Skip to content
Powered by Africa No Filter
Africa No Filter
The Dictionary
About Africa No Filter

Rewriting Africa’s story.
Reframing its future.

Narrative is Africa’s most powerful development tool. The Narrative Dictionary is a working part of that belief — a public reference for the language we use about the continent.

Founded 2020 · Mauritius · African-led, African-registered (since 2025)

Three pillars.

Africa No Filter operates across advocacy, community, and partnerships.

01

Advocacy

Research, storytelling tools, and campaigns to shift public discourse about Africa.

02

Community

Support for storytellers and creative organisations, including the African Narrative Collective and the storyteller network.

03

Partnerships

Collaboration with foundations, media organisations and development institutions on narrative-change integration.

The numbers.

$4.2B

lost annually to inflated loan interest from media stereotypes

ANF / Africa Practice, Oct 2024

500+

storytellers supported across the continent

ANF Impact Report 2024

97

grantees funded in year one

ANF Year-One Report

127

media outlets in Bird Story Agency distribution

Bird Story Agency 2024

The team. 17 people, nine cities.

Africa No Filter is run by 17 named staff across Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Lomé, Harare, Blantyre, Ouagadougou and Cap-Haïtien.

Leadership

  • Portrait of Moky Makura
    01

    Moky Makura

    Executive Director

    Johannesburg

    TV presenter, producer, author, publisher and entrepreneur. Born in Nigeria, educated in England.

  • Portrait of Margaret Janes-Lucas
    02

    Margaret Janes-Lucas

    Chief Operating Officer

    Pan-African

    Over two decades of nonprofit leadership across Africa and the USA; former Tony Blair Institute, Mercy Corps.

  • Portrait of Levi Mulei
    03

    Levi Mulei

    Chief Financial Officer

    Nairobi

    Strategic finance leadership; pursuing PhD; holds MBA and Economics degrees.

Heads, programme & operations

  • Portrait of Lerato Mogoatlhe
    04

    Lerato Mogoatlhe

    Head of Communications & Digital Marketing

    Johannesburg

  • Portrait of Victor Mark-Onyegbu
    05

    Victor Mark-Onyegbu

    Head of Grants & Community Building

    Lagos

  • Portrait of Grace Njeri
    06

    Grace Njeri

    Partnerships Lead

    Nairobi

  • Portrait of Olendo Obondo
    07

    Olendo Obondo

    Digital Lead

    Nairobi

  • Portrait of Eze Agwu
    08

    Eze Agwu

    Visual Lead

    Lagos

  • Portrait of Chido Dandajena
    09

    Chido Dandajena

    Community Building Lead

    Harare

  • Portrait of Cheryl Nyakundi
    10

    Cheryl Nyakundi

    Project Coordinator

    Nairobi

  • Portrait of Taziona Sitamulaho
    11

    Taziona Sitamulaho

    Project Manager

    Blantyre

  • Portrait of François Bouda
    12

    François Bouda

    Francophone Desk · Arts & Culture Programme Officer

    Ouagadougou

  • Portrait of Tope Sanni
    13

    Tope Sanni

    Programme Manager

    Lagos

  • Portrait of Essé Dabla-Attikpo
    14

    Essé Dabla-Attikpo

    Programme Manager

    Lomé

  • Portrait of Faith Koli
    15

    Faith Koli

    Programme Manager

    Nairobi

  • Portrait of Nyokabi Waweru
    16

    Nyokabi Waweru

    Grants Administrator

    Nairobi

  • Portrait of Yva Darius
    17

    Yva Darius

    Project Administrator

    Cap-Haïtien

The Council

The inaugural Council of 8.

Announced December 2025. Eight leaders across media, finance, philanthropy, law, advocacy and research, providing strategic counsel as ANF becomes an independent African-led entity registered in Mauritius.

  • Portrait of Richard Addy
    Richard Addy
    Co-founder · AKAS
    London
  • Portrait of Nousrath Bhugeloo
    Nousrath Bhugeloo
    Executive Director · Nexus Global
    Port Louis
  • Portrait of Yacine Djibo
    Yacine Djibo
    Founder · Speak Up Africa
    Dakar
  • Portrait of Ferdinand Mokete
    Ferdinand Mokete
    Director · KPMG South Africa
    Johannesburg
  • Portrait of Françoise Moudouthe
    Françoise Moudouthe
    CEO · African Women’s Development Fund
    Accra
  • Portrait of Anshi Saminaden
    Anshi Saminaden
    Council Member
    Port Louis
  • Portrait of Natasha Quist
    Natasha Quist
    Council Member
    Accra
  • Portrait of Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard
    Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard
    Founder · APO Group
    Pan-African

The Council provides governance and strategic advisory. Day-to-day editorial leadership of the Dictionary sits with ANF’s 17 staff — see the full team page.

The founding funders.

Eight foundations and philanthropies seeded Africa No Filter in 2020 with USD 1.5 million.

Programme partners

  • African Union· Institutional
  • Mastercard Foundation· Philanthropic
  • Gates Foundation· Philanthropic
  • Meta· Platform
  • Reuters Foundation· Media
  • Africa Practice· Strategic advisory
  • Mo Ibrahim Foundation· Philanthropic

Sister projects.

The Dictionary is one of several ANF projects.

How entries are made.

1

Submission

Entries arrive from the storyteller network, partner newsrooms, or the public via the submit form.

2

AI-drafted starting point

A locked server-side template drafts a structured entry. Submitters can’t change the AI prompt.

3

Named editor review

A reviewer reads, edits, and either approves, asks for more, or rejects with a reason.

4

Publication and trail

Approved entries appear in the index with reviewer name, date, citations, and a decision log.

AI policy

How we use AI.

AI helps draft. AI does not author. Every entry is read and approved by a named editor before publication.

  • Locked prompts. Submitters cannot change the AI template. Prompt injection is structurally impossible.
  • Human review. No submission auto-publishes, regardless of volume.
  • Bounded cost. AI spend is capped structurally, not by policy — so costs stay bounded.
  • No training opt-in. Submissions are excluded from AI provider training data via commercial API terms.

Words matter. Stories matter. Narrative matters.

Send us the words we missed.

Submit a word →