Africa in Dialogue Announces New Interns for April to September 2021
AFRICA IN DIALOGUE ANNOUNCES NEW INTERNS FOR APRIL TO SEPTEMBER 2021
We are excited to welcome a cohort of eight new interns into the 2021 Africa in Dialogue Internship Program.
The Internship Program, led by our Internship Program Director, Nkateko Masinga, is a bi~annual learning and curating opportunity for creative individuals who are passionate, knowledgeable and interested in African Storytellers and the art of Interviewing.
In conceptualizing this internship, we were seeking to build a team that is diverse, not only in the African countries represented by the candidates but also in the people they wanted to have conversations with.
We were looking for individuals who were familiar with our work at Africa in Dialogue, had ideas on how to grow the platform and were passionate about the deliberate process of archiving creative and critical insights.
Our mission is inter-continental conversation, collaboration and community, so we are excited that our interns represent three regions of Africa:
From East Africa we have Wambua Paul Muindi from Kenya, Tom Patrick Nzabonimpa from Rwanda, and Charity Ngabirano from Uganda.
From West Africa we have Aisha Kabiru Mohammed from Nigeria.
From Southern Africa we have Sihle Ntuli from South Africa, Kris Van der Bijl from South Africa, Tamanda Kanjaye from Malawi, and Lesego Ramahobo from Botswana.
Learn more about our new interns below:
CONTRIBUTING INTERVIEWER FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION:
aisha kabiru mohammed (nigeria)
Aisha Kabiru Mohammed is a law student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Kaduna state is her home town. Aisha is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. Her pieces revolve around identity, feminism, and the African mind and body as political and spiritual entities. In 2019, Aisha won the inaugural Andrew Nok Poetry Prize, awarded by YELF. She later judged the 2020 edition of the prize. When she isn’t studying law and writing, you can find her drinking tea, reading, stroking cats and volunteering to spread mental health awareness and to end SGBV. Aisha currently hosts a podcast segment for Ayamba LitCast called Poet Box Series.
CONTRIBUTING INTERVIEWER FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION:
tom patrick nzabonimpa (rwanda)
Tom Patrick Nzabonimpa is a writer from Kigali. He writes creative non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and screenplays. He was a resident at the 2020 Pen Pen African Writers Residency, second edition in Nairobi, and has won the 2020 Empower Africa Now Writing Contest in the short story category.
Tom’s works have appeared and are forthcoming in Twaweza Anthology, African Autograph, HQAfrica, and WSA Magazine, among other places. He is the Country Coordinator of Writers Space Africa, Rwanda Chapter (WSA-Rwanda) and is working on his debut novel. When he is not writing, you can find him handling telecommunication network issues or drinking chai.
CONTRIBUTING INTERVIEWER FOR FICTION:
charity ngabirano (uganda)
Charity Ngabirano is a Ugandan lawyer and short story writer who is currently freelancing for The Kampala Sun as a columnist. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from Makerere University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from The Law Development Centre. She worked with the Centre for African Cultural Excellence as the Project Coordinator for Writivism in its inaugural year, 2013. She lives in Kampala with her husband and their two beautiful daughters as a full-time mother.
CONTRIBUTING INTERVIEWER FOR FICTION:
kris van der bijl (south africa)
Kris Van der Bijl is currently reading for a Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town. His interests lie in African Literature in English. He writes short stories, poetry, book reviews and interviews. His writings have been published in the likes of Brittle Paper, LitNet, Lucky Jefferson and JA Magazine. He hopes to one day be called up-and-coming.
CONTRIBUTING INTERVIEWER FOR POETRY:
sihle ntuli (south africa)
Sihle Ntuli is a South African poet and classicist living in Durban. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Classical Civilisations and has previously lectured at the University of the Free State.
His poetry was shortlisted for the DALRO Poetry Prize in 2017. He most recently became the author of a poetry chapbook, Rumblin’, in 2020. He has had work published in South Africa and across the African continent in notable journals such as Lolwe, Down River Road, and The Johannesburg Review of Books.
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
tamanda kanjaye (malawi)
Tamanda Kanjaye is a meticulous and versatile Malawian writer, poet and editor with a distinct storytelling and creative style. She romanticises the gritty ebb and flow of the human experience and explores the concepts of tenderness, vulnerability, self-destruction and the idea of possible salvation and redemption.
Tamanda has a scattering of published pieces and has been shortlisted in a few competitions. She studied journalism at The University of Malawi, The Polytechnic. She lives with her mother, her six dogs and her two plants in Lilongwe, Malawi.
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
wambua paul muindi (kenya)
Paul Wambua Muindi is a final-year student of literature and political science at the University of Nairobi. He was nominated for the 2020 Afro Bloggers Awards and is a Contributing Editor at Writers Space Kenya, an offshoot of Writers Space Africa. He is a highly motivated, self-driven and committed individual who is always seeking new challenges which require innovation and adaptation. He is a resourceful team player, a goal-driven leader, result-driven and oriented as well as an innovative problem solver. Importantly, he is a life and literature enthusiast.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER:
lesego ramahobo (botswana)
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM DIRECTOR:
nkateko masinga (south africa)
Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African poet and 2019 Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers Residency. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018 and her work has received support from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg and the Swiss Arts Council. In 2019, she won the Brittle Paper Anniversary Award. She is the founder and managing director of NSUKU Publishing Consultancy, and the author of a digital chapbook titled the heart is a caged animal, published by Praxis Magazine. Her latest work, psalm for chrysanthemums, was selected by the African Poetry Book Fund, in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2020 New Generation African Poets chapbook box set.
Nkateko joined Africa in Dialogue in 2019 as the Poetry Interviewer and she is now in her second year as the director of the Internship Program, a role in which she manages, edits, publishes and coordinates all initiatives curated by the cohorts of the Internship Program.
