A Chat with the Co-Founder of Africa’s First Podcast Festival

The brand-new website for the Africa Podfest — a podcast festival held in Nairobi, Kenya this March — was launched this week. Just in time for #africanpodcastday! But what exactly is the Africa Podfest, who will be attending, and what will “Africa’s first podcast festival” mean for local creatives driving the podcasting scene across the continent? Africa Podfest’s co-founder Paula Rogo made time for us in between the crazy rush of putting on a first-time festival to ask her some of these questions.

Volume: Where did the idea for the Africa Podfest come from?

Paula Rogo: The idea for the Podfest came from myself and my co-founder Melissa Mbugua. We both come to podcasting in Africa from very different directions. I have a journalism background and started my own media company when I moved back to my native Kenya two years ago. The company is called Kali Media and what we do is we create content for millennial East African women. Part of the content creation started to fall under podcasting because we saw it as a medium that had great potential and that wasn’t of as yet flooding the market. And then also, I just generally think it’s a beautiful medium. Audio and radio have always been very beautiful to me.

As I was considering building a podcast network made up of East African women podcasters (and by that, I mean Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and into Rwanda) I realized that the ecosystem around podcasting was pretty non-existent. For this idea of mine to be successful, I’d have to play a big role in helping build and move the process of podcasting towards becoming a sustainable medium on the continent. From Melissa’s end, she comes from a tech and innovation background here in Kenya and she saw the rise of podcasting and was just very curious about it. She started doing research and some of the first research done in Kenya on podcasting is from her. We were friends, so one day we sat down and said: “Hey why not put a podcast festival together?” We then added another friend Josephine Karianjahi as our head of partnerships, and that was the initial team. We grabbed a day on the calendar — March 12 to 13 — and that’s what’s happening here in Nairobi next month!

V: What — and who — will we see at Africa Podfest?

PR: This is exciting. We’re just finishing up programming and it’s really — really, really — exciting what we’ve been able to produce for our inaugural year. What we found is that a lot of our key audience that will be attending is mostly a local Kenyan podcasting audience and other people who are interested in training. It’s a 2-day festival and within those 2 days you will find a lot of cool podcast training sessions happening. Specifically PRX (the company behind the Radiotopia network) has their head-trainer Kerry Donahue coming from the US to do a big training session here. Adjoined to our programming is also a training session by Afroqueer. And although there are a lot of podcast experts, this is a place that’s also for people who know nothing about podcasts and are curious to find out more. Podcasting is for everyone.

“And then are a lot of great panels, live shows, and listening parties! For example, Glynn Washington from Snap Judgement, one of the top podcasts in the USA, is at one of our key notes”

And then are a lot of great panels, live shows, and listening parties! For example, Glynn Washington from Snap Judgement, one of the top podcasts in the USA, is at one of our key notes — he’ll be flying in from the West Coast of the US. There will also be listening parties where you’ll get to sit, listen, and talk about the production of a podcast. And we also have a really great podcast from South Africa called Alibi — a true-crime investigative journalism podcast that is one of the best within South Africa — basically in Africa! The team behind that is coming. We have a lot of great local podcasters: Kevin Mwachiro of Nipe Story; Karen Kaz Lucas of The Spread.

What we’re really trying to do is bring in a lot of podcasts from different parts of the continent. A lot of training, a lot of ways to connect, and a lot of really great panels and keynote speakers.

V: How important is it for African podcasts to work together, instead of competing with one another?

PR: Listen, collaboration is key when it comes to podcasting. It is key if you’re trying to grow your audience. It is key if you’re trying to learn. It is key if you’re trying to just make your podcast the best thing it could possibly be. And within Africa, we are a collaborative continent. We work together. We grow together.

So especially when it comes to how the world sees Africa and how the world sees African podcasting, we are low on most people’s totem pole of importance. It’s really key for us to work together and to come together and build this really, really great medium and ecosystem around it — specifically and uniquely for an African audience. The sky is the limit when that happens!

V: How does Podfest aim to grow the podcasting scene in Kenya — and other African countries?

PR: We see Podfest as a meeting place — a gathering hole. Our goal is to provide the platform for ideas to spurt and for connections to be made and for innovation to happen within the podcasting space. We are just setting up the platform. If it’s something where you have a great idea, we’ll be the place where you connect with the right producer, the right people to make it happen. Maybe even the right funders or supporters for your podcast.

“Our goal is to provide the platform for ideas to spurt and for connections to be made and for innovation to happen within the podcasting space… We’ll be the place where you connect with the right producer, the right people to make it happen.”

Our aim with Africa Podfest is to make podcasting one of the premier mediums for media in this decade. We envision podcasting to be on par with radio in Africa, and we know how strong radio has been as a medium on the continent. Our goal is to grow the scene and to support the scene in order for it to reach that level. Because podcasting is ultimately a form of independent media, and as we all know: strengthened independent media — in all forms — is beneficial to any society.

V: What do you hope will be the lasting effects of the Africa Podfest 2020?

PR: I want it to be that some of the best podcasters, some of the biggest grants, some of the biggest audience growth — all that good stuff — happens because of a connection. A meeting or a learning that happens at Podfest 2020.

It’s crazy that this is our inaugural year. We are planning it and we also don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re really in the throes of it and it’s really hard sometimes to see what it could potentially look like on the other side. But by being on the team we have learned a lot about podcasting, about community, and about putting an event of this size together. We’ve learned about connecting the continent around a medium that’s really exciting. I hope the lasting effects are that everyone who comes has learned something, has met someone, and has plans to grow podcasting beyond what they thought possible before they entered.

The Africa Podfest takes place on 12–13 March 2020 in Nairobi, Kenya. To find out more or get your ticket, visit www.africapodcastfestival.com. You can also keep up-to-date with the event by following Africa Podfest on Twitter @africapodfest.

Volume will also at Africa Podfest representing the best of South African podcasting with Alibi. The Volume team also plans to launch an exciting new African podcast at the festival — so make sure not to miss out!