Gaborone, Botswana, 03 July 2026 – Magamba Network, Africa’s trailblazing creative and digital media organisation today announces the launch of Nafasi, a three year African-led initiative working across Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen the online spaces where young Africans connect, share ideas, and communicate. Nafasi is being rolled out together with main partners, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (DefendDefenders) and the Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement (RFLD). Nafasi is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Nafasi, which means ‘space’ in Swahili, is a befitting statement of intent as the programme will operate across 30 African countries, bringing together young people, civil society, digital communities, women human rights defenders, and creators with the skills, tools, and knowledge to navigate the digital world and help keep online spaces open, inclusive, accessible.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, digital civic space – the space where people connect, organise, and hold power to account – is shrinking under three converging pressures. This includes Big Tech’s spreading of misinformation and disinformation, unsafe and unequal access to the internet, and the misuse of technology by corporate platforms. Such misuse of technology includes AI-generated deepfakes and content-moderation algorithms that can be bypassed through local languages, fuelling the technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) that drives women and girls offline. Nafasi will take a dual approach which involves protecting the young activists, young women, and communities already defending open digital spaces, while building African-owned digital infrastructure and verified information ecosystems that reduce the continent’s dependence on outside platforms.
Nafasi is anchored on three strategic pillars. The Policy and Governance pillar strengthens civil society’s capacity to advocate for stronger data protection and platform accountability, working with regional bodies such as the African Union and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Digital Resilience and Truth Pillar builds the technical security and fact-checking skills of civil society, human rights defenders, and young people so they can detect and counter Big Tech-driven misinformation and cyber threats. The Network Power and Sustainability Pillar consolidates youth-led digital hubs across the continent into a coordinated, resourced network that can exchange resources, respond to emerging trends, and organise as one
Over three years, Nafasi will share digital skills with young people across the continent, support the development of independent African-owned digital platforms, and help communities tell true information from false. Nafasi works to strengthen how Africans engage with internet policy, build resilience against online misinformation & disinformation, and grow networks that sustain open digital spaces across the continent.
“The online space is such an important arena for Africa’s Gen Z to express themselves and to organise around their vision of a better tomorrow,” says Magamba Network Creative Director, Samm Farai Monro, “But we are seeing that space shrinking consistently. Nafasi couldn’t come at a more crucial time. We have built an amazing Africa-wide network of digital rights activists, techies and civic innovators committed to protecting the online space and building a future where digital democracy thrives. Together we need to hold the space!”
The Nafasi initiative is hosted by Magamba Network, with DefendDefenders serving as the East Africa Hub and RFLD coordinating the West Africa and Lusophone Hub.
