Shiba Melissa Mazaza

Malawian, UK-born and South Africa-based Shiba Melissa Mazaza is a music journalist, media strategist, researcher and curator working with those that value new and exciting voices across Africa. She began as a music journalist for Okayafrica in 2014 and Design Indaba's Music Circuit Manager in 2015, going on to build an interest in the machinations of the music industry at large, and how African sociologies impact the continent’s creative expression. Nominated for SheSaidSo’s Alternative Power 100 Music List in 2018 and selected by the prestigious Salzburg Global Seminar in 2020 to participate in the Young Creative Innovators Forum, she established her own entity, Mount Makeda Media House, at the start of 2020's pandemic and has gone strength to strength since.

Aiming to ring in the next generation of culture creators, she has provided media services for Platoon Africa, Apple Music, Ask One Question x Spotify Global, Ballantine's, Black Major, mixmag, DJ Mag, Resident Advisor as well as various artists from Aymos to Kid Fonque and Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) within and in the wake of her self-founded venture.

Simultaneously, she enjoys a fruitful voice over career for hundreds of clients from Standard Bank to Volkswagen and Emirates.