Who’s Who
AFROINNOVA II
12 cultural leaders for
diasporic transformation
“We are part of a population that reminds and becomes its self-esteem voice. We are a community, an extended family, a body that sings and dances to celebrate their own identity, a diaspora that fights, proposes and shares. We are an ancient soul, which deserves to be heard, admired and respected. We are a silence that shouts very loud, without fear today to be heard.”
Rafael Palacios
Colombian choreographer, National Dance Prize, Director of the Dance Company SANKOFA
AfroInnova Expert and Member of the “Manos Visibles” Network
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Baff Akoto
British-Ghanaian Filmmaker
Baff’s work has exhibited extensively including by the British Film Institute in their Experimenta strand for "works by artists that revolutionize and reshape our vision of the cinematic moving image."
Raised in London and Accra, Baff is a conceptual artist who is shortlisted for the 2022 Aesthetica Art Prize for his work LEAVE THE EDGES. He is part of the 2022 cohorts for both The London Open triennial at Whitechapel Gallery and the 13th Bamako Biennial of African Photography in Mali. Having forged a path within visual arts with mentoring from John Akomfrah and the Oscar-winning Asif Kapadia, his work embraces the fluidity of visual grammar, notions of plurality, (self) perceptions and societal implications of human bodily movement (disability, ritual, dance). In 2021 he was a resident of the Guest Projects Digital program delivered by the Yinka Shonibare Foundation.
He has served on multiple cinema and television juries including for the BAFTA Awards and the BFI London Film Festival. As a director and producer Baff began in documentary before directing network TV drama at the UK's Channel 4 and BBC causing Screen International to tip Akoto as a “Star of Tomorrow” in 2018. The most recent feature film he has produced QUEEN OF GLORY (from actor and debut director Nana Mensah) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is released in cinemas in 2022.
biola alabi
She has over two decades of media experience both locally and internationally. Currently, she is the CEO of a media consulting company, Biola Alabi Media (BAM). She kick-started her career at Bigwords.com as a Regional Marketing Manager and later moved to Sesame Workshop as the Regional Director, International Strategies Group Sub-Saharan Africa. She was at Sesame Workshop for seven years and later joined MNET Africa in 2008 as the Managing Director Africa, where she oversaw 4 editions of Big brother Africa and African Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards in 2013.
She has a demonstrated history of developing corporate strategies for market entry, consumer insights into technology, acquisition negotiation, sponsorship outreach and the development of operational models that yield high impact organizational success. She is passionate about technology, media and entertainment and has worked extensively with corporations, partners and associations for the continuous development of Africa’s technology and entertainment industries. Biola has received local and international recognition like: One of the 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa, by Forbes, 2013.
Get to know her: Instagram | YouTube | YouTube
bruno duarte
Brazilian filmmaker
Bruno is a communications expert with a B.A. in Filmmaking and Social Communication from PUC-Rio, currently attending a master's degree at ECO-UFRJ. His ongoing research focus on the life and work of the Black gay filmmaker Marlon Riggs (USA, 1957-1994). He has been Social Media and Video Coordinator at Amnesty International, Head Of Communications at KABELA and Agency for Youth Networks. Currently, He works as a Program Officer leading visual media and culture at the Open Society Foundation's Latin America Program.
Get to know him: Instagram | Medium
Edna Liliana valencia
Colombia journalist, author, influencer and entrepreneur
Edna has works as a news anchor and international reporter for France 24 and top Colombian media for over 10 years. In this role, she has expansively covered news in more than 20 countries of Africa and the African Diaspora. Edna worked as an advisor to Disney for the representation roles of AfroColombians in the Encanto Movie. She recently published her first poetry book.
She has led the natural hair campaigns and network of black women entrepreneurs for natural hair products. She recently opened her own cultural center for Black Women Beauty and Empowerment in Cali, Colombia.
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Angolan Visual Artist
Kiluanji is a multidisciplinary artist who works mainly as a photographer and visual artist. He employs a surprising sense of humor in his work, which often hones in on themes of identity, politics, and perceptions of post-colonialism and modernism in Africa.
He received the National Culture and Art Prize from the Ministry of Culture in Angola, and in 2017 he won the Frieze Artist Award. His work is in the public collection at Tate Modern and he has exhibited at biennales in Venice, Dakar, São Paulo and Gwangju. As a commission for IFFR, Kia Henda created the musical performance Resetting Birds’ Memories (2021). His design Plantation – Prosperity and Nightmare was selected for the construction of the Memorial in Homage to Enslaved People in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2021.
gilbert Ndi shang
Cameroonian writer
Gilbert was born in Nkambe, northwestern Cameroon, as part of the Wimbum ethnic group. He’s a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Cluster of Excellence – Africa Multiple, at the University of Bayreuth, working on the project Black Atlantic Revisited. A member of the Junges Kolleg (Young Colleague) Program of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Munich), he recently completed a Feodor Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, and founded the African Literature Lab at Manos Visibles with 100 leaders of the Colombian Pacific coast. He received his PhD in comparative literature from the University of Bayreuth in 2014. Gilbert is the author of State/Society: Narrating Transformations in Selected African Novels (2017) and has coedited Tracks and Traces of Violence (2017) and Re-Writing Pasts, Imagining Futures: Critical Explorations of Contemporary African Fiction and Theater (2017).
Get to know him: Instagram | YouTube | Website
lorelei Williams
American philanthropic strategist
Lorelei is Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund’s (WMG/BFF SJF) first Executive Director. Prior to joining the WMG/BFF SJF, she served as Senior Vice President of Grant Programs at Comic Relief U.S. Prior to Comic Relief, Lorelei spent more than 15 years working as a philanthropic strategist focused on the U.S. South America and sub-Saharan Africa. For most of those years, she was president of Onira Global Advisors, where she advised on fundraising, grant-making and program design for foundations and nonprofits around the world. Her clients have included the Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Brazil Foundation and the Brazilian Institute of Ethnic Media. As a Fulbright Scholar in Salvador de Bahia, Lorelei founded the POMPA project in partnership with the Steve Biko Institute to train young Afro-Brazilians for careers in public service. She also served as co-chair of the U.S. State Department's Civil Society Committee on the U.S. State Department's Joint Action Plan to End Racial Discrimination (JAPER).
Get to know her: YouTube
Lucía Asué Mbomío Rubio
AfroEuropean journalist, activist and writer
Spain-Equatorial Guinee
The pioneer AfroDescendant face in Spanish Television and columnist for El Pais, Lucía is adapting her memoir, “Hija del Camino,'' with Netflix to describe the experience of an African descendant woman born in Europe. In 2017 she was chosen by the blog Africa Is Not A Country, and the newspaper "El País,” as one of the most outstanding African women of the year. In 2020 she was awarded the communication prize of the Pro Human Rights Association of Spain. Lucía has been member and co-founder of endless AfroEuropean initiatives, such as: Afroféminas, Mundo Negro, Negrxs Magazine and Píkara - and more recently the AfroHouse in Madrid.
Get to know her: Instagram | TED
Graciela Selaimen
Regional Lead, Latin America, Story for Impact
Graciela is a journalist believes women can heal the planet, and stories can alleviate suffering. This led her to a specialization in gender and local development and a master’s in communication and culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. With the Ford Foundation, Graciela developed strategies and programs in the areas of Technology and Society, Creativity and Freedom of Expression, and Thriving Civic Space, crosscutting gender and race perspectives.
Graciela is now Regional Lead for Latin America of IRIS - the International Resource for Impact and Storytelling - a donor collaborative focused on strengthening civil society through narrative strategies and creative moving image storytelling for impact. IRIS supports donor partners’ efforts to deepen collaboration between storytellers, movements and civil society leaders, furthering the goals of dismantling inequality and making progress on key social justice issues. With emphasis on building knowledge and networks in Global South regions, IRIS embraces a new era of technological innovation in a globally interconnected world.
moky makura
British-Nigerian TV presenter, producer, author, publisher & entrepreneur
Moky started her media career as the African Anchor and field reporter for South Africa’s award-winning news and actuality show – Carte Blanche. She conceptualized, co-produced and presented a lifestyle TV series for the pan African pay TV channel MNet called “Living It”, which focused on the lifestyles of the African continent’s wealthy elite. She also played a lead role in the groundbreaking and popular MNet Pan-African drama series Jacob’s Cross.
Her book Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs was featured on the top 10 best-selling business books in South Africa. Moky has since compiled and published a number of non-fiction titles under her imprint MME Media. Titles include South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs, Going Global which tells the stories of South Africa’s most successful global companies and a biography of one of its top entrepreneurs; Herman Mashaba, called Black Like You. Moky started a fiction book series called Nollybooks aimed at getting young Africans to read, and then adapted the series for television co-producing over 21 television movies for the South African TV station etv. The books are available on Worldreader, and Okadabooks. She was the Communications Director of the Gates Foundation, and currently serves as the Executive Director of Africa No Filter - a donor collaborative focused on shifting the African narrative.
Get to know her: Instagram | YouTube
Rafael Palacios callejas
Colombian choreographer and creative
Born in Medellin, Colombia, Rafael studied at the Academy of Dance in Paris. His experience as a dancer - in 20 African countries and across Europe under the mentorship of Germaine Acogny and Irene Tasembobo - was the basis for founding Sankofa Danzafro in 1997. Winner of the National Dance Award from the Ministry of Culture in 2008, Rafael also received the National Arts Award in 2017.
Recently, the University of Manchester recognized his trajectory in anti-racism in the dance world. The New York Times recently featured his theater dance creation, Accomodating Lies.
Salym Fayad
Colombian cultural agent, reporter and photographer based in Johannesburg
Since 2008 Salym has worked extensively in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa covering issues related to culture and music, migration, conflict and human rights. His texts and photographs have appeared in The New York Times, Boston Review, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, among others. His photographic work has been exhibited in more than 10 countries.He is co-founder of the Otro Sur Foundation, an independent organization that promotes cultural exchange between Africa and Latin America- He created the Festival of African Film in Colombia. He has worked on tours and collaborative projects of jazz artists from Southern Africa and is a member of the networks of music managers and promoters CCA Cultural Connections Africa and CCLA Conexiones Culturales América Latina.
Rafael Murta Reis
Director, Ashoka Brazil
Co-founder, Zumbi Internacional, Brazil
Rafael Murta is Brazilian, and holds a master's degree in Public Administration and Government from Fundação Getulio Vargas and a bachelor's degree in communications from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais. He’s Chief Network Officer and co-founder of Zumbi Internacional, and Director at Ashoka Brasil, leading the changemaker hotspots strategy. In recent years, he has accumulated experience in the topics of social innovation, systemic change and social entrepreneurship. Previously, he worked in sustainability, public policy, multi-level governance and networks.
Get to know him: Facebook
Eddi Xavier Bermúdez Marcelín
Senior Executive - Development Bank of Latin America
Senior Executive of the Gender, Inclusion and Diversity team of the Development Bank of Latin America, based in Argentina. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from Universidad del Rosario, Master in Management and Development Practice from Universidad de los Andes, with studies in political management and governance at Universidad del Rosario and George Washington University, as well as prior consultation at Universidad Nacional.
He has been a consultant and tutor for Manos Visibles programs and in 2020, he was office advisor of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare. He was appointed in 2017 as Deputy Director of Ethnic Affairs District Secretary of Government in the Mayor's Office of Bogota.
He graduated from the Innovation and Leadership in Government program at Georgetown University in Washington D.C and a fellow of the Mel King Community Economic Democracy Fellowship (MKCF) 2016-2017 at MIT Colab in Boston.
He is a manager with a successful experience in the management and development of projects funded by the Colombian government and international donors. Management in design and development strategies for youth, diversity and urban and rural social inclusion. Eddi has a deep passion for Colombia.
Visible Hands AFROINNOVA Team
Paula Moreno
President and Conceptual Strategist, AfroInnova
Master in Philosophy of Management Studies from the University of Cambridge and SPURS/Fullbright Fellow in the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); a certificate in Italian culture and language from the Italian Institute of Culture, and an industrial engineer from the Universidad Autónoma de Colombia.
Paula was Colombia's Minister of Culture (2007 - 2010) and has worked as a project manager and consultant for international organizations. Currently, she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ford Foundation; Founder and President of Visible Hands. Author of the book "El Poder de lo Invisible" (2018).
Get to know her: Instagram
uma Ramiah
International Communications Advisor, Visible Hands, U.S.
Uma is a multimedia storyteller and communications consultant. She's worked in human rights, journalism, branding, public relations, photography, social media and community organizing in West, Central and South Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America - and across the United States. Her clients have ranged from Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, Harvard and Yale Universities to independent artists and non-profits around the world.
She studied International Relations and Public Relations at University of Minnesota, and Religion and African Studies at Yale and is now based in Durham, North Carolina.
Get to know her: Instagram | Website
Luis Cassiani
Logistics Coordinator, AfroInnova
Luis is a social leader and activist who holds a bachelor's degree in tourism management. He is a Martin Luther King Jr. Fellow from USAID and Colombo Americano. Luis is an Ethnic Audiovisual Power scholarship holder and a master's degree student of cultural management. He is currently a Regional Coordinator for Visible Hands.
Get to know him: Instagram
Giuliana Brayan
AfroInnova Coordinator
Giuliana is a political scientist with emphasis in Public Management. Master in Economics of Public Policy from Universidad del Rosario. She is a member of the Youth Advisory Council (2020-2022) of the philanthropic organization Comic Relief US. She is currently Manager of Community Empowerment and Gender, and leader of the ethnic fund for black and indigenous women of Corporación Manos Visibles. She has been a fellow in global leadership programs as a delegate for Colombia for the organization One Young World.
Get to know her: https://comicrelief.org/youth-advisory-council
Valeria Brayan Alvarez
Logistics Coordinator, AfroInnova
Valerie is a sociologist, having graduated from Universidad Santo Tomás. She has been working with Manos Visibles for more than five years, where she has developed the Vení Te Leo strategy, focused on promoting reading and writing as tools for the positioning of cultural leadership. She is currently Manager of Culture and New Narratives at Manos Visibles.
Jeison Riascos
AfroInnova Documentarian + Photographer
Jeison is known in the audiovisual world as El Murcy. He is a photographer who uses photojournalism to promote understanding and knowledge of his home province: Chocó in Colombia. His photographic work has been published in national and international media such as: The New York Times, El Espectador, El Tiempo, Revista Semana, El Colombiano, Pacifista, AFP (Agence France Presse), EFE Agency and OkayAfrica. He is founder of the digital platform Talento Chocoano, a platform that generates positive, cultural, entrepreneurial and leadership content in Chocó.
Get to know him: Instagram
"In every process of profound societal transformation - from decolonization in Africa and the civil rights movements in the African diasporas to the fight against Apartheid in South Africa - literature has played a critical role. Even in less dramatic situations, creative storytelling has been and is indispensable for individual and collective self-representation and leads to a progressive re-appropriation of power over our memories and our history. It allows us to rename and redefine ourselves in contexts where we have always been named and defined from external, stereotypical and colonizing perspectives. This dialogue with African literature constitutes a highly symbolic gesture that marks a form of transatlantic reconnection at the level of our histories and our imaginaries, bringing together cultures that have been separated for centuries but have never lost their roots. Cultures that have been transformed in the Americas but remain strongly connected to African epistemologies."
Dr. Gilbert Shang Ndi
Cameroonian Writer, AfroInnova Expert and Member of the “Manos Visibles” Network