneurial thinkers, we’ll be able to overcome many of the social ills which affect our country’s people.

Aaron Yeboah  Junior is a Ghanaian Visual Designer currently living and working in Accra, Ghana.

Since 2010, Aaron has constantly embarked on projects and endeavours that push creative boundaries especially in Africa.

Using design as a tool to inspire, educate and inform, Aaron’s primary mission is to deliver innovative cross-platform solutions to communication and visual design and be a creative force in Ghana, Africa and beyond.

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With a background in graphic design, Bennett studied graphics in University and her  first job was working as a junior graphic designer in a TV branding studio which also had a gallery.

She has always been interested in art and is innately creative - even before her University studies. In 2016, she launched the BetterShared platform to provide a space for emerging artists of the African Diaspora.