Fred Zucule

Fred Zucule, also known as Kuln’Zu, is pursuing an MSc in African Studies at the School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford. Fred is a Mastercard Foundation AfOx Scholar and a member of Oriel College.

Fred is a visual artist, writer, and creative entrepreneur passionate about cultural production and queer visual cultures. Fred is dedicated to advancing the growth of creative and cultural industries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fred holds a BA in Africana Studies (cum laude) from Pomona College, where Fred focused on critical media studies, Black feminist, and queer theory, with particular attention to the works of queer photographers like Rotimi Fani-Kayode. Fred’s interests lie in engaging with cultural production and urban African organizing as spaces of political imagination and queer possibility.

Before coming to Oxford, Fred worked as a programmer and coordinator for film festivals, including the New York African Film Festival and the Atlanta African Film Festival. Fred co-founded the Sanbonani! Film Festival at Pomona College and worked as a project coordinator and film producer for Let’s Talk About Water, promoting science education through filmmaking.

As an artist, Kuln’Zu’s work—spanning photography, poetry, and film—explores themes of migration, queerness, and intimacy. Fred’s work has been exhibited internationally, and Fred has been a finalist for the Cassirer Welz Award and the Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers.

After completing the MSc, Fred aims to contribute to African Queer Studies scholarship and work at the intersection of cultural production and policy communication, using creativity to promote human dignity and agency.