The Ladima Foundation, in partnership with AFRIKAMERA Film Festival, has announced And She Didn't Die — directed by South Africa's Kethiwe Ngcobo — as the winner of the 8th Adiaha Award for Best Documentary by an African Woman.
As part of the award, the film will screen at AFRIKAMERA 2026 REFLECT in Berlin in November 2026, featured in the festival programme alongside the cash prize.
▶️ Watch the trailer: And She Didn't Die — official trailer
And She Didn't Die follows Lauretta Ngcobo's journey from rural South Africa to acclaimed feminist writer in exile. Told by her daughter, the film draws on a five-generation storytelling tradition and a personal archive twenty years in the making — including transcription VHS tapes rediscovered when they fell from a ceiling during a plumbing emergency in 2023.
"My mother titled her great novel And They Didn't Die because she refused to let women like her be erased," said Ngcobo. "And She Didn't Die is my answer to her, a promise that she will not be forgotten. To receive an award whose name means first daughter is the deepest honour of my life. No film is made alone, and I share this with my co-producer Chloe White, with Palesa Sybia, and with the whole team who carried it with me."
The jury — Paula Essam (Cameroon/Germany), Rumbi Katedza (Zimbabwe) and Samira Vera-Cruz (Cape Verde) — was unanimous, calling the film "beautifully crafted and emotionally layered... a vital act of both remembrance and reclamation" at a time when the stories of Black women within apartheid history and liberation movements continue to be marginalised.
A Special Mention went to 50 Meters, the Egyptian debut feature by Yomna Khattab — "a brave, tender, and deeply reflective debut... technically extremely strong and visually polished."
The award
Adiaha means "first daughter" in the Ibibio language of Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State. Launched at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2018, the award recognises and incentivises African women telling their stories through documentary. Previous winners have gone on to international festival runs, including:
- Mother City — Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert (2025)
- Our Land, Our Freedom — Zippy Kimundu and Meena Nanji (2024)
- Le Spectre de Boko Haram — Cyrielle Raingou (2023)
The Adiaha pathway — Pan-African award, cash prize, Berlin festival screening — is the supply-to-global-demand route working as it should: African story, African jury, international platform. It's exactly the kind of routing FRA exists to multiply.
Source: Ladima Foundation press release, 10 June 2026. More at ladima.africa · AFRIKAMERA
Source: ladima.africa