Loeries

#Loeries2019: Africans aren't just swimming with the creative sharks, we are the sharks

23 Aug 2019

Piwe Motshegoa, head of sales: general entertainment at DStv media sales, kicked off the DStv Seminar of Creativity - a highlight of Loeries Creative Week as the industry gets ready for the annual award nights - with a reminder that Africans hold all the storytelling magic they need.

Piwe Motshegoa, head of sales: general entertainment at DStv media sales. Image via Al Nicoll © via Gallo Images.

Motshegoa's main point hit home for attendees as it's something that's already part of our sub-conscience, but something we all need to be reminded of now and then: Africans are the number one storytellers of African stories.

Loeries CEO Andrew Human encourages everyone to tell better stories.

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We live this truth each day as we laugh, sing and dance – and it extends back in history to when we drew on cave walls to mark our stories, continuing as we paint our faces to express our beauty and our innovation in the food we create.

As you listen to the stories around though, Motshegoa says to consider where you stand in the creative conversation.

Lanre Adisa, CEO/CCO of Noah's Ark Communications, Nigeria, and Loeries 2019 Live, PR and OOH juror.

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At DStv, she says the creativity lies in the ads as well as the content.

For example, Channel O was the first South African channel created specifically to highlight South African music.

M-Net gives a platform for expression of local flavours, while Mzanzi Magic articulates local stories in a way that changes the game and gives birth to a new style of creative expression.

DStv Seminar of Creativity MC Thabang “Tipi” Manyelo. Image via Al Nicoll © via Gallo Images.

Motshegoa adds that there’s nothing more exciting than to acknowledge and endorse creativity in all its forms and to stop negative comparisons.

Africa has an abundance of creativity

Issued by Loeries 20 May 2019

As Africans, we are no longer swimming with sharks, we are the sharks.

That ties in with the Loeries philosophy:

It’s not just an award. It’s about recognising creative brilliance. Making you and me feel something, question and rethink our ways of doing. It’s about telling better stories. Stories that provoke conversation. Challenge traditions. End stereotypes. Celebrate humanity. Tear racial divides. Embrace culture. And change the world.

As Africans, we need to remember that we are the ones we have been waiting for.

Take that responsibility and run with it!

Sphelele Mjadu, Unilever Personal Care Senior Public Relations Manager for Africa and Anne Githuku-Shongwe, representative of UN Women South Africa’s Multi-Country Office, in the UN Women-Dove masterclass panel at the Loeries. Image via Al Nicoll © via Gallo Images.

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Leigh Andrews' articles

About Leigh Andrews

Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews.