The globalAfrican diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from Native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, with their largest populations in the United States, Brazil, and Haiti. However, the term can also be used to refer to non native African descendants from North Africa who immigrated to other parts of the world. Some scholars identify "four circulatory phases" of this migration out of Africa. The phrase African diaspora gradually entered common usage at the turn of the 21st century. The term diaspora originates from the Greek διασπορά which gained popularity in English in reference to the Jewish diaspora before being more broadly applied to other populations.
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view. The term "storytelling" can refer specifically to oral storytelling but also broadly to techniques used in other media to unfold or disclose the narrative of a story.
Wafa, also referred to in English as the Palestine News Agency and the Palestinian News & Info Agency, is the official state-run news agency of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Before the formation of the PNA in 1994, Wafa was the official news agency of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The Moth is a nonprofit group based in New York City, dedicated to the craft of storytelling. Founded in 1997, the organization presents a wide range of theme-based storytelling events across the United States and abroad, often featuring prominent literary and cultural personalities alongside everyday people like veterans, astronauts, school teachers, and parents. The Moth offers a weekly podcast and in 2009 launched a national public radio show, The Moth Radio Hour, which won a 2010 Peabody Award. The Moth has published four books, including The Moth: 50 True Stories (2013), which reached #22 on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Best-Seller List; All These Wonders: True Stories about Facing the Unknown (2017); Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible (2019); and How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth (2022). In September 2022, The Moth published an interactive card deck , A Game of Storytelling, which debuted at #1 on Amazon's top-selling card game list.
Young Storytellers, formerly known as the Young Storytellers Foundation, is an arts education non-profit operating primarily in Los Angeles.
World Storytelling Day is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling. It is celebrated every year on the March equinox, on March 20. On World Storytelling Day, as many people as possible tell and listen to stories in as many languages and at as many places as possible, during the same day and night. Participants tell each other about their events in order to share stories and inspiration, to learn from each other and create international contacts.
Black science fiction or black speculative fiction is an umbrella term that covers a variety of activities within the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres where people of the African diaspora take part or are depicted. Some of its defining characteristics include a critique of the social structures leading to black oppression paired with an investment in social change. Black science fiction is "fed by technology but not led by it." This means that black science fiction often explores with human engagement with technology instead of technology as an innate good.
Katha is an Indian style of religious storytelling, performances of which are a ritual event in Hinduism. In Sikhism, the term refers to religious discourses focused on educating the congregation on the proper meaning of the teachings set-out in the Sikh scriptures and other texts to guide correct beliefs and practices. It often involves priest-narrators who recite stories from Hindu religious texts, such as the Puranas, the Ramayana or Bhagavata Purana, followed by a commentary (Pravachan). Kathas sometimes take place in households, involving smaller stories related to the Vrat Katha genre. The didactic Satyanarayan and Ramayana kathas instill moral values by revealing the consequences of human action (karma).
Arts Midwest is one of six not-for-profit regional arts organizations created to “encourage development of the arts and to support arts programs on a regional basis.” Arts Midwest's mission is to "build unprecedented opportunity across the Midwest by advancing creativity.” Its vision is that Midwestern creativity powers thriving, entrepreneurial, and welcoming communities. Arts Midwest is primarily funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and is charged with supporting artists and arts organizations, and providing assistance to its nine member states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Sahara Reporters is a news agency based in New York City that focuses on promoting citizen journalism by encouraging everyday people to report stories about corruption, human rights abuses and other political misconduct in Africa, with special focus on Nigeria. Sahara Reporters specializes in exposing corruption and government malfeasance.
Mary Evans is a contemporary artist who lives and works in England and utilises in her subject matter both her African heritage and European upbringing.
The member states of the African Union (AU) are divided into five geographic regions of the African Union.
Cassava Republic Press is a steering African book publishing company established in Nigeria in 2006 and headed by Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, with a focus on affordability, the need to find and develop local talent, and to publish African writers too often celebrated only in Europe and America. Cassava Republic's stated mission is "to change the way we all think about African writing. (...) to build a new body of African writing that links writers across different times and spaces." The publishing house is considered to be "at the centre of a thriving literary scene" that has seen Nigerian writers in particular, as well as writers from elsewhere on the African continent, having considerable success both at home and internationally. ThisDay newspaper has stated of the publishing house that "it is credited with innovation. From driving down the cost of books to using digital media to drive sales, Cassava has invariably sought to redefine the African narrative."
We Are Not Numbers (WANN) is a project established in 2015 by Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor to provide English-language writing workshops for young Palestinians in Gaza. It provides each participant with six months of training and mentoring with experienced English writers, professional authors, reporters and communicators. The features, stories, news reports and social media content produced as part of the program have been featured by various media outlet, among the Huffington Post, Mondoweiss, the New Arab, the Palestine Chronicle and +972 Magazine.
Mimi Kalinda, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda and raised in South Africa, is the Group CEO and Co-founder of Africa Communications Media Group, (ACG), a pan African public relations and communications agency based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Kalinda also serves as the Director of Global Communications for Innovations for Poverty Action headquartered in Washington, DC. She is the former Brand, Marketing and Communications Director at the Global Development Incubator, headquartered in Washington, DC. Kalinda is also the former director of communications for the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a pan-African network of centres of excellence in mathematical sciences.
Political narrative is a term used in the humanities and political sciences to describe the way in which storytelling can shape fact and impact on understandings of reality. However, political narrative is not only a theoretical concept, it is also a tool employed by political figures in order to construct the perspectives of people within their environment and alter relationships between social groups and individuals. As a result, fiction has the potential to become fact and myths become intertwined into public discourse. Political narrative is impactful in its ability to elicit pathos, allowing the narrative to be influential through the value it provides rather than the truth that is told.
Adama Delphine Fawundu is a Sierra Leonean-American multi-disciplinary photographer and visual artist promoting African culture and heritage, a co-founder and author of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora – a journal and book representing female photographers of African descent. Her works have been presented in numerous exhibitions worldwide. She uses multiple mediums to create works with themes about identity, utopia, decolonization, and stories of the past, present and future. She is a Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University.
Eromo Egbejule is a Nigerian journalist, writer and filmmaker. He is known mostly for his work on the Boko Haram insurgency and other conflicts in West and Central Africa. He is currently Africa Editor at Al Jazeera English.
Oshosheni Hiveluah was a Namibian writer, producer, and director. She is best known for the films Tjitji the Himba Girl and 100 Bucks.
Moky Makura is a Nigerian author, journalist, actress, and businesswoman, who serves as executive director of Africa No Filter (ANF), an organization aiming at inducing changes in Africa by means of mass media.
