Introducing “SHAHARA” - A new content platform pioneered by Africa Uncensored, The Catapult Agency and Baraza Media Lab

For the past five years, we at Africa Uncensored have striven to produce compelling investigative and in-depth journalism that is truly “uncensored”. The journey to publication though is fraught with challenges that every content creator faces, one of them being how we can sustain the quality of our work and keep the lights on.

Together with our friends at The Catapult Agency, an agency founded to raise the bar in personal and brand management for public figures and talent in the media and entertainment industry, and our partners Baraza Media Lab we’ve been working on a solution, and what a solution we’ve got! With the generous support of OSIEA, we have built a platform that is a solution not just for us, but for all content creators.

The Platform is called Shahara. Inspired by the Swahili word Mshahara, it derives its meaning from its purpose, which is to enable people in the creative economy including producers, content creators, journalists, writers, photographers, and other storytellers to earn revenue directly from their content.

Simply put, Shahara is here to help build Africa’s creative economy. On Shahara, content creators can publish their work and have their audiences watch, read or listen to it, and audiences, in turn, will have the opportunity to support them directly by paying for content.

The content creator will then take the lion’s share of whatever they earn, enabling them to live, create and celebrate their work. We are determined to prove that the road to a thriving creative economy is built by the alliance between a content creator and their audience.

The first project that is launching exclusively on Shahara is A Letter To My Younger Self, a series of powerful, reflective interviews with ten Kenyans who are breaking boundaries. Featuring the likes of Grammy-award-winning singers to Olympian weightlifters, this podcast (adapted for video) is created by super-talented Kenyan Youtuber Maxine Wabosha.

Maxine represents the talent in Kenya and Africa’s creative economy that we are getting ready to support. To watch the series, all you need to do is visit shaharavideos.com. The entire ten-episode series costs just KES 100 (slightly less than one dollar) to purchase.

The Shahara platform is in its Beta testing phase, starting first with our video offering. To sign up to become a content creator on Shahara, drop us a line at sharaha@thecatapult.co.ke