Board of directors

Chair: Mr Luc Mayitoukou, Manager of Zhu Culture (Senegal/Congo)

Originaire du Congo Brazzaville, Luc Mayitoukou fait son entrée dans l’environnement de la culture en créant avec son frère Saintrick le groupe Tchielly en 1988. Il fait le choix en fin 99 de s’installer au Sénégal où il a travaillé aux côté de feu Mamadou Konté en tant qu’administrateur. Fort d’une riche expérience de terrain complété par des formations dans différents domaines de la culture, Luc Mayitoukou crée en 2006 l’agence culturelle ‘’Zhu Culture’ et représente différents artistes tels que Saintrick, Kamaldine, Lang’i, Papa Kourand, Farafina, Tripl’3, Bring2bang, Abayazid, Olondo…
Implanté à Dakar au Sénégal, Zhu Culture s’est rapidement installé dans le monde professionnel en apportant son expertise dans plusieurs pays en Afrique (Sénégal, Djibouti, Mali, RD Congo, Burkina Faso, Egypte Gabon, Guinée…). Totalement pluridisciplinaire, Zhu Culture intervient dans la gestion de carrières artistiques, la diffusion, l’organisation d’événements culturels, la production discographique, la mode, l’édition, l’expertise culturelle et la formation aux métiers des arts et du spectacle vivant, (Régie technique de sonorisation et de lumière, gestion de carrières artistique, gestion d’entreprise culturelles, droits d’auteurs…). Œuvrant pour une meilleure diffusion des artistes et de leurs œuvres sur l’international, Zhu Culture a opté pour la formation, afin de contribuer à la professionnalisation des acteurs et a une meilleure compétitivité pour une réelle économie de la culture africaine.
Aujourd’hui, Zhu Culture intervient dans la formation (techniciens en sonorisation, en Lumières, Management de carrières artistiques) au Sénégal, au Mali, au Burkina, en RDC, au Congo Brazzaville, au Gabon, à Djibouti, en Guinée, en Côte d’Ivoire. Régulièrement, le festival Gagao Hip Hop de Libreville, le Fest’Horn de Djibouti, Afrikakeur et le Senejazz au Sénégal, collaborent avec Zhu Culture.
Pour accompagner ses formations aux métiers du spectacle vivant, Zhu Culture travaille sur l'édition des ouvrages pédagogiques. Le premier de cette série est ‘’la sonorisation de spectacle’’.

Vice Chair: Ms Judy Ogana, Manager of the Go Down Art Center (Kenya)

Judy is the General Manager of the GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi.  The GoDown has been in operation since 2003 and is arguably the most influential organisation supporting the arts and cultural sector in the region. She joined the GoDown in November 2006, after a one-year appointment as the Communications and Resource Development Manager with the Aga Khan University – East Africa.

Prior to her appointment at the University, Judy had worked with Kuona Trust for seven years. Kuona, an organization that supports visual artists in Kenya and across East Africa, has been key in the development of visual arts in the region. During her tenure as the Director, Kuona Trust was one of the Founder organizations of the concept of the multi-disciplinary Arts Centre, now known as the GoDown Arts Centre. 

Judy has a Bachelor of Education degree in Fine Arts from Kenyatta University, and has worked with Jacaranda Designs, a publishing and design house, as an artist/illustrator, graphic designer and later, as Special Projects Manager.  She also taught Art in State House Girls High School and Serare School. In 1998, Judy pursued an Arts and Culture Management course from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. This gave her the motivation to pursue arts management as a career. In 2008, Judy was selected to participate in the prestigious Kennedy Centre Fellowship Programme for Arts Managers in Washington, New York, and Minneapolis.

In 2009, she was one of the 18 people selected for the Women Leaders for The World programme hosted at Santa Clara University, USA. In May 2010, she was the first East African to be selected for the International Cultural Visits programme in Australia, hosted by the Australian Government. Judy also served in the selection panel with the Ruth Hunt Wood Foundation for seven years, and as the team leader and member of the Contemporary Art curatorial committee for the National Museums of Kenya.  She was recently appointed as a member of the East African Biennale Committee. 

Judy lives in Nairobi, Kenya and is married with two children, Imani (8 years) and Sifa (6 years).

General Secretary: Mr Tarek Abou El Fetouh, Director of the Young Arab Theatre Fund (Egypt)

Tarek Abou El Fetouh was born in Cairo and lives and works in Brussels, where he is an independent curator, architect and Director of the Young Arab Theatre Fund and the Meeting Points Festival.

Abou El Fetouh has worked on designing and re-habilitating abandoned or misused buildings internationally, transforming them into art venues. These spaces include the Garage Theatre (Alexandria, Egypt), Collectif 12 (Paris, France), the Windows Theatre (El-Minia, Egypt), The House (Amman, Jordan), The Factory Space at the Townhouse Gallery (Cairo, Egypt), the Ness El Fen (Tunisia) and the Geneina Theatre (Cairo Egypt).

As a curator he has produced various festivals, including: the Amman International Festival in Amman, Jordan (1996-2000); It’s Happening in the Garage in Alexandria, Egypt; DisOrientation at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Germany (2003); Roaming Inner Landscapes in Alexandria, Egypt (2004); and the Sharjah Biennial 9 (2009). He initiated the Meeting Points Festival of Contemporary Arts and curated its first four editions.

Abou El Fetouh is also the Founder and Director of the Young Arab Theatre Fund (YATF), a Brussels-based foundation working in the field of contemporary visual and performance arts since 2002.

Treasurer: Mr Farai Mpfunya, Director of the Zimbabwe Culture Fund Trust (Zimbabwe)

Farai Mpfunya is the founding and Executive Director of the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust, the biggest local funding organisation in Zimbabwe's arts and culture sector. He currently serves on a number of boards, including in his capacity as Chair of the Harare Mayors Advisory Committee on Arts and Culture, and with the Young Africa Skills Centre.

Farai Mpfunya served on the Arterial Network's Cultural Policy Task Group, which created a framework for enabling African governments in cultural policy making. He has also served in leadership positions in a number of cultural NGOs, as well as in the corporate sector: the Zimbabwe International Film Festival Trust, the National Code on Corporate Governance Project for Zimbabwe, the Great Zimbabwe Scenarios Planning Project, Thomson CSF, and InfoTech-IBM, among others.

Educated in Zimbabwe, France and England, he started his professional career in the public and then corporate sectors, having studied electronics engineering and then business administration (MBA) before shifting his career to filmmaking and arts and culture administration. Farai is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar (Session 490) and DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center.

Mariam Mayoumbila, Cultural Entrepreneur (Chad)

Mariam graduated in modern literature and in arts management in Lomé, Togo in 1993. 

She is an actress and playwright and has worked for twelve years (1984-1996) at Radio-Chad. From 1996 to 2006 she was the Director of the National Ballet of Chad.

She is currently president of the commission Education-Culture-Youth and Sports for the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of Chad. In 1993 she created Kadja-KOSSI, an association supporting cultural exchange, of which she is currently the President. She is a member of the Arterial Network, REPROSAC and is the Director of FIFART (Festival of Internation-Female Artist in Chad). She is strongly committed to the fight for the development of women's lives in Africa (fight against violence against women; for education for girls; against mothers’ mortality; etc...).