The Minority Africa Fellowship, a project by Minority Africa — a digital publication using data-driven multimedia journalism to tell African minority stories — targets journalists and storytellers from minority groups across Africa providing them with the platform, skill, and mentorship to report stories from and about their communities.
Through an intensive six-month paid program, fellows will polish their existing reporting abilities both from a skill and thematic perspective but will also be trained on the intersecting areas and groups of focus for the fellowship. This means that fellows are taught and leave the fellowship knowing how to cover groups outside of the immediate communities they belong to.
These groups include women, sexual, gender, ethnic, and religious minorities, persons with disabilities, migrants, asylum seekers, as well as refugees. We nonetheless acknowledge that all minorities across the continent do not fall under these broad categories and also focus on groups that exist outside of these general definitions.
Fellows will be trained by journalists from the Minority Africa newsroom as well as a network of journalists who work for or have worked across the continent with the Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Reuters, RFI, CNN, The Guardian, Time, and began legacy media companies tackling present media problems including one praised by former US President Barack Obama.
This training program includes modules on solutions journalism, data journalism, interrogating the scope of inclusive futures within the metaverse, as NFTs and AI adoption grow, and the geopolitics of climate change among others.
Eligibility
- Fellows have to be at least 18 years of age, they have to be from and living in an African country and belong to at least one of the minority groups highlighted in the focus areas above.
- They can be writers, photographers, filmmakers, journalists, or a combination of all and have relevant and provable work experience in their chosen areas.
Benefits
- They will be paid a monthly allowance, receive an internet stipend, and intra-country travel related to the coverage of stories will be covered by Minority Africa.
- By the end of the program, each fellow would have published 12 stories on Minority Africa. These stories will be a blend of reported multimedia features as well as opinions and analysis. The program is entirely virtual and the first cohort runs from May to October 2022.
- Must have demonstrable work experience in their chosen area.
- Be able to commit 15 – 20 hours each week to the fellowship.
- Able to understand and communicate in English. The fellowship is primarily conducted in English. Applicants don’t have to be excellent speakers but they do have to know how to communicate in English. This on the other hand does not have to be the primary language they work in. We will consider applicants who for instance write primarily in other languages such as Portuguese, Swahili, or French but are able to communicate in English.
- Access to the internet and good data connection. While we understand internet access is not available everywhere on the continent, being an entirely virtual fellowship, connectivity is a crucial component. Besides their allowance, fellows will be provided with a monthly internet stipend.
Fellowship Experience
- During the fellowship, fellows will be familiarized with editorial guidelines of Minority Africa and will work and report on stories for the publication.
- They are paired with external mentors, work with editors in the newsroom, and are required to produce at least two stories every month.
Method of Application:
- All applications have to be submitted online and through our secure application form on this website. Applications received over email will not be considered.
- Applications for the first cohort open on the 1st of April 2022 and close on the 24th of April 2022.
Application Deadline: April 24th, 2022
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