Liberal Youth Competition

Hundreds of young Africans share with us what freedom means to them

It started as a simple call for entries. Send us a poem, a painting, a video, tell us what freedom looks like from where you're standing. Nobody at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) Sub-Saharan Africa expected what came back.

Hundreds of submissions poured in from every corner of the continent. South Africa, South Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and more. Young people picked up cameras, pens and paintbrushes, or sat down to take the Check Your Freedom Quiz and used whatever they had to say something true about the world they're inheriting.

That was the whole point of the 2026 Liberal Youth Competition. Not to find one perfect answer, but to make room for a generation to think out loud about the societies they want and the part they might play in building them.

And think out loud they did. Some entries went straight for the hard stuff, corruption, inequality, unemployment, the everyday weight of trying to get ahead in systems that don't always play fair. Others leaned into freedom of expression, accountable leadership, justice, opportunity, peace, and the basic dignity every person is owed. Read enough of them together and one thing becomes clear - Africa's future isn't waiting to be imagined. It's already being imagined, loudly, by people who aren't interested in staying quiet.

Judging wasn't easy. The bar was high across every category, and picking winners out of that many strong, original entries took real deliberation. Only a handful could walk away with prizes, but every single person who entered added something to a bigger conversation about what an open society in Africa could look like.

This is why competitions like this matter. They're not just about handing out prizes. They open up dialogue, they reward independent thinking, and they hand young people a platform for ideas that deserve an audience. FNF believes democracy gets stronger when young citizens are given room to participate, to question, and to lead. This competition was one small proof of that.

To everyone who entered: thank you. For the courage, the creativity, and the willingness to put your voice out there. What you made shows that freedom, tolerance, accountability and opportunity still mean something to young Africans across the continent, and that these ideals are far from tired old words. They're still worth fighting for.

Meet the Winners

Category | Winner | Country

• Art | Otiede Ojevwe Esther - Nigeria
• Art | Kwikiriza Abraham Tumwine - Uganda
• Poetry | Amnah Feisal-Amin Ibuni - Tanzania
• Poetry | Mc Lord Selasi Azalekor - Ghana
• Poetry | Letsoalo Wesani - South Africa
• Video Story | Irene Njeri Kamau - Kenya
• Video Story (Social Media) | Odey Margaret Ogbene - Nigeria
• Check Your Freedom Quiz | Amanda Madi - Zimbabwe
• Check Your Freedom Quiz | Asha Mirriam - Uganda

Congratulations to all of them, and thank you again to the hundreds of young Africans who took part. The competition has wrapped up, but the ideas and the momentum behind it are only getting started. Here's to continuing the journey toward a freer, more democratic and more prosperous Africa, together.