Public Forum

Samba Yonga is an award winning journalist, communications specialist  and cultural curator based in Lusaka Zambia.  She is co-founder of the Women’s History Museum of Zambia, established in 2017 with the mandate to research and restore African indigenous narratives, knowledge and ‘living histories’ focused on women. Samba is also founder and managing partner of Ku-Atenga Media, a firm specialised in designing strategic communications for African landscapes that has expanded its client network across the African region and the globe.

Samba has been recognised as 100 most influential Africans by Quartz, New York, and one of 40 most influential Africans.
She is also a Google Podcast Creator, TEDx Lusaka speaker and is a Museum Lab Fellow for 2022.

She has curated exhibitions, designed digital creative content and written papers focused on indigenous African knowledge systems and narratives in Zambia and Africa. The museum has collaborated with art spaces, museums and universities in Africa, Europe and the US such as National Musuems of World Cultures in Sweden, Museum of Women in Umea, Yale University in Boston,USA, Windybrow Art Centre in South Africa, Europeana in the Netherlands, University of Shangahai, China, International Council of Museums (ICOM) and many others.

The museum has collaborated with international museums and cultural organisations to identify indigenous African cultural heritage of women from Zambia and the African continent and is working to create digital platforms and tools to transition and provide access of this heritage to African and global publics in collaboration with the source communities. The objective is to interrogate knowledge asymmetries created by colonialism and obscured experiences and to investigate transformative methods of how it can impact the future of knowledge production in the museum, creative and knowledge sectors. Her work with Ku-Atenga Media and The Women’s History Museum has established her work prominently on the African continent and globally.

She is a graduate of the Evelyn Hone College School of Journalism and holds an MA in Transnational Communications and Global Media from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Natasha Omokhodion-Kalulu Banda is a Zambian of Nigerian and Jamaican heritage. Her short stories have featured in various publications, including ‘Short Story Day Africa 2018’ for Door of No Return, which was translated into Portuguese for Brazilian Journal ‘Periferias’. Her latest short story, Her Sweetie, Her Sugarcane has been released in Harper Via’s anthology ‘Reflections’. She is an alumni of Curtis Brown Creative’s Breakthrough Course for Black Writers, and an MA candidate in Creative Writing at Kingston University London. Her first book No Be From Hia was selected as a Graywolf Africa Press finalist in 2019. Published in Zambia, it has gone on to markets in South Africa, Canada, and is due for release in the UK by Legend Press. She has served the Afritondo Prize judging panel in 2022, and is a Board Member of Alliance Française of Lusaka.

Firdaus “Fifi” Mbogho, a visual arts practitioner and educator from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is dedicated to developing the local art scene. With over 5 years of experience, she empowers visual artists to integrate academia and the contemporary art community. Fifi plays a crucial role in identifying talent, fostering capacity building, and creating opportunities for artistic expression. As an educator, she merges practical experience with academic insights to inspire the next generation of artists. Fifi’s unwavering commitment shapes a vibrant and inclusive artistic landscape in Tanzania.

Lilian Hipolyte Mushi is a seasoned Creative Director and Brand Strategist with 14+ years of experience in the creative industry. Mushi’s background as a painter-sculptor turned user experience and product designer has been marked by progressive creative and professional growth, particularly as a design director, project manager, and brand strategist. Lilian worked in the UK, Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania in various creative and cultural roles including Head of Design and mentor for young creatives around the world, a role she served until joining Nafasi Art Space as the new Director. Inspired by pop culture, Music, and Art, her core practice is centered on the intersection of Art and Design, and is passionate about the role of contemporary Art and how creativity can positively impact health, cultures, communities, and businesses.

Urszula Markowska-Manista, PhD
I self-identify as a researcher of education and childhoods in culturally diverse environments, conducting interdisciplinary fieldwork in a variety of contexts (the Horn of Africa, Central Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and the South Caucasus). My work draws on inclusive and participatory approaches, decolonial methodologies, interclusion, ‘difficult knowledge’ and ethical symmetry. I have been in academia for 20 years and have held positions at universities in Poland and Germany. From 2016-2021 I served as director (FU Berlin 2016) and co-director (2017-2021 FH Potsdam) of the international MA Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights (MACR) programme and from 2017-2018 as head of the UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair at the APS. Currently, I’m an assistant professor and researcher at the University of Warsaw (Faculty of Education). Two decades of successful international research experience have resulted in recognised practical and research projects, academic and non-academic publications, and international cooperation in diverse places and spaces of activity in which I focus on human rights, voice, and participation.