Meet Young Girl Who Emerged African Women in Media Photojournalist Awardee

Meet Young Girl Who Emerged African Women in Media Photojournalist Awardee

Safiyya Muhammad Daba is a Nigerian amateur photographer cum techie, was one of the winners at the recently held Agenda 2063 Africa Photojournalism Awards, an initiative of African Women in Media (AWiM), in collaboration with African Union and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ/GmbH)

“When Safiyya Daba, a trained nurse turned rookie photographer, shot her would-be award-winning photograph at the onset of the 2019 harmattan season in remote rural parts of Kano, Nigeria’s second city, she had no inkling how far the picture would travel and how it was going to transform her amateur photography carrier.

Daba’s snapshot of a shirtless teenage boy scooping water from a stream in rural Kano eventually won in the Agriculture, Rural Environment, Land Rights and Skills Development Category of the Agenda 2063 Africa Photojournalism Awards for African Female Journalists. The Awards is an initiative of the African Women in Media (AWiM), an international nonprofit focused on impacting the way media functions in relation to African women, in collaboration with the African Union and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ/GmbH).

Now in her mid-twenties, the cub photographer had in 2020 graduated with Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Maryam Abacha American University of Niger (MAAUN) in Maradi, around 150 miles northwest of Kano across the border in Niger Republic. A passionate techie, Daba is a member of Google Developer Groups (GDGs), a cluster of developers interested in Google’s developer technology. She also leads the Women Techmakers initiative in Kano; created by Google to provide visibility, community, and resources for women in technology.”