Earlier this week, the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic’s Story School in Morocco, in conjunction with the French-African Foundation, announced 30 laureates selected for the first edition of KESSA, The Young Panafrican Storytellers Programme.
The selection process, conducted by an international jury composed of personalities from the media, cultural industries and creative leadership, resulted in a collective of creatives drawn from across Africa and its diaspora.
It follows a call for applications last year in December, after which about 1,900 creatives applied for the residency. Officials noted that the pan-African residency, one of its kind yet, is dedicated to new forms of African storytelling, with aims including identifying, training and connecting a new generation of storytellers committed to amplifying the continent’s creative power.
The inaugural cohort of storytellers from across the continent and the diaspora, include Nigeria’s African fashion historian, Tejumola Maurice-Diya; South Africa’s writer and theatre lecturer Sanelisiwe Yekani; Egyptian tech founder Nouran Farouk; and award-winning Ghanaian investigative science journalist Ibrahim Khalilulahi Usma.
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From Kenya, the laureates include wildlife photographer and filmmaker Imara Njeri; Film producer and distributor at Drama Deluxe Africa, Kelvin Osoo Omundi; Digital content creator and storyteller at Justtotallyrandom, Sheila Muthoni Washira; and Gabriel Ogonda, a musician, director and screenwriter, among others.
The laureates at the residency, which will officially take place between March 23 to 28, 2026, will participate in an intensive programme of masterclasses, collaborative workshops and creative sessions, alongside mentors from international cultural and media industries. It will lead to the production of original works, which will then be disseminated as part of a pan-African campaign, highlighting a new generation of African creative voices.
During the announcement of the cohort, the residency officials noted that the list was drawn from a diverse African creative scene, which encompasses cultural scenes and institutions, entrepreneurship and technology ecosystems, film and series, journalism and media, museology and archives, cultural criticism, as well as arts, design and urban cultures.
Meriem Idrissi Kaitouni, the Director of UM6P – Story School, had earlier noted that “changing representations and elevating African voices involves telling about Africa differently, in all its diversity and creativity.” The Managing Director, French-African Foundation, stated that storytelling “is essential to building a contemporary, realistic, ambitious, and positive representation of the continent.”
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