The 2023 Gender@Work diary

Sunday 5 November 2023

There was a definite buzz in the air. You could feel it. Fifteen women from across Africa had been selected to partake in the Gender@Work programme for a whole week in the capital of Tanzania. The initiative is developed by the Music in Africa Foundation (MIAF), an NPO that promotes, facilitates and supports African music. They have developed this programme to see women engage and become more involved in the event and music industry. The training had started a month prior with online classes and this was the final part with a weeklong, on-location training as part of ACCES – a conference and showcase festival run by the MIAF.

As the girls arrived, they finally were able to put names to faces and greet each other in the flesh for the first time. Leading the Gender@Work programme is Carine Tredgold, a stage manager and training facilitator from Zimbabwe, who kicked off our first day brilliantly. As we worked through the modules, the girls got more comfortable with each other and began answering the questions they had. Carine and I were able to facilitate conversations as the group shared their own experiences and began to teach and learn from each other. It was a great start to the week!

Monday 6 November 2023

On Monday we kicked off strong. Another day of solid content and learning plus the added bonus of two guest speakers. Women in Music Tanzania joined us around lunch time. They shared information about this new initiative with the goal to promote women in the music industry through training and empowering them. We then had Islam Elbeiti, a Sudanese bass player and cultural curator, share her experience of how she has gotten to where she is today and the challenges she has encountered. Both presentations resonated with the group and there were many questions and chats.

Tuesday 7 November 2023

Today was exciting because the real technical training began. At the beginning, I asked the girls to think of a problem they needed solving or something they always wanted to know about sound or lighting. I then said, ‘Hopefully in the theory training today or the practical training tomorrow you will work out the answer.’ The girls asked heaps of questions – they’re curious, wanting to learn and grow, and develop their knowledge. This group of 15 only had four techs yet all the other women who work as artist managers, event coordinators, and so on, wanted to learn not only for themselves but to improve what they work on in the future. There wasn’t enough time to cover everything. Impossible for half a day but the learning and growth was huge in the time we had!

Wednesday 8 November 2023

Halfway through the week and today was an exciting day! We went out of the classroom and to HaddyPro, a rehearsal studio and gear supplier in Dar es Salaam to get hands-on, practical experience and training on lighting and audio equipment. As we started the training, we lost power but luckily the lighting console was on a UPS and stayed on for the time it took to get the power back up. One of the students was a lighting designer/operator and as she got the answers to the questions she had, you could see all the connections being made in her head about how lighting works and how things fit together.

The power came back on and we headed into the world of audio. We looked at what it is like on stage, how to mic instruments, how everything runs from the stage to the console to the PA. We then got hands-on with the console. It’s fun to turn the knobs and start to hear what frequencies and compression do to sound. After practising going through the signal chain on a few instruments, we then let the girls go and discover for themselves. The best way to learn is through being hands-on, making mistakes and then teaching others what you know to solidify the learning.

Our lighting tech got right into teaching the other girls all about lighting. It was really cool! From there we headed to the venues we’d be working at for the next three days, checking out what we need to do and where we will be working. After that, we headed back to the hotel to have our final presentation from Kimberly Oxide from MOMIX in Mauritius. MOMIX is short for Mauritius Music Expo and has been around since 2017. They seek to network those involved with music in Mauritius. From there we had dinner at the launch party at Alliance Française. Bands played and the kick-off for ACCES 2023 was a great way to finish a busy day!

Thursday 9 November 2023

Today is when it all comes together! ACCES 2023 is going live! Over 1 500 people will participate in ACCES this year, a conference and showcase run by the Music in Africa Foundation. The girls were energised and excited to put into practice what they’d learnt. We spent time at the beginning of the day getting familiar with the stage. Learn where everything is, practice rolling a cable and go through the instruments and what mics we’ll use.

As soundcheck started, there was troubleshooting to be done and the girls got straight into problem-solving. After the first soundcheck, you could see everything had clicked and for the next band the girls got straight into it. We talked through what the changeovers would look like and the team chose what areas of the changeover to be responsible for. We also had Miriam from last year’s Gender@Work training joining us as a stage tech, which was great. The doors opened, we got the 10-minute call from the stage manager and away we went. It was excellent! The night went brilliantly and the comment on the team from all was that the changeovers were some of the best they’d seen!

Friday 10 November 2023

The synergy and excitement the girls had, having achieved a successful show the night before, was huge today. They loved it. Involved, taking notes and wanting to put into practice everything they had learnt over the week. The show went really well. Artist liaisons had everything thrown at them, as there were some big stars performing. The techs had tricky changeovers with tight times to get large bands on and off the stage, and nailed it. The stage managers flawlessly executed the changeovers, artist management and all the liaising in between. It was so cool to see everyone in their element. It was as if the night before was practice and tonight was time to take it up a level, or quite a few. And they did!

Saturday 11 November 2023

Women In Live Music (WILM) is all about hands-on, practical learning. We had one girl who had done a fair bit of lighting programming, operating and designing. The production lighting designer (LD) had been great and very happy to show her things. I tasked her with opening a new show file and creating a show from scratch for an artist performing that night. As she designed a show for Kasiva Mutua, an artist from Kenya, her home country, Balle the LD told her to operate the show! This is the icing on the cake for the end of the week. What an experience. The final night was by far the hardest in terms of stage changes and audio requirements. But the girls stepped up. They succeeded. We had technical difficulties, change of instruments from soundcheck to show, but as a team, they crushed it!

All in all – wow, what a week!

I’m personally so grateful for this opportunity. When one is invited to help train and teach people, you end up with the best reward – seeing others flourish. My heart is so full from this experience. A huge thank you to Carine. All the hours and work she puts in behind the scenes is because she not only believes in this programme but she believes in each girl taking part, and works so hard to see each person succeed. Such an honour to work with her.

The MIAF does an incredible job promoting and supporting African music. It was a real privilege to see their dedication and how it is changing African music and its reach globally. They’re a bunch of legends and my huge thanks to them for having me.

Lastly, my thanks to WILM who not only are supporting seeing more women in live music in Europe but on the African continent as well. Their values and emphasis is training and this is exactly what they’re helping make happen. Very grateful for this opportunity WILM have given me. This is a week I’ll never forget!

Sophie Botta is a WILM member, lighting designer and rigger. This text first appeared on the WILM website. Write to info@womeninlivemusic.eu for more information about WILM’s collaboration with the Music In Africa Foundation. 

More about the programme

The Gender@Work training programme is implemented in partnership with Scènes Australes, Women In Live Music, Accès Culture, Siemens Stiftung, Goethe-Institut, the German Federal Foreign Office and Région Réunion.

Scènes Australes

Scenes Australes is a French non-profit organisation committed to the promotion of traditional and modern music and artists from all over the Indian Ocean area. Scènes Australes participates in the organisation of the two biggest festivals on the Reunion Island: Sakifo Musik Festival and Les Francofolies de La Réunion. It also finances 100% of the organisation of the Indian Ocean Music Market (IOMMA).

Music In Africa Foundation

The Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) is a non-profit, pan-African organisation with operations across Africa. Its mission is to support the music sector through promoting knowledge exchange and creating opportunities and capacity for those who operate in it. The MIAF does this in two ways: digitally via the Music In Africa website and offline through artist mobility programmes, workshops, training programmes, concerts, lobbying, conferences and other related initiatives.