The 2026 Sawaba Fellowship
Theme: Not Pioneers of an Empty Land
Liberation Alliance Africa invites fellows to explore their practice guided by the theme, “Not Pioneers of an Empty Land”. This theme constitutes a direct confrontation with the colonial legal and psychological myth that the world was empty before European expansion, and it encourages explorations that reinforce and exalt truth over colonial lies and logics. These colonial myths show up in our current practices as a rejection of collective knowing and flourishing, and despair. This rejection casts us as agents of our own erasure, particularly in the age of digital and social media, where humanity, attention and dignity are increasingly monetised, feeding the race to be a lone voice, a subject-matter expert, a lone pioneer, a knowledge magician conjuring ideas from thin air. Not Pioneers of an Empty Land acknowledges the ancestral preservation of memory, stories, genealogies, and histories that have existed and continue to exist. This fellowship invites us to think beyond colonial epistemic, political, emotional, and psychological borders and to reclaim the shared kingdoms, mutual interests, and ecological stewardship that existed long before the cartography of dispossession and the imposition of the nation-states.
MEET THE 2026 FELLOWS
Tshegofatso Senne is a Black, chronically ill, genderqueer community worker, sangoma, and founder of Hedone, exploring care, pleasure, and healing through storytelling and community practice. Their work spans zines, ceramics, design, and archival practices centred on Black queer life and transformative justice. Their TEDx talk Reimagining BDSM reflects on tenderness, love, and care as sites of liberation.
Rana Ashraf is an Egyptian multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and community builder working with conflict-affected communities across the SWANA region and Africa. Her practice brings together humanitarian work, transformative justice, and collective healing through decolonial and feminist approaches. She founded the Conflict and Repair Lab to nurture culturally rooted conversations on accountability, care, and community repair.
Adomaa Adusei is a Ghanaian Afrofeminist writer, cultural practitioner, and community archivist exploring memory, feminist documentation, and knowledge production. She works with Buchei Feminist Collective, Drama Queens Ghana, and the Sihene Foundation to preserve intergenerational histories and food memory. Her writing examines historical erasure and the transformative possibilities of feminist archives.
Boluwatito Sanusi is an editor and researcher committed to Black cultural production and African epistemic recovery. As Assistant Editor at Cassava Republic Press, she leads Ankara Press, championing hopeful Black storytelling, while her research explores Yorùbá indigenous understandings of love and desire. She is a 2025 Toronto International Festival of Authors Fellow and a 2026 CODESRIA Fellow.
