Music In Africa Foundation elects new board at 10th AGM

This year’s AGM was held on 24 November alongside the ACCES 2022 music conference, which took place in the Tanzanian city for the first time. During the meeting, members of the Foundation casted their ballots for their preferred nominees, who represent the music scenes from different regions in Africa.

The board members are chairperson Maimouna Dembélé (Senegal), deputy chairperson Marcus Gora (Zimbabwe), treasurer William Chirinda (South Africa), Aziza Ongala (Tanzania), Matilde Moucha (Mozambique), Tabu Osusa (Kenya), Jens Cording (Germany) and Caroline Christgau (South Africa).

Cording and Christgau serve on the board on behalf of the MIAF’s founding partners, Siemens Stiftung and Goethe-Institut, respectively.

“We are excited to welcome the new board members to the Foundation and look very much forward to working with them,” MIAF director Eddie Hatitye said. “These board members have decades of collective experience in the African music industry and I am certain that they will improve the good work we’ve been doing for the past decade. More importantly, I would like to thank outgoing chairperson Yusuf Mahmoud [Tanzania] and board members Faisal Kiwewa [Uganda], Adé Bantu [Nigeria] and Ghita Khaldi [Morocco] for their invaluable contributions to the Foundation over the past years.”

Meet the members

Maimouna Dembélé, who served as MIAF chairperson from 2018 to 2020 and as MIAF deputy chairperson from 2020 to 2022, will once again take up the leadership role at the pan-African organisation, which was occupied by outgoing board member Yusuf Mahmoud. Raised between Senegal and the US, Dembélé has vast knowledge of media best practices. She has worked for Radio 7 FM and played a pivotal role in the development of the hip hop industry in her country. 

Marcus Gora, who is elected to the MIAF board for the first time, will serve as the organisation’s deputy chairperson. The music professional has a background in finance, business and arts management. He is the manager for well-known Zimbabwean band Mokoomba and is the co-founder and director of First Floor Gallery, an art gallery and creative hub with spaces in Harare and Victoria Falls. He is also the deputy chair of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe.

William Chirinda is a corporate governance expert and served on the MIAF’s Risk Management Committee from August 2021. He is the company secretary of the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) and RiSA Audio Visual, and has been part of the secretariat of the Angel Foundation, an organisation seeking to assist indigent musicians affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aziza Ongala has been working closely with artists, creatives, cultural practitioners, NGOs and governments for well over a decade. Passionate about representing traditional music and new forms of expression, she is the founder of the Ongala Music Festival in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, which celebrates the life and art of her father, the late guitarist and singer Remmy Ongala. 

Matilde Moucha holds a postgraduate degree in management of cities and creative enterprises from the National University of Córdoba in Argentina and a master’s in history of Mozambique and Southern Africa from Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. She develops research in the areas of management of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) and cultural heritage, with a particular interest in the analysis of the economic potential of arts and culture for local development. She is the co-author of the first and second edition of the book, Cultural Industries: What Are They? How to Manage? She also edits INCULT Magazine, a publication that deals with the CCI in her country. 

Tabu Osusa is an iconic figure in the East African music industry. He is the executive director of Ketebul Music, an NPO and record label with the core mission to identify, preserve, develop and promote the diverse musical traditions of East Africa. He has been actively involved in the music industry as a songwriter, recording artist, band manager, tour manager, promoter and music producer, and has shaped the careers of leading East African artists such as Orchestra Virunga and Nairobi City Ensemble. Since 2011, Osusa has been the project coordinator of the Singing Wells project, which aims to record and archive the traditional sounds and music of Eastern Africa. He is the lead author of Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya 1946-2016, and was conferred with the Order of Arts and Letters (Officier de L’Ordre Arts et Lettres) by the French government in 2020.

Jens Cording and Caroline Christgau boast many years of experience in the international arts scene, having developed and implemented numerous cultural projects around the world.

MIAF office bearers:

• Chairperson – Maimouna Dembélé
• Deputy chairperson – Marcus Gora
• Treasurer – William Chirinda
• Board member – Aziza Ongala 
• Board member – Matilde Moucha
• Board member – Tabu Osusa
• Board member – Jens Cording
• Board member – Caroline Christgau

More information about the MIAF's current board members is available here.