Josephine Karianjahi and Melissa Mbugua
Josephine Karianjahi and Melissa Mbugua
Writer: Rutendo Nyamuda, Founder & Editor
Photographers: Michael Mbaya & Jeanine Keet
Let me take you back to February 2020... It was a few days before the launch of Africa Podfest - the first international podcast festival on the continent to be held in Nairobi, Kenya. At the time, podcasting was fairly new to the African scene, so there was a lot of buzz in the air about the event that had drawn pan-African and international speakers and attendees.
With only a few days to go before the festival, anticipation gripped the air as the entire team, including co-directors Josephine Karianjahi and Melissa Mbugua, waited with bated breath to see their hard work, sweat and late nights pay off.
“We were already quite exhausted, quite tired, but excited because the event was happening. So when [we were] in that last leg of looking at the checklist [and] going through the final touches we started to hear in the news about this pandemic, and [people were saying], ‘cross your fingers that this doesn't get worse’,” said Melissa.
But, it did get worse. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the entire world. Local and International governments closed their borders to contain the spread of the virus and events, like Africa Podfest, were cancelled.
This knocked the wind right out of the team. Such a blow could have caused anyone to quit indefinitely. But for Josephine and Melissa, this moment was merely a bump in the road. They knew that this festival was bigger than both of them.
Flash forward to now, January 2021. Sitting in Cape Town, South Africa, I log onto Zoom excited to interview Josephine, who’s now based in Düsseldorf, Germany, and Melissa, in Nairobi, Kenya. I have so many questions about who they are, why they launched Podfest, and how different this virtual event will be this year. They log on and so we begin.
The Journey into Podcasting:
For many of us when we were growing up the thought of being a podcaster was foreign. Now, many people across various backgrounds have been drawn to this medium in different ways. Josephine, host and producer of the ‘This I Can Do’ podcast, says that for her the journey was filled with a lot of trial, error and having fun exploring various tools.
“The process felt a lot like getting a recipe and trying it and then failing at it, and then trying it again and then sharing it with your family members. And so podcasting for me was a process of trying to discover what I really want to talk about? Where did my passion meet the process of sharing stories, and who they really want to talk to? So some of it was podcasting about things I was interested in, whether it's wildlife and conservation, some of it was talking to friends who I really admire, and sort of trying to interview them in a way that would allow them to tell longer-form stories,” she says.
On the other hand, Melissa describes her journey into the podcast scene as taking the “scenic route”. She advised podcasters and worked on festivals way before she launched her own podcast in 2020 called ‘Pros & Possibilities’.
But her curiosity initially peaked in 2012, when she encountered her first African podcast called ‘Deeper sounds of Nairobi’ by Jack Rooster. Her analytical mind was curious as to how many other African podcasters were out there and so she put out a survey.
“The responses were really interesting. I had responses from six podcasters, who'd been running for years, which was interesting, because most people had never heard of them, or most of them. And then I also got to hear a bit more about their audiences and what they felt they needed in order to grow. And some of the stuff they needed [included], access to studios, community with other podcasters, from Kenya and beyond. And so that planted the seed…” she said.
Unconference:
A few years later the seed of Podfest began to take root. In August 2019, a group of podcasters and podcast enthusiasts got together in Nairobi for an unconference. This participant-style meeting generated interesting discussions around creating structured content, the technical side of audio production, and, of course, funding. The team knew that they needed to create a Podcast Festival that reached beyond Kenya and into the rest of the continent in order to build a community.
“When people think ‘podcasting’, they don't think of Africa in the same thought sequence, and that includes Africans, even Africans who are podcasters think that they're by themselves doing this thing by themselves. They don't realise that there are many other people in their city, in their country, in other African countries, also podcasting. We want people to know that it doesn't have to be a lonely journey and that when we get together, then we grow faster, we grow stronger, we are stronger together as a community,” said Melissa.
United by their common ambition to be part of building the industry across the continent, they launched their company, Africa Podfest which houses the Africa Podfest festival as well as #AfricaPodcastDay.
Josephine added, “The key element was the idea of continuing to bring together African podcasters, but also bringing people together in the podcasting space in the audio space across Africa, who are determined to build the African podcasting ecosystem. And it was, huge credit to the team at the time Melissa Bagua, Paula Rogo, and myself, just, you know, trying to figure out how do you build a media company [or] a podcasting company in a space where there isn't that? And how do you break the mould of it being only people who work in tech, who can build around podcasting, who can support people across media, across tech, across communities where people are podcasting, because there's no like you said, there's no one way to podcast.”
Africa Podfest 2021:
With 2020 behind them, Josephine and Melissa, cannot wait for the virtual celebrations to begin. This year Africa Podfest and #AfricaPodcastDay will be celebrated on the same day. The event will consist of roundtable discussions, presentations, workshops as well as curated satellite community events in various regions.
“I think Africa Podcast Day is bigger than all of Africa, it's bigger than all of us. For us, our job is to make sure that as many people know about it, take it as their own and in five years have their own gatherings, their own celebrations, their own teachable moments and to connect it with what's really happening across Africa. So whatever social, political, economic environment that you're in, you have a way of celebrating locally, in your own language and in your own country. And in terms of Africa Podfest, our job will be considered done when there is a huge Francophone presence in African podcasting, a huge Lusophone presence and a huge indigenous language presence in African podcasting,” said Josephine.
And so here we are again, with only a few days before Africa Podfest 2021 - the first international podcast festival on the continent.
And this time not even the pandemic can stop it!
“I think Africa Podcast Day is bigger than all of Africa, it’s bigger than all of us. For us, our job is to make sure that as many people know about it, take it as their own and in five years have their own gatherings, their own celebrations, their own teachable moments and to connect it with what’s really happening across Africa”
