When it came to telling the world stories about Africa, no-one did it as well as Komla Dumor. He was a person who believed that you needed to understand people and collaborate with them in order to tell Africa’s story. Having this kind of an attitude towards his journalism is one of the things that made him stand out. It also made shows such as BBC’s Focus on Africa a success which did a lot in raising the profile of Africa.
Sadly, Komla suddenly passed away on the 18th of January, 2014. The news came as a shock and he will be missed by not only by family and friends but by people around the world who he reached through his work.
In 2013 he spoke at TEDxEuston on telling the African story. This is one of the many things to remember him by and in this talk he also imparts words of wisdom for those who want to tell the African story or that of an African nation that they call home. His presentation draws you in with a mix of realness and humor as he gets across four points that he saw as being essential to telling the African story. They included not just telling one side of the story but having “balance” with a second point being the question of who an expert on Africa is, is it someone from Washington or London?
He finished off his talk with a proverb that he leaves open for interpretation:
The narrative will always glorify the hunter until the lion itself learns how to write
The talk is well worth a watch. Rest in Peace.
If you have a story to tell, you can share it with the world right here on Living Zimbabwe. To Find out more and to make a contribution, visit Citizen Journalism by Living Zimbabwe.
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