Reviving African storytelling in nature

A SOUTH African film initiative is reshaping the narrative of wildlife storytelling in Africa by empowering people who never had a chance to tell their stories from a local perspective.

- WENDY JASSON DA COSTA

Last week, creatives from across the continent landed in Durban for the annual Nature, Environment & Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) Congress which started in 2017. The initiative is the brainchild of Pragna Parsotam-Kok and her partner Noel Kok. Both of them are film-makers as well as National Geographic Explorers.

Parsotam-Kok says their aim is to grow and elevate African voices in a genre where local representation remains scarce. “Through our Africa Refocused programme, in partnership with the National Geographic Society, our work is giving rise to a growing collective of passionate individuals, each dedicated to empowering themselves to make an impact.”

The couple were inspired to launch the festival after producing a nature conservation TV series which was aired by the SABC in 2015. Despite the exposure, the experience left them financially depleted and underscored the lack of opportunities for black African film-makers in the nature and wildlife film sector.

“We noticed that we were the only black nature and wildlife film-makers around,” said Pragna. “We wanted to change the narrative.”

Today their community boasts more that 300 fellows across 32 countries in Africa. NEWF Fellows are individuals who have completed at least one of the skills development labs offered by the organisation. Known as NEWF Labs, these labs impart skills in areas which include film-making, conservation and scuba diving.

“One of the reasons that we were established is because black African nature and wildlife film-makers were rarer than most of the species scientists and conservationists were trying to protect on the planet,” said Noel.

The other reason, he said, was that when it came to wildlife and conservation science, black Africans were usually portrayed as the poacher, pirate, ranger, or relegated to the background in films, news or storytelling.