My Journey to the Intra-Africa Trade Fair
One Sunday morning, I received a call from the art council letting me know that they were organizing a trip to this year's Intra-Africa Trade Fair and Creative African Nexus (4-10 September 2025, Algiers) and had selected me as one of the creatives to accompany them.
One of the things on my vision board was to travel internationally with my work. With how the first half of the year went, I had honestly thrown out any hopes of fulfilling any of those dreams this year. So when that opportunity came in, I was like, "No way, of course I'm going to do it!" The next weeks included trying to renew my passport, as the last time I flew was to Harare, Zimbabwe, for a different creative summit (that was amazing too). I came back from Harare the same week the world shut down because of COVID. lol. Been country-bound since then.
I needed my passport to get my visa, and it was due the same week I was told about the trip. So you can imagine the panic.
I was told on the Sunday. Monday, I spent waiting for the details about the trip and doing research on how advanced our systems have become. I had decided Tuesday would be the day I would go and try to acquire my passport.
I also spent some time researching the event and filling up my schedule with talks/workshops I wanted to attend. They had a great app and site. Loved that aspect.
Tuesday morning was first spent getting my documents in order after searching their website to see what I'd need. By midday, an email finally came in detailing the next steps, which included sending them our passports urgently. I was like, "Oops, I'm probably not going to make this trip."
So I rushed to Home Affairs. Here's what I learned:
They have a police station to certify your documents—I didn't need to stand in that awkward line on Independence
You could download the form on their website and fill it in before arriving so you can get straight to being helped
The part of the commissioner will be done there, at their police station
They go for lunch. All of them. That apparently also means you MUST vacate the building during that time. Lmao. Crazy.
So it's best to come super early, so you can finish before lunch
They say the passport is ready 3-5 days after the application
The process was quite quick, though. Handed in my stuff, paid, and I was off. Next came the waiting.
In the meantime, I needed to go get a yellow fever shot, fill in the visa application, attend meetings about the trip, prepare for a talk I was doing at NEXUS, a pitch and also run my creative agency and make sure I delegate things right.
My Talk “Storytelling for founders” at Basecamp’s NEXUS (Vinyls Cafe) | 28 Aug 2025
I'm happy to report that on Friday, on the 3rd day, I rushed there to see if my passport would be ready. Got there, handed in my receipt, and the lady tells me it would be ready at 12:30, so I decided to wait. (I think I got there at around 11:30).
And at 12:30, I got my passport! I was actually really impressed at how fast the entire process was. Except for that lunch hiccup thing, they are doing an okay job, lol. Shout-out to them.
My passport was my gateway to everything—I got my visa and was ready for the trip. Well, sort of.
We were to travel on the 2nd of September, but got moved up to the 4th, which was perfect as I still needed time to prepare for the trip. That included deciding what to pack, finalizing work, my nails, lashes, and hair… you name it. It was actually too chaotic for my liking. I wish I had more time to plan, especially how I was going to show up at IATF, what I would present (as we know I'm passionate about many things)—like did I want to showcase Sketchy, The Creator List, our work as Beso Media, or Monochrome Magazine? I really wish I had the opportunity to plan for the actual fair.
The communication before the trip as well, could have been better. So many things could have gone better had people just been clearer. As someone who is a professional communicator, I appreciate when things are written out clearly so there are no mishaps, but I see it's not the case with other institutions or professionals. You quite literally need to beg for a crumb of information. Frustrating, to be quite honest.
We were flying out on Thursday, 4 September at 14:30, and it would be a journey and a half. That's all in part 2.
