Komla Dumor was one of the most recognised faces voices at the British Broadcasting Corporation. After a successful career in journalism in this native Ghana where he was named journalist of the year in 2003 for his investigations into public sector corruption, this former medical student joined the BBC in 2006 as the anchor of Network Africa. He was one of BBC’s leading presenters with a range of responsibilities across all of the BBC’s platforms – television radio and online. Komla presented the European morning programme on World News for the BBC’s British and global audiences but his strongest contribution to the BBC was his passionate and unparalleled coverage of Africa.
Between 2009 and 2012 Komla was the anchor of the groundbreaking Africa Business Report on BBC World News. This program (a first for the BBC) took Komla to close to 20 African countries covering hundreds of thousands of miles interviewing the continents top entrepreneurs, politicians and policy makers. In addition to the European mornings Komla was the face and main anchor for the first BBC’s programme dedicated daily African news and current affairs show; Focus on Africa.
“This talk challenges Africans to tell African stories, the way only Africans can.”
To the great shock and sadness of his audience around the world, Komla died suddenly and too soon in January 2014 at the age of 41. He is definitely missed and his influence carries on.
In this TEDxEuston Talk entitled “Telling the African Story“, Komal Dumor takes us through his ideas, principles and values concerning a balanced representation and coverage of Africa. His TEDxEuston 2012 talk challenges the conventional wisdom of having others speak for us. It challenges Africans to tell African stories, the way only Africans can. Forever influential, watch Komal Dumor give this thought provoking and humorous talk below.
“The narrative will always glorify the hunter until the Lion itself learns how to write. Its not so much about what the international media does but what you write about yourself.” Komal Afeke Dumor
Intro and Outro music by Kadialy Kouyate performed at TEDxEuston 2011. You can view the full performance here:http://youtu.be/KUfD5WGL3hw.
*Information acquired and copyrighted to TEDxEuston
