Who We Are

Staff

Selly Thiam

Executive Director

Selly Thiam is a Senegalese- American journalist, filmmaker, radio producer, and writer. She started her career reporting for National Public Radio in Chicago – this led to her producing for the Storycorps Oral history project in New York City and then becoming lead producer on the Storycorps Griot Initiative, an Initiative which in partnership with National Public Radio broadcast the stories of African-Americans from across the United States. Selly went on to work for PBS and the New York Times and was a Carnegie Fellow with the ABC News Investigative Unit.

After the murder of prominent Sierra Leonean LGBT activist Fanny Ann Eddy in 2004,  Selly decided to dedicate her work to amplifying the voices and visibility of African queer voices.  In 2006, she founded None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa, which collected and archived over 1000 first-person narratives of LGBT Africans on the Continent and the Diaspora. Since then, None on Record has grown into an Africa-wide LGBT digital media organization with offices in Nairobi and Johannesburg. Through her work at None on Record, Selly and her team have trained hundreds of LGBT activists across the African continent on digital media and documentation. They have also produced numerous documentary series, most recently an African LGBT campaign in partnership with the United Nations. None on Record has held numerous panels and film screenings that focus on and discuss LGBT issues in cities across the African Continent.

Selly is the Executive Producer of AfroQueer, an award-winning podcast produced by None on Record.  She is a 2018 #Africanofilter Fellow, a Ford Foundation fellowship that supports individuals working to create new narratives about Africa and the African continent.

Mercy Githaiga

Administrator

Mercy Githaiga is a self-driven and diverse individual with experience in research, casework, and administration. She has a Masters in Project Planning and Management from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelors degree from Kenyatta University -Kenya under the school of Humanities and Social Sciences with a double major in Economics and Sociology. Mercy previously worked for CWS/RSC Africa as a Caseworker where she got to transverse Sub-Saharan Africa conducting resettlement interviews for refugees based in Africa. She is passionate about human rights, humanitarian services, and organizations that focus on service delivery to the minorities and less fortunate.

Tevin Sudi

Sound Engineer

Tevin is a sound engineer, specializing in audio editing, audio post-production, music production, and sound for visual media. He focuses on telling African stories using good quality audio, innovative ideas and a young, fresh perspective on the industry. He has about 3 years of experience while standing on a sound engineering educational background.

Board of Directors

Isabella Matambanadzo (Ms.)

Isabella Matambanadzo (Ms.) is a Zimbabwean feminist. Born in 1973, she was raised with a deep awareness of her country’s struggles for liberation and self-determination, which has influenced her life’s path. Her love for the arts won her a prestigious Reuters Foundation scholarship to study Journalism, Literature and Theatre Studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. In addition to working on the campus newspaper, serving on the founding team of the Cue TV, the Grahamstown Arts Festival television channel, and broadcasting on the campus radio station RMR, she supported herself by working as a waitress and reading audiobooks at a center for the blind. She graduated with triple majors, Summa cum Laude and achieved Dean’s List recognition and Academic Colours in 1999. Isabella enjoys reading, writing, painting, gardening and making jewelry. She was published in Writing Free (2011).

 

Roger Ross Williams

Roger Ross Williams directed and produced Music by Prudence winner of the 2010 Academy Award for documentary short subject. He is the first African American to win an Academy Award for directing and producing a film. He has produced and directed dozens of hours of non-fiction programming for major television networks and cable channels. Williams’ current documentary film God Loves Uganda premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and has won numerous awards. The film examines American Fundamentalist Evangelicals’ efforts to spread Christianity and to promote the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which includes penalties of death for gays and lesbians.

Ryan Ubuntu Olsen

Ryan Ubuntu Olson has served as the board chair of None on Record for the past four years and is a strong advocate for the organizations’ incredible work. Olson has over a decade of experience in domestic and international policy advocacy related to human rights, health, and gender & sexual diversity (GSD). Olson has worked at the local, national, regional and global levels advocating for the rights of gender and sexual minorities everywhere. Olson seeks to tackle issues at the intersections of society, culture, policy and social change. Olson has been recognized on numerous occasions for his thought leadership including being named as a “Future Gay Hero” by Advocate Magazine, being given the “Making a Difference” award by the Matthew Shepard Foundation or named to the Clinton Foundation’s CGI U Honor Roll for his international LGBTI advocacy. Olson’s motto in life is “What you do in life, echoes in eternity