#InnovateAfrica: A Virtual Reality Project with The Nzinga Effect

We’re excited to announce our prospective partnership with UK-based The Nzinga Effect, a site dedicated to celebrating African women and women of African descent and confronting their often wrong-headed portrayal in the media. We’re working together on an ambitious project, for roll out in 2017, that will use 360 video to engage with three themes (women, LGBT communities, land rights), in three countries across Africa (Ghana, South Africa, Kenya). The video will form part of a larger package, comprised of two written articles; a photo gallery and a 2-minute film: all content that is ideal for sharing on Facebook and social networks.

It’s part of a new initiative being spearheaded under the hashtag #InnovateAfrica – and here’s where you come in: in order to gauge support for our proposal, we’re asking for you to tweet/RT @Nzingaeffect and our (@empatheticmedia) tweets hashtagged with #InnovateAfrica so we can map the size and interest in our network for this project. And of course, please also share it among friends and followers you think will be interested!

Our goal is to bring these often-overlooked storytellers to the fore in their communities both via mass screenings and smaller installations at festivals such as Fakugesi and Chale Wote. In each country we will work with local media partners who already cover these topics, providing basic immersive storytelling training so they can co-create the work. 

Interested? Have feedback or suggestions for us? Or want to get involved? Ping us via twitter!