WAFRIC Awards 2026 Nominee Spotlight | Creative Storyteller of the Year — Liberia
Stories do more than inform us about the world. They influence how communities are understood, whose experiences are remembered, and which voices receive the attention they deserve. For a storyteller, the responsibility goes beyond telling a compelling story; it also involves deciding what deserves to be heard and ensuring that the people behind the story are not lost in the telling.
Representing Liberia in the Creative Storyteller of the Year category at the West African Citizens Awards 2026, Jos Garneo Cephas Jr, professionally known as Jos Cooljay, is being recognised as part of a wider celebration of creative expression and the power of storytelling to connect people with their experiences, communities and culture.
Beyond the story: Why perspective matters
Storytelling takes many forms. It can emerge through journalism, digital media, creative commentary, personal narratives or the documentation of everyday experiences. Regardless of the medium, meaningful storytelling gives audiences more than information: it provides context, invites reflection and creates opportunities to see familiar issues from a different perspective.
This is particularly relevant in Liberia, where questions of history, identity, representation and national memory remain important to public conversation. The country’s stories are not limited to major political events or widely recognised public figures. They also live in the experiences of ordinary people, the realities of local communities and the perspectives that can be overlooked when a story is told from only one side.
For creative storytellers, the challenge is to make those experiences accessible and meaningful to an audience while preserving the substance of the story itself.
A documented connection to community-centred journalism
An important part of the public record associated with the name Jos Garneo Cephas is his connection to journalism and the effort to represent Liberian experiences more fairly.
A research document hosted by the University of Ghana identifies Jos Garneo Cephas as one of the founders of The Vision, a newspaper established alongside Semantics King Jr. The publication emerged in response to negative portrayals of Liberian refugees living at the Buduburam settlement in Ghana. Its reporting sought to bring greater attention to the realities facing the refugee community, including the circumstances of vulnerable families and the challenges many people encountered while living away from home.
The significance of this work lies in the role of storytelling as a means of representation. Rather than allowing a community to be defined solely by outside narratives, community-focused journalism can create room for more complete accounts of people’s lives, challenges and aspirations.
The historical record also includes a report by Jos Garneo Cephas on the Press Union of Liberia’s activities marking World Press Freedom Day. Together, these references establish a documented connection to journalism and public-interest storytelling.
These records offer useful context for understanding the broader importance of the storyteller’s craft: stories can shape public perception, preserve experiences and give communities a platform through which their realities can be better understood.
Storytelling as a bridge between people and their experiences
The value of storytelling is not measured only by how widely a story travels. It can also be found in the questions it raises, the understanding it encourages and the conversations it makes possible.
For Liberia’s creative community, storytelling presents opportunities to document local realities, communicate cultural experiences and contribute to how the country is represented to audiences at home and abroad. Across West Africa, these forms of expression can also build connections between people whose experiences may differ but whose hopes, struggles and ambitions often share common ground.
As media formats continue to evolve, the storyteller’s role remains important. Whether a narrative reaches an audience through a publication, a digital platform or another creative medium, its lasting value depends on the perspective it brings and the meaning audiences take away from it.
Why Jos Cooljay is part of the WAFRIC Awards 2026 conversation
The Creative Storyteller of the Year category recognises the importance of creative voices in communicating experiences, ideas and perspectives. Jos Cooljay’s nomination places his name within this broader conversation about the people contributing to West Africa’s creative landscape.
His documented connection to journalism provides a relevant foundation for considering the relationship between storytelling, representation and public understanding. The nomination also reflects WAFRIC Awards’ commitment to bringing attention to individuals whose contributions deserve consideration beyond the limits of visibility alone.
As with every nominee, the recognition is an opportunity to celebrate creative work while encouraging audiences to learn more about the people helping shape their communities’ stories.
Support Jos Cooljay
Jos Garneo Cephas Jr, known professionally as Jos Cooljay, is nominated for Creative Storyteller of the Year — Liberia at the WAFRIC Awards 2026: Recognizing the Unseen. Celebrating the Exceptional.
Public voting runs from October 12 to November 15, 2026.
🗳️ Visit the official WAFRIC Awards public voting page to find the category and cast your vote.
For details on how public votes contribute to the selection process, read the WAFRIC Awards 2026 Voting Procedures and Criteria.
Public votes contribute to the selection process but do not solely determine the winners. Final selection follows the published procedures and criteria.
WAFRIC Awards 2026 — Recognizing the Unseen. Celebrating the Exceptional.