Moky Makura the executive director of Africa No Filter (ANF) ...
This July, at the Africa Philanthropy Conference in Cairo, Moky Makura will take the stage as one of the continent’s most incisive voices on the intersection of storytelling, power, and development finance.
As Executive Director of Africa No Filter, Moky has spent years unmasking the hidden cost of Africa’s narrative deficit—and calling for a radical reimagining of who controls stories, money, and futures.
The conference scheduled for July 27-31 under the theme, “Sustainable Financing for Development in the Majority World,” hits at the heart of Moky’s work.
For her, sustainable financing is not just about funds flowing into African projects; it is about how the stories that shape perceptions and policies determine where and how money moves.
A Career Anchored in Narrative Justice
Moky’s journey from media presenter to narrative architect is one marked by a fierce commitment to African agency and narrative sovereignty.
Raised between Nigeria and South Africa, with academic roots in the UK, she first became known as a presenter on Channel O and a business anchor on M-Net’s Carte Blanche.
Her professional path took a defining turn when she joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Africa office as Deputy Director of Communications, where she helped reshape global philanthropic storytelling around African health and development.
In 2017, she served as interim Country Representative to South Africa, managing government engagement and internal coordination.
In 2020, she launched Africa No Filter—a donor collaborative backed by the Ford Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mellon Foundation, Luminate, and others—to fund creative storytellers and media ecosystems that tell Africa’s stories with nuance, complexity, and hope.
Verified Accolades and Public Impact
Among her notable achievements:
- Author of Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs – A published book profiling top African business leaders.
- Board Member of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.
- Advisory board member for Junior Achievement Africa and the Houtbay Partnership.
- Founder of HerStory Joburg, a storytelling networking event for women.
- Founder of AfricaOurAfrica.com, one of the continent’s earliest online repositories for positive African stories.
- Contributor to New African magazine, among other platforms, where she regularly challenges stereotypical representations of the continent.
These roles reflect a career deeply rooted in redefining the narratives that shape investment, policy, and perception.
The Real Cost of Narrative Bias
Moky’s most compelling intervention is the data-driven link she draws between narrative and development finance.
At the African Marketing Confederation Forum in Mombasa in 2024, she said:
“The thing is that narrative matters … it shapes how we think. But, more importantly, it shapes how we act … African countries pay more for debt because there is a perceived risk, often not based on any data. So, it’s costing us.”
This statement cuts to the core of the financing challenge facing the continent. According to research highlighted in The Guardian (October 2024), negative media portrayals of Africa inflate sovereign borrowing costs by up to £3.2 billion annually.
This “prejudice premium” drains resources that could otherwise be invested in health, education, and infrastructure.
Aid Cuts as a Catalyst for Change
Moky’s recent Project Syndicate column (June 15, 2025) builds on this by arguing that sharp reductions in foreign aid—particularly from the U.S.—should not be seen solely as a crisis.
Instead, she urges that such be considered as an opportunity for African nations to break free from aid dependency and forge sustainable, self-directed development pathways.
She writes:
“Aid cuts, while painful, provide a necessary jolt for African countries to rethink their development strategies, focusing on innovation, local enterprise, and diversified financing.”
Her vision aligns with this conference’s call for sustainable financing that goes beyond short-term, conditional aid.
Instead, she champions long-term investment in African-led institutions and creative economies, supported by narrative frameworks that reflect possibility, not just poverty.
Shifting Power in Philanthropy
Moky also draws attention to how philanthropy must evolve structurally. African organisations have long faced a “trust gap,” where funders demand extensive proof of capacity while maintaining control over resources.
Her leadership at Africa No Filter pushes for unrestricted funding and ceding power to local actors.
In her words:
“Without shifting narratives, the money follows the old stories: crisis, dependency, brokenness. That is the lens through which donors often view the continent—and it needs to change.”
Beyond Crisis: Stories of Hope and Innovation
Moky’s work also champions the role of storytellers, artists, and journalists who craft narratives that spotlight creativity, resilience, and innovation.
Africa No Filter funds these storytellers to expand the media ecosystem’s capacity to challenge stereotypes.
In her interviews and public talks, she urges moving away from the binary of “good news vs bad news” to embrace a multiplicity of narratives that capture the continent’s complexity.
A Keynote to Rattle the Room
The conference’s framing of the continent as part of the “Majority World” resonates deeply with Moky’s narrative philosophy.
The term pushes back against reductive labels like “Global South” or “developing countries,” which center on deficit.
With her trademark clarity, Moky Makura’s keynote is unlikely to offer easy answers—but it will provoke the necessary questions.
What does sustainable finance look like when it is truly driven by the communities it serves?
What if donors trusted African institutions enough to fund them without restrictive conditions?
What would development look like if we centered joy, creativity, and possibility in the narrative?
In a room filled with philanthropists, development agencies, African civil society leaders, and funders, Moky’s voice may well be the one that rattles the room—and recenters the conversation.
Why She Matters
At a time when global development is being reshaped by climate change, geopolitical shifts, and economic uncertainty, the need to fund differently and fairly has never been greater.
Moky Makura doesn’t just speak to this moment; she embodies it.
Her work reminds us that before we can talk about financial capital, we must reckon with narrative capital—the power to define who we are, what we need, and the futures we are building.
