“A story well told begins with the silence of listening.”
- African proverb. Maybe. Or perhaps we made that up.
Seen one, seem them all?
We felt the same.
“So,” we thought, “Let’s try something slightly different, shall we?”
Recentre the Narrative. Reimagine the Story.
Recentred Africa crafts ethical, human-centred stories from across the African continent.
Through photography, videography, writing, and audio, we move beyond the weary clichés and superficial takes.
Because authentic storytelling connects us all - and it deserves profound respect and rigorous care in finding the threads of dignity and truth that connect us all.
Our Practice?
Listen.
Gather.
Weave.
Step 1: Shut up, and listen.
Hush. Zip it. Be quiet. Button up.
We park our egos at the door, pull up a chair, and genuinely hear what people have to say.
No interruptions, no assumptions. Truly listening. Not the nod-and-smile kind, but the lean-in, ears-open, phones-on-silent kind of listening.
Step 2: Open up, and gather.
We open up to absorb every detail, emotion, and nuance - snippets of conversations, visual scraps, sonic clues… This isn't just about collecting data; it's about embracing stories as they are offered to us, raw and unfiltered.
Step 3: Pay attention, and weave.
This is often the hard part. Two reasons.
The first: We have to sift through everything we’ve gathered. The photos, the videos, the audio, the written snippets… Everything. Because the good bits often hide themselves in the places we don’t expect. At this point, everything matters.
Then comes the second: How do you find the through-line connecting seemingly unrelated pieces of a story, and then bring it all together in a cohesive, compelling, and emotionally resonating narrative?
We take each thread - every moment, every sound, every whispered word - and carefully position it, not in a way that we want, but in the way the story wants to be positioned.
The Two Halves of Our Whole.
The Studio.
This is where we craft the stories. Here’s where the teams of our associate photographers, filmmakers, and writers thread narratives with soul and precision.
The Lab.
This is where we explore why stories matter. We explore human nature, examine history, and develop participatory programmes that deepen narrative impact and empower communities.