Curator Anesu Chikumba, founder of Unpublished Africa, discusses the exhibition 'I’d Be Empowered If…' which brings together African women photographers to explore empowerment through visibility, professional development, and sustainable creative ecosystems. The show, assisted by Creative Business Studio alumni Namukolo Siyumbwa and Jorge Dachala, features practitioners from multiple African contexts and emphasizes long-term support over temporary gestures.
This article matters because it shifts the conversation around African photography from mere representation to structural change, addressing gendered inequalities and the need for curatorial practice as infrastructure. Chikumba’s focus on narrative responsibility, feedback mechanisms, and recontextualization risks highlights how exhibitions can function as platforms for sustained empowerment rather than one-off visibility, offering a model for ethical curation in the Global South.