BY ZERO CHILLS
DEC 18 – The African continent, endowed with diverse cultures, natural resources, youthful population, geographic features and a promising future has been often represented in equally multiple ways, some accurate, others debatable.
Depending on the lens through which one looks at the continent, whether the occidental perspective or the African native lens, the image of the continent and her people has remained diverse. But the need to progressively remain objective, to paint the real, unbiased picture of the continent and to promote its beauty persists.
In a bid to support the efforts by storytellers from across the continent to tell the story of Africa in the most resourceful ways, the Story School of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco, in partnership with the French-African Foundation, will hold the inaugural edition of the immersive storytelling residency from March 23 to 28, 2026.
KESSA residency programme, the one of a kind initiative, is designed to equip 30 storytellers aged 25 to 40, with at least 5 years of experience in practice in telling African stories. The selected group for the first edition will benefit from masterclasses delivered by African and international experts, practical workshops, and storytelling sessions. It will also include collaborative sessions and professional encounters, as well as support in creating original work.
Storytellers in different fields including cinema, series, audiovisual, literature, poetry, music, dance, photography, design, visual arts, digital storytelling, among other media forms are encouraged to apply by January 10, 2026 for the KESSA programme.
Meriem Idrissi Kaitouni, the Director of UM6P – Story School, told Capital Business that “changing representations and elevating African voices involves telling about Africa differently, in all its diversity and creativity.” She added that the KESSA will offer training to the laureates to amplify their voices.
On her part, Nachouat Meghouar, the Managing Director, French-African Foundation, emphasised that the work of storytellers “is essential to building a contemporary, realistic, ambitious, and positive representation of the continent.”
Through the KESSA pan-African artistic and cultural storytelling residency, storytellers will re-imagine and narrate the continent’s future, as the African languages of tomorrow take shape.
Interested storytellers are urged to apply through this link: https://kessa.africa/
