This media startup aims to challenge harmful stereotypes about Africa through film, dance and journalism

Since moving back to Nigeria in 2012 from the United States, journalist Chika Oduah has covered major issues across Africa, from the Boko Haram insurgency and political instability in the Sahel region to public health, climate change and women’s rights. In June 2023, she launched ZIKORA Media and Arts African Cultural Initiative, a media production company and cultural institution with a vision to capture the experiences, expressions and impressions of Africa and Africans through immersive storytelling produced through photography, dance, poetry, visual arts and films. 

Oduah aims to use the arts to tell nuanced stories about Africa. The idea to launch ZIKORA, she says, emerged from her frustrations with the way western mainstream media were unwilling to look at Africa with different eyes. 

“They really want to keep the old view that they've always had of Africa, a place mired in poverty, death, disaster, doom and destruction,” she says. “But there's so much nuance beyond these simplistic tropes and a new generation of Africans hopes to take the continent on a different course. Look at Nigeria where you have young people who are doing amazing things in tech. You also have Afrobeat musicians who are filling up stadiums all around the world. There's a whole different vibrancy out there.”

Why does she think Western news companies don't want to see this side of the continent? “Perhaps they think it's not sensational enough or is not going to sell,” Oduah says. “I was really tired of the way they were going about it. I became a journalist because I felt journalism is a great platform for me to show a wider view of Africa and tell stories with nuance.”

This doesn’t mean Oduah thinks journalists should not report on war or corruption in the continent. She says she was never someone to shy away from these kinds of stories to just focus on positive narratives. “We need people to be held accountable for malfeasance,” she says. “I always felt we have to put these stories on paper, name and shame those responsible, and hold these people accountable. This is how we build a democracy: by keeping citizens informed.”

Journalism, film and dance

To tell diverse, nuanced stories that truly reflect Africa, Oduah is adopting creative forms of storytelling. The outlet is structured into six creative operational branches: literary arts, performance arts, journalism and new media, film and TV, events and the Collective Tree. The Collective Tree nurtures a collective of storytellers, artists and progressive thought leaders, according to the project's website. For the film and TV branch, Oduah says they envision getting some partnerships with the big digital on-demand streaming platforms. 

Oduah explains they are rolling out a series of projects through the #DecolonizingBeautyZikora initiative. This initiative, launched in June 2024, is a campaign designed to celebrate the rich tapestry of indigenous and local beauty customs across Africa. In July, ZIKORA held a social media challenge to encourage content creators to appreciate African hairstyles and inspire their audiences. Winners received a prize of $500.  

Oduah and her colleagues have also launched a smartphone short film contest for African filmmakers to present cinematic portrayals of beauty customs practised in their communities. Films between 6-8 minutes in duration will be accepted. They’ve also opened a poetry contest for African poets to “express the essence of African beauty.” A photojournalism project on the same theme will be announced in October 2024. 

“Our different branches are doing their projects separately, but then we still have coordination under certain themes,” she adds. “For instance, we may want to have a theme celebrating African traditional food and you can touch on it through poetry or film or journalism.”

How they'll fund their work

Oduah is exploring different funding models for ZIKORA. She hopes the bulk of funding for the organisation will come from people who enjoy their content and believe in what they do. 

“If you look at some media platforms in the United States, that's how they do it, whether you call them subscribers, members or contributors,” she says. “I grew up listening to National Public Radio and every few months they have a listeners’ funding drive where they call upon their listeners and people who appreciate their content to contribute. This has been going on for decades and it's very successful.”

They are also hoping to get funding from corporations in Africa. “I want the bulk of our funding to come from Africa and from Africans,” she emphasises. “That's extremely important to me because you often have pan-African and Afrocentric initiatives being financed mostly by Westerners. I want ZIKORA to do something radically different.”

Oduah thinks wealth in Africa should be channelled towards artistic creative initiatives in the continent. “Doing this is making a political statement,” she says. “ZIKORA is deeply political, and we have high net worth individuals and corporations in Africa that are churning over millions of dollars every month. Instead of knocking on the doors of donors in America, I would like to tap into this funding from home. Of course, Western donors can definitely help. But our goal is that the bulk of our funding is generated by Africans.”

Oduah doesn’t rule out subscription-based funding. “We'll be working with a lot of independent filmmakers and promoting their work online. Our goal is to create an on-demand viewing platform and that would certainly be subscription-based.”

In the case of Diaspora, a platform that focuses on stories written by Africans who are living outside of Africa, Oduah doesn’t plan on hiding its contents behind a paywall. “I want the content to be accessible to all,” she says. "We are really trying to tap into the diaspora experience to capture the experience through profound essays.” 

Oduah also runs the Biafran War Memories, a digital archive of first-hand accounts and lived experiences of the survivors and victims of Nigeria’s civil war, also known as the Biafran War, which lasted from 1967 to 1970. 

In the future, Oduah says ZIKORA is planning to sell some products as part of their revenue mix. These products might include coffee table books with rich photography, poems and essays. 

The work ahead 

Oduah says that most of their initiatives will focus on rural communities and outside of the bigger cities like Nairobi, Cairo, Johannesburg, Lagos and elsewhere. 

“I've always been really keen on reaching rural communities because that's where most Africans came from,” she says. “If we look at the population spread, though, rural communities are losing their population. Africa has so much beauty to offer, and ZIKORA wants to build on this pride. Africans have been through so much dehumanising trauma and tragedy that lingers today.”

Beyond all of the projects she’s taking on, Oduah says one of their missions is to inject self-confidence into Africans through positive media portrayals. 

“We emulate so many cultures, meaning that we have sometimes walked away from what we were raised with to take up other cultures. ZIKORA is really about just tapping into ourselves to unleash a greater sense of pride and confidence in who we are as Africans,” she says. “We’ve been through colonialism and we still have a lot of exploitative extraction in Africa in terms of minerals and oil. Going through these traumas has hurt your soul and ripped apart your sense of dignity. We want to change that.”