People | Graduate Students

Siyabonga Africa

Information:
Department of Telecommunications
safrica 'at' indiana 'dot' edu

Biography:

South Africa has had three great exports in the past couple of years: Nederberg wine; Charlize Theron; and District 9 director Neil Blomkamp. I am the unofficial fourth. I hail from the land of the Zulus, Xhosas, Vendas, and Afrikaners among others.

I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of my native land. At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of my country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito. A human presence among all these, a feature on the face of my native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I declare – I am an African!

My interests have been in broadcasting, and the different platforms that it can be done, from a very young age. During my undergraduate years at the University of Pretoria, I was involved in student media in the form of the official student newspaper Perdeby where I rose to the position of Features editor and was awarded a merit award by the Student Representative Council for my efforts. In 2007 I was awarded the Aggrey Klaaste bursary, by Sowetan (a South African newspaper), to study an honors degree in journalism at Stellenbosch University.

Between 2008 and 2009, I spent my time moving between newspapers and online publications, taking front page pictures, working on documentaries, editing online videos and dabbling in a bit of travel writing before it struck me that media is heading towards a converged plane. Where and when is what intrigued me and it was thus that I applied to further my studies. I am currently a Ford Foundation Fellow and an MS: Telecommunications student focusing on new media and interactive computer design.