Halima with producer John Fecile at the 2024 Gracie Awards. They won the Best National Radio Award for their story “Road to Boito,” which was produced by KQED. Photo Credit: Presley Ann via Getty Images (2024). Dress: Badgley Mischka

Halima Gikandi is an award-winning journalist and communications expert based in New York. She currently heads communications at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, where she oversees publications, communications, and public engagement. She is also working on several creative projects in film and in fashion.

Before that, Halima had an exciting career in public media. Between 2019 and 2025, she served as the Africa correspondent for the NPR/WGBH program The World. Her breaking news, feature, and investigative stories have taken her across Africa, from Ethiopia and Sudan to South Africa and Nigeria. She’s also held journalism and producer roles at NPR, BBC, The Guardian, iHeart Radio, and beyond.

In her spare time, Halima loves hosting dinner parties, hiking, visiting museums, writing Swahili poetry, and styling clothes. She is currently developing her first feature film.

Where I’ve been.

  • Somalia

    Riding in an armoured UN vehicle in Somalia on route to a camp for people displaced by drought and conflict (2022)

  • Northern Ethiopia

    Eating lunch with members of Fano, an Amhara militia, during the war in Northern Ethiopia (2022)

  • Sudan

    Covering the anti-coup protests in Khartoum, Sudan (2021)

  • Nigeria

    Interviewing a young voter in Lagos, Nigeria about the national election (2023)