In a year marked by reflection, stillness, and an enduring curiosity about what it means to be present, Naledi Maifala’s quietly powerful practice has risen to the surface, and captured the hearts of the ANNA Award judges.

Fresh off the announcement that she is the 2025 ANNA Award Winner, Maifala is still catching her breath. “The day I found out, I was all over the place,” she admits, speaking from her home in Botswana. “My adrenaline was high. Today, I’m much calmer. More relaxed.”

For the ANNA Award judges, Maifala’s work stood out as a testament to the quiet power of observation, a practice anchored in solitude and a deep attentiveness to the everyday. They felt that by deliberately avoiding overt political commentary, she subverts the expectation that her work must carry the weight of historical struggle. They saw in her art a radical act of self-possession: a claiming of space for personal experience that resists the pressure to centre her identity as a black woman, or to place herself at the heart of the narrative. Instead, they were moved by how she finds profound meaning in the fleeting and the intimate.

Naledi Maifala, Time Alone, 2024

Naledi Maifala is a Botswana-based contemporary expressionist painter whose work explores stillness and contentment. She began painting in 2007 during her junior year and transitioned to a professional art career in 2022. Her artistic vision is rooted in the theme “Just as Petals Fall, Life Too Fades”—a metaphor for presence, impermanence, and the fleeting nature of life.

Focusing on mind-soothing surroundings, her subjects include domestic animals, garden flowers, sentimental objects, and people who embody serenity. Fascinated by the journey of inner contentment, Naledi believes external surroundings can also stimulate this experience. With her photography skills, she captures moments of solitude, later translating them onto canvas with acrylic paints. Her brushstrokes balance intuition and intention, using light, texture, and colour to shape mood and storytelling.

Reem Aljeally (b. 1997) is a multifaceted artist whose work integrates architecture, visual arts, and curation. She is the Founder of The Muse multi-studio (2019) and The Sudan Art Archive (2022), aiming to support, promote, and preserve the visual arts in Sudan. Her artistic practice focuses on painting, installation, and printmaking, exploring themes of movement, space, memory, and self-image. She has exhibited internationally in Germany, Spain, Russia, Portugal, the United States, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa. Currently, she leads the Artists Development Program at Ubuntu Art Gallery in Cairo, continuing her artistic and curatorial endeavours.

“As a Sudanese artist with a diverse practice, being one of the 12 finalists of the ANNA Award is more than just recognition; it’s proof of perseverance and acknowledgement of my work and voice as a woman. I am beyond thrilled to be included in this community where I can expand on my explorations and further push the advancement of my creativity." 

Fetlework Tadesse, also known as Fela, was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her artistic style is characterized by semi-realistic depictions using brush stroke techniques, often featuring self-portraits that reflect her attitude and daily life routine. She draws inspiration from observing everyday life, mundane patterns, body movements, fashion trends, and controversial ideas, which she incorporates into her art through question-and-answer sessions with herself. Colors, forms, and body gestures serve as key inspirations for her work, allowing her to explore anatomy and structure while painting emotions and attitudes. This July 18, 2025 she's part of “Roots and wings” a group exhibition at Stuttgart, Germany curated by Tesfaye Urgessa internationally acclaimed artist.

"I’m honoured to be chosen as a finalist. This recognition feels like a meaningful milestone in my artistic journey, and I'm grateful for the opportunity it brings." 

Azola Kingston is a self-taught visual artist born in 1994 in Philadelphia, USA, and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her work is a bold celebration of Blackness. Through vibrant colour and layered composition, she honours the richness of African life - its people, its traditions, its spirit.

She draws beauty from community: shared meals, everyday rituals, generational wisdom, unspoken knowing. Her work brings light to the untold narratives of Black and African contributions, ones that deserve not only to be acknowledged but also celebrated.

Each piece tells a story that’s been waiting to be seen: a story of pride, presence and power. It doesn’t whisper. It doesn’t wait. It arrives. Vivid, vital, and impossible to ignore.

Her current range explores the idea of a seat at the table: not as invitation, but as affirmation. Her work insists that African art, stories, and voices are central to the cultural conversation, not because they echo others, but because they carry their own undeniable weight.

“Being an ANNA Awards finalist affirms that the way I honour our lives, in bold colour and unapologetic truth, has weight. These stories aren’t just mine. They’re echoes of a greater beauty, long overlooked, now impossible to ignore. The ANNA Awards remind me that what I create isn’t just seen. It’s felt and it belongs."