Sometimes it’s just a question of perception. In this case, the perception associated to understanding that when Africa is changing, when the world is rapidly transforming and the perspective begins to shift and become more attentive to what is happening outside the dominant flow of culture, the image of the African continent and of Africans must necessarily be different. Such an alternative image does in fact exist, but the continent is too often ghettoised, despite clear signs of a cosmopolitan outlook or openness to the unknown. And it must be urgently retrieved from this ghetto.

This is precisely the goal of Teddy Goitom’s work. He is a documentary filmmaker and the social entrepreneur behind Afripedia: the digital platform that serves as a collaborative and connective tool for artists, publishers, curators and other creative agents working in and outside the African continent. Afripedia is also a showcase, bringing African artists’ work to the world, whether they work in video, design, fashion, photography, music plastic or visual arts or any other form of contemporary cultural expression. Teddy Goitom is the founder of Stocktown Films, the production and distribution company that has been partly responsible for lifting the veil on 21st century African film production. The Afripedia project will serve as the starting point for his conversation with Mala Voadora’s José Capela and Vânia Rodrigues.