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The story so far.
African Voices is a not-for-profit community media organisation in Sheffield, telling African and diaspora stories from the source. Here's where it came from, what it stands for, and who makes it.
Africa, told from the source.
African Voices began in 2018 as a television show on Sheffield Live, made by people who were tired of seeing African stories told without the texture given to everyone else's. It grew into a radio show, then a community interest company, and in 2025 into its own 24-hour DAB radio station.
The idea has stayed the same throughout: a place where African and diaspora communities, at home and abroad, tell their own stories across radio, television and the spoken word. News and music, culture and current affairs, mental health and human rights, in English and in community languages, made by the communities themselves.
It is rooted in Sheffield and Rotherham, where the licence is held, but the app, the YouTube channel and the website carry it far wider, with listeners already answering back from Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and South Africa.
From a TV show to a 24/7 station.
The TV show begins
African Voices launches as a community affairs programme on Sheffield Live TV and YouTube.
A community interest company
African Voices Platform is registered as a not-for-profit C.I.C., with social inclusion and racial harmony written into its objects.
On the radio
The African Voices radio show starts on Sheffield Live community radio, alongside community projects including public health information during the pandemic.
The licence
African Voices secures its Ofcom community DAB licence to serve the African and African-Caribbean communities of Sheffield and Rotherham.
On air, around the clock
On 1 April, African Voices Radio launches 24/7 on the Sheffield small-scale DAB multiplex.
Being African isn't a hobby. It's an identity.
Told from the source
Stories made by the communities living them, not about them, without the distortion of mainstream coverage.
Honest, without stigma
A place to talk openly, including about the hard things, without stigma and without sympathy. Just people, talking.
Intergenerational
Elders and young people sharing the same microphone, with the station built for the next generation to one day run.
Not for profit
A community interest company, so any surplus goes back into the station and the community, never into private pockets.
The people behind the mic.
Baillor Jalloh
Sierra Leonean and Guinean, born in Liberia and raised in Sheffield. A journalist for over a decade, with a degree in journalism from Sheffield Hallam and work spanning the Paris magazine 54 États and Sheffield Live. He founded African Voices to tell the stories the mainstream skips.
Tchiyiwe Chihana
A community organiser who also works with the Burngreave Messenger and Opus Independents. She keeps the station intergenerational: "I want this to be purpose-built for the next generation."
Enoch Karimba
The link between the studio and the city. He brings in the partners, the volunteers and the communities the station was built to serve, and helps new voices get to air.
At a glance.
- Founded
- 2018, in Sheffield
- Status
- African Voices Platform C.I.C., not-for-profit
- On DAB
- 24/7 across Sheffield & Rotherham, since 1 April 2025
- Also on
- Sheffield Live TV, YouTube, and the iOS app
- Weekly reach
- Around 30,000 households across South Yorkshire
- Made by
- 13 presenters and around 20 volunteers
- Regulation
- Regulated by IMPRESS, licensed by Ofcom
- Based at
- 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX