Today, we join creators across the continent to mark Africa Podcast Day.
Across Africa, creators and communities are marking the day through local gatherings and conversations, with activities taking place in Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana, reflecting the growing reach of African audio storytelling. In Nigeria, the Nigerian Podcast Index is set to launch today as a public directory designed to support discoverability and documentation of Nigerian podcasts.
To commemorate Africa Podcast Day 2026, we are sharing reflections from members of the APVA Board of Advisors. We have also launched the 2025 edition of “Powerful Statements from Africa’s Top Audio Creatives ”, alongside the REVISED Edition of the Powerful Statement from Africa’s Top Audio Creatives. The Powerful Statement from Africa’s Top Audio Creatives is a curated collection of quotes from renowned audio creatives and professionals who have graced APVA events.
Statements from APVA’S Board of Advisors
Mo! Sibyl, Chair of the Board of Advisors, 2x Award-Winning Podcast Host and Associate Professor, Family and Preventive Medicine
“On behalf of the African Podcasters and Voice Artists Association, I celebrate Africa Podcast Day 2026 with profound gratitude for the incredible storytellers, creators, and voice artists shaping our continent’s narrative.
African podcasting is not just an industry but a movement. From Lagos to Nairobi, Accra to Johannesburg, Cape Town to Cairo, our creators are amplifying silenced voices, telling erased stories, and building communities that transcend borders. We’re not waiting for permission to be heard. We’re claiming our microphones and redefining what global podcasting sounds like.
As someone who hosts a diasporic podcast with listeners in over 100 countries, I have witnessed firsthand how African stories resonate globally when told authentically. Our narratives about migration, identity, culture, and belonging are not niche but universal. Our experiences are central to understanding our interconnected world.
But let’s be clear: we’re still fighting for the resources, infrastructure, and recognition our creativity deserves. African podcasters navigate unreliable internet, monetization models built for Western streaming behaviours that ignore how African audiences actually consume content, and persistent under-representation in global podcasting conversations. Yet we persist. We innovate. We thrive.
This Africa Podcast Day, I challenge our global podcasting community: Don’t just celebrate African voices today but invest in them year-round. Fund African creators. Feature African shows in your recommendations. Include African perspectives in industry conversations. Recognise that diversity isn’t just good ethics but good business.
To my fellow African creators: Your voice matters. Your story deserves to be heard. Your perspective is valuable. Keep creating. Keep pushing boundaries. Keep building the podcasting ecosystem we deserve. The future of global podcasting is African. And that future starts with the work we do today.”
Chilu Lemba – 3 x SOVAS Voice Arts Award-winning Voice Actor and Media Entrepreneur, Board Member, APVA
“Africa Podcast Day is a reminder that the future of audio is collaborative.
Today is about honouring the storytellers who are using audio to bridge cultures and the platforms that make that discovery possible.”
Sean Loots – Podcast consultant and host of Something Shifted, Board Member, APVA
“A microphone doesn’t give an African storyteller power; it simply removes the distance between the story and the listener. That is the quiet power of podcasting across Africa. We don’t need to find a louder voice. We simply need to trust the one we already have.
Our stories carry their own rhythm, patience, and truth, shaped by where we come from and how we’ve learned to listen.
To my fellow creatives, producers, editors, writers, spoken word artists, and lovers of podcasts: Happy Africa Podcast Day.”
Lola Soyebo Harris, Host, The Kádàrá Woman Podcast, Board Member, APVA
“Happy Africa Podcast Day!
As the host of The Kádàrá Woman Podcast, I know firsthand the power of our medium—the intimacy of voice, the freedom to tell our stories on our own terms, and the connections we build with listeners across the continent and beyond.
When I started my podcast journey, I wanted to amplify the voices of remarkable African women, but more importantly, I wanted to share positive stories about Africa and from Africa. In the process, what I discovered was a vibrant community of audio creatives doing the same — each of us reshaping how the world sees Africa, one conversation at a time. It’s an honour to serve on the inaugural board of APVA, an organization dedicated to discovering, amplifying, and celebrating African audio creatives. Being part of this board means everything to me because I’ve witnessed what happens when African podcasters come together: we learn from each other, we lift each other, and we prove that our stories belong on the global stage.
Today, I celebrate every podcaster pressing record, every voice artist behind the mic, and every listener tuning in. The future of African audio is bright—and we’re just getting started.”
Gathoni Ngumba, Founder/CEO Story Palette, Board Member, APVA
“Today marks a very important day for African storytellers. A day for us to celebrate our voices and stories told by our own people in our own voices.
This day shows that we do not always wait, sit and ask for permission to celebrate ourselves. I hope that as you celebrate today, whether you are a podcaster or not, you take a moment to discover a new African podcast.
Whatever you are interested in, there is a podcast available for you to enjoy. If you are not African, take a moment to listen and see the continent through the eyes of those who live in it. Open your eyes to new possibilities because this day celebrates exactly that.
Happy Africa Podcast Day to everyone reading this, and to you who isn’t sure if you should start a podcast, please do. New books are written every day, and new podcasts can also be created every day.”
Kevin R. Masaba, Board Member, Association of African Podcasters and Voice Artists (APVA) | Founder, Radiomind Africa | Convener, Radiomind Broadcast Summit
“Across the continent, from bustling urban studios in Lagos and Nairobi to improvised home setups in Kampala and Accra, a quiet revolution is unfolding. Armed with all sorts of recording ammunition, with one mission and an unshakeable belief in the power of narrative content, African creators are dictating how our own stories as Africans are told, heard, and archived.
Podcasting has become a tool of revolution and independence, representing the African way of saying I can tell my own story my way in my own mother language,’ which is most powerful way of storytelling because in most cases information is lost in the cosmetic of language, alien opinions, and fancy Hollywood studios or any of those places today Podcasting represents a digital renaissance, one rooted in our oldest tradition, oral storytelling.
Long before the printing press or broadcast transmitters, Africa thrived on the spoken word. History was carried in voice. Wisdom was passed through rhythm, repetition, and story. Today’s podcast ecosystem is not a foreign invention imposed upon us; it is a technological evolution of the fireside conversations that built our civilisations. Actually, podcasting is an African innovation.
What has changed is not the essence of storytelling but the scale and the mix of opinions and coverage, and technology. A podcast recorded in a far area of Africa or the world, or right here in Kigali, can now be streamed in Toronto. A political analysis from Nairobi can shape conversations in London. A cultural reflection from Johannesburg can resonate in New York. The African voice is no longer geographically confined. Podcasting is borderless.
As a podcast coach, tech advancement enthusiast, Radio content programmer, and board member of the Association of African Podcasters and Voice Artists (APVA), I have had a front-row seat to this transformation. Despite infrastructure challenges, high data costs, and monetisation gaps, African podcasters continue to grow in both quality and influence. What we lack in resources, we compensate for with innovation. What we lack in formal systems, we rebuild through community. And community is at the heart of Africa Podcast Day.
This day acknowledges creators who have refused to wait for permission. It celebrates producers who have invested in craft without guaranteed returns. It honours voice artists who have turned storytelling into both profession and purpose.”
Conclusion
With existing and emerging podcasts across the continent, we are certain that our stories are being preserved and retold and that we can reclaim our heritage through audio. Africa Podcast Day reminds us of the strength we carry as Africans and what unity can achieve, and proves that African audio is active, expanding, and increasingly shaping local and global conversations.
At APVA, we will continue to institutionalize, amplify, and celebrate African audio creatives for the work they do.
Happy Africa Podcast Day!
