Hosted in partnership with Radio Workshop, RESONATE Cape Town will bring together producers from across Africa and around the world to share hard-earned lessons of audio creation. At RESONATE, producers will meet their peers, newcomers will meet their heroes, and we will all share the fruits of community.

We’re busy developing a strong line-up of presenters, including the three Emmanuels: Emmanuel Akinwotu, Emanuele Berry, and Emmanuel Dzotsi. Also in the mix: AIR, Audio Flux, Radio Boot Camp, Radio Diaries, and Transom.

The two-day festival will feature live performances, professional development and networking opportunities. We hope to see you there!

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, July 15th at 9 am New York / 3 pm Cape Town on our RESONATE Cape Town website — set your alarm!

Check out the website

The group will begin in Johannesburg in August with a week-long training workshop led by Transom. In the six months that follow, they will work closely with mentors to produce narrative audio stories that will premiere at the RESONATE Podcast Festival Cape Town in February 2027. Tickets go on sale on July 15!

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Otherwise refers to the alternatives — the ways of thinking or telling stories about Africa that differ from what we typically encounter. We asked each resident what “Africa Otherwise” means to them.

Beatus Msamange, Malawi

Africa Otherwise is not about presenting an alternative image, but about creating space for stories that have always existed, yet are rarely heard in their fullness.

Esohe Iyare, Nigeria

I’m really interested in communities that think differently about their place in the world. People who think in ways that might be considered ‘delusional’ given their circumstances. Why do they think this way? And what does it lead them to do? What impact does it create around them?

Kabir Jugram, South Africa

I want to explore how joy, hardship, and resistance intersect, and how telling these stories can challenge media narratives that flatten African lives into stereotypes.

Mary-Ann Nobele, South Africa

There is joy, ambition, humor, intimacy, and contradiction in being a youth in Africa. Africa Otherwise, to me, is about reclaiming that fullness and telling stories that honor the complexity of lived experience rather than reducing people to their circumstances.

Nelly Madegwa, Kenya

The story that feels most ‘Otherwise’ to me is what happens to the deaf community inside movements that are almost entirely built around sound.

Oswell Moyo, Zimbabwe

Africa Otherwise is not a theme — it is a practice. Slowing down. Listening first. Trusting the person in front of you to lead. That is what I am here to keep learning.

Thando Mpungose, South Africa

I am eager to explore how audio can become a space of resistance and imagination, where African realities are heard in their fullness and diversity.

Plan your trip to Resonate 2027!

The series is part of the build-up to the RESONATE Podcast Festival in Cape Town in February 2027. For the next five months, we’ll host free courses with Radio Bootcamp’s instructors for African audio makers.

Space is limited! If you’re interested in registering for any of the courses, email Mathapelo Mofokeng: mathapelo@radioworkshop.org.

And mark your calendars! Tickets for RESONATE Podcast Festival Cape Town 2027 go on sale on July 15, following the Richmond ticket sale date two weeks earlier.

We hope to see you there!

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Where?

Homecoming Centre, Cape Town

When?

Friday & Saturday, February 19–20, 2027

It’s the perfect time to come to Cape Town. Mid-February is peak summer — think beaches, sunshine, and great weather. If you’ve been looking for an excuse to escape winter elsewhere in the world, this is it. It also coincides with the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, the biggest art fair on the African continent.

Tickets

Tickets go on sale July 15 at $100 a piece. Mark your calendars!

Flights and Accommodations

Our one big piece of advice: buy your flights and book your accommodation early. Cape Town fills up. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing travel tips, accommodation recommendations, and if you want to turn this into a bigger holiday (you should), we’ll have loads of suggestions — must-visit places, restaurants, travel agent and tour guide recs, and a whole range of things to get up to while you’re here.

Residency

In the lead-up to RESONATE Cape Town, we’ll be running the RESONATE Story Lab: Africa Otherwise, a six-month audio documentary residency that supports a small cohort of Africa-based storytellers. The application deadline is May 11th.

That's it for now. Got questions in the meantime? Don’t hesitate to get in touch:
📧 Mathapelo Mofokeng — mathapelo@radioworkshop.org

More soon — we’re very excited about this one!
Radio Workshop & Chioke l'Anson

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For the first time in its history, RESONATE Podcast Festival is coming to Africa. In partnership with Radio Workshop, Cape Town will host this landmark gathering February 19-20, 2027—a pivotal moment for the continent’s rapidly expanding audio storytelling landscape. More information coming later this week!

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In other exciting news, we’re running a six-month residency in the lead-up to the festival. RESONATE Story Lab: Africa Otherwise is an intensive audio documentary residency for storytellers ready to deepen their craft and to rethink how stories about the continent are told. Across Africa, oral traditions run deep, yet too much storytelling is confined to news cycles and talk-based formats that flatten lived realities into headlines and soundbites.

The residency supports journalists, filmmakers, podcasters, and other creatives to tell character-driven, sonically rich documentaries. Participants will engage in a process that is both creative and collective: developing and pitching stories to international platforms, producing work for global broadcast and exchanging with peers committed to reshaping how stories are told.

This is more than a training programme. It is a movement to build a new generation of audio producers across Africa, and an invitation to shift the terms of storytelling itself: towards work that moves beyond doom and gloom to centre complexity and lived experience.

Key details

Application Deadline: May 11, 2026 (6 pm SAST)

Dates:

• August 8-15, 2026: in-person in Johannesburg

• September 2026 - January 2027: online

• February 19-20, 2027: in-person in Cape Town

Languages: English does not need to be your first language, but you must be able to communicate fluently in English for the sessions.

What is Included:

• Round-trip airfare, accommodation, and a stipend will be provided for participation in the workshop in Johannesburg, and for the Resonate Podcast Festival in Cape Town

• Funds to cover story production

• An audio recording kit

More information here

We look forward to seeing your application.

Best of luck!
The Radio Workshop team