Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo have shared personal reflections on identity, representation, and the importance of telling their own stories as Inside Africa marks 25 years of chronicling a continent in motion.
For a quarter of a century, the long running programme has offered a platform to voices shaping business, sport, culture, and change across Africa. In a conversation filmed by CNN (Inside Africa) at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts reimagined Arts of Africa galleries in New York City, Nyongo and Kidjo looked back at how their lives and careers have evolved since the late 1990s.
Kidjo recalled a period filled with uncertainty and courage. “25 years ago, I think I was just arriving in France, running away from a dictatorship, not knowing what the future was going to look like for me and being afraid of what might happen to my parents because I did not ask for an authorisation to leave the country. And after the first year, I realised the gift that my parents gave me,” she said.
Nyongo spoke of her own journey, remembering a formative teenage move. “I was actually living in Mexico, I had left Kenya. I was 17 at this point. So, my parents had sent me to Mexico because I was born there, and they wanted me to learn Spanish. And for me 25 years ago, it was the first time that I realised how much my continent meant to me because I had left it.”
The conversation turned to the role of storytelling in shaping understanding and unity. Kidjo argued that the continent must reclaim its narrative from fragmentation. “Our stories are in pieces, and we cannot, I think profoundly, we cannot transform our continent if our stories are parcels. How do we make Pan Africanism a reality, not only in storytelling, but in arts, in economics, in science, in everything. How do we reclaim our own continent if we do not start by knowing each other’s story”
Nyongo has embraced this mission through her award winning podcast Mind Your Own, which explores experiences from the African diaspora. She told Kidjo, “I found that it was such an intimate way to change hearts and minds. And I thought, God, I am homesick. I would love to just be steeped in an African story for a moment. And oral storytelling is such a big part of our culture.”
Both women also described navigating the global creative landscape as African women. Nyongo said winning an Academy Award required discipline in choosing roles. “I had to be very deliberate about the roles I took on next. So, I ended up having to say a lot of nos, not knowing when my next paycheque was coming. I had to wait for the opportunities that I felt were deserving of my experience of the accolades I had received. And I continue to have to do that.”
Kidjo said she faced similar prejudice early in her music career. “Especially when you are a black woman in the world of arts, God help you and I mean everything you are saying, it just gives me flashbacks. When I started my first album, when we were doing the photo shoot for the cover and then brought stylist and then she goes, why are you calling me to dress this woman She is African, do not they walk naked in their countries”
Nyongo said she continues to choose work that uplifts rather than reinforces tired assumptions. “I like to be a joyful warrior for changing the paradigms of what it means to be African. And if that means that I work one job less a year to ensure that I am not perpetuating the stereotypes that are expected of people from my continent, then let me do that.”
Looking ahead, both women expressed strong optimism for Africa’s future. Nyongo pointed to its demographic strength. “Africa is a very, very young continent. The people are young. And so, I am excited to see what that means for the world to have a very large percentage of the world’s youth coming from the African continent. I am excited for the continued takeover of African music in the world.”
Kidjo said the new generation is determined to build differently. “This youth that is coming in is another breed. They do not want none of this past anymore. They know that the past is there, but they want to build a future. And that is something that the youth of this continent, of ours have proven to me over and over again. There is reason to be optimistic.”