African Story Challenge was a $1 million programme reporting grants developed for African journalists which was launched in Addis Ababa on Sunday May 26, during African Union 50th anniversary celebrations. The aim was to award more than 100 reporting grants for in-depth coverage on stories on development issues affecting Africa.
The competition offered journalists grants in support of investigative, multimedia and data-driven stories and contents that aim to drive improvement to health and prosperity across the African continent.
Journalists who won the grants received either cash prices or were sponsored on an international reporting trip.
Africa’s largest association of media owners and operators – African Media Initiative (AMI)was the brainchild of The African Story Challenge.
In reality, the challenge encouraged journalists to experiment with new content ideas, finding out new ways to engage audiences using several platforms such as mobile technology, social media and other readily available digital tools.
According to AMI Chief Executive Amadou Mahtar Ba added, “It is essential to encourage and reward African journalists and news organisations that go the extra mile to deliver high-quality digital news and information to promote transparency, accountability and a higher quality of life for our citizens. We can reboot journalism in Africa by incentivizing stories that count.”
The African Story Challenge was financially supported by an $800,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the African Development Bank and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra).
Some of the interesting story themes and categories that were covered include the following:
Culture: The African culture is so diverse that there were a good number of interesting stories coming into this category.
Religion: Africa is a very religious continent and the diversity of various beliefs thriving within the continent made this one of the most interesting categories.
Crime: Crime happens every day. Get all the latest scoop on gripping crime stories from all across Africa
Timeless: Get inside the stories that stay relevant across ages and generations, learn how they unfold and keep abreast of the recent developments
Profile: Prominent personalities across Africa that are inspiring or otherwise; so long as they are considered relevant in some way.
Travel: Let the stories on this page take you on a journey to the African continent and explore amazing wonders of nature.
Bizarre: Bizarre stories and news articles happening all across the African continent.
Science: Science and technology is fast developing in Africa and these stories tell it as it is.
History: Africa has a very rich history that started even prior to the influx of colonial masters. These stories and news articles explore those.
Arts and Literature: Some of the global heavyweights and greatest minds in literature emanate from Africa. Get insights into their works here.
Humour: Great funny and humorous story contents
How To: Interesting tidbits on how things how to perform some tasks.
Love & Romance: Read some of the stories told about love and get all the inside scoop about romance as exercised by popular Africans
Q & A: Interesting questions and answers about Africa that you may want to know.
Mystery: Check out misteries of Africa and the stories surrounding them as they are well covered in this segment.
Everything Else: Well you guessed right – everything else! including Business and Technology.
Read African stories from modern day African perspective below:
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