Broadcaster Afua Adom has certainly cemented her status as an exciting and opinionated British-African voice in the media, airing her views on ITV’s This Morning, talkRADIO and Good Morning Britain, to name just a few of her recent engagements.
pan-African was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with Afua about her rise to trusted media commentator, the state of UK racial inequality, and pride in her Ghanaian roots.
Read on to find out more.
Afua, you have established yourself as a successful journalist and broadcaster – can you tell us a little about your journey into working in the media?
I wanted to be a journalist from the age of about 13 or 14 – I used to read a column in The Times by John Diamond – Nigella Lawson’s husband before she was a famous TV cook – which became centred around his battle with cancer. I loved that the way he talked about dying was profoundly sad, but he also made it interesting, and so beautiful. I thought the way he told his story was incredible, about what it’s like when you know you’re approaching death, and I realised I wanted to be able to tell stories in a special way like that.
Then my mum told me about my uncle who was a journalist, and she told me: “Maybe journalism is an established career path [for you].” When you’ve got African parents, you don’t just say you want to study English, haha. So she rightly steered me in that direction, and that’s where my ambition sprang from. I applied to go to City University, which used to be London School of Journalism where my uncle attended, which all felt very profound, and I just took it from there.
How did your media experience expand after graduating from City University?
I worked in music publishing for Chris Blackwell who founded Island Records, and who gave Bob Marley a record deal. That was an amazing experience, even though it wasn’t necessarily journalism, but I made some incredible contacts. I then left to pursue more freelance work, and had some unexpected jobs along the way, like working for the company that produced costumes for Strictly Come Dancing!
Then I fell into an editorial role at Blackhair magazine, a hair and beauty magazine for Black women, as the first Black woman to work there – ever! It had been around for 13 years at that point, and that fact still baffles me. Then my editor went on maternity leave, and I took on the position – it was an incredible baptism of fire, but it was brilliant making my mark on the magazine to get rid of skin-bleaching adverts, and making sure dark-skinned women were on the cover. After that, I worked for Pride Magazine which was my dream job because I used to read it back in Glasgow where there was nothing at all with Black women in it.
Then I had my daughter in 2011 and developed a ‘Superwoman complex,’ where I felt that I must ‘take on all the things!’ I suddenly believed I was able to do anything and everything, and wanted to get back into TV. My now best friend (whom I didn’t know at the time) called me up asking me to be a talking head on a news channel when Nelson Mandela died, and I said yes – I’m someone who, if you ask me to scale Ben Nevis, I will show up and do it – just tell me what time I need to be there! I did the segment, I loved it and was asked to come back, and so I ended up working for the channel, and everything snowballed from there. It might sound bizarre, but the pandemic has also really helped with everything surrounding Black Lives Matter, because I suddenly became a trusted voice in the media.
I don’t necessarily think I’m the best at what I do, but I do put my all into it, and there’s something to be said for being personable and a nice person to be around, because producers will enjoy it when they call you up to discuss what the day’s stories are. That’s what keeps getting you booked again and again.
What have been the highlights of your career so far?
Landing my first breakfast radio show was amazing – getting up at 4am wasn’t, haha! I also worked on a show for three years at CNBC called Sustainable Energy, and in just one year I got to go to Montreal to interview Barack Obama’s former climate advisor Amy Luers, a month later I got to go on safari in Nairobi, and a month after that I travelled to Los Angeles to interview more incredible people – doing that whole show was the highlight of my career. The team were amazing, and we were all great friends, but it was sadly cancelled because of the pandemic. I learned so much about sustainability from doing that show.
I also interviewed the president of Ghana which was a career-defining moment, and I was on Good Morning Britain the day that Piers Morgan had his infamous final appearance on it – and I got to tell him off, which was personally very satisfying.
You have fabulous taste in fashion – how would you describe your style, and who are your style icons?
Colour-pop faux mum-chic – I love wearing colour! I’m also not skinny and I’m will never try to be, so it’s about wearing things that work for my body. It’s not about looking slim, it’s about looking good and feeling comfortable. The worst thing is being on TV and your bra strap is showing or you’re showing too much cleavage, or something is too short, because you spend the whole time thinking about that while you’re thinking about what you’re saying at the same time!
Over the last 18 months, everything has been online and from the waist up, so it’s about choosing something with a nice neckline and a lovely pop of colour. My skin tone is nice and dark, so colour really works on me, and I love getting dressed up, it’s my favourite thing. Over lockdown everyone was in their pyjamas, but I had to look nice because I was on TV, and getting dressed up for work really kept me going.
My style icons are Candice Brathwaite, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Issa Rae!
Your parents are originally from Ghana – how did this shape you as a young Black person living on the west coast of Scotland?
As you can tell by my name, my parents were deliberate in giving us very Ghanaian names, so we were always reminded every single day about our heritage and who we were. We went back to Ghana almost every summer when I was younger, and we ate traditional food at home, so it was pretty much a dual-culture upbringing.
We weren’t raised speaking the language, and that’s something I’m trying to learn at the moment, but as I’ve moved forward in my career, I’ve become really interested and ingrained in African culture in the UK. I work for an African news channel, and I’m quite involved in the Afrobeats scene – a project I’m working on right now is called Made In Ghana UK which I recently went back to Ghana for, and it’s a huge expo for Ghanaian tourism, products and services, entertainment, culture and talent, which we’re bringing to the UK.
This is something that has been a huge part of my life and remains that way even now – I love being able to do things in my work that involve talking about and promoting Ghana.
During the charity event ‘Nkabom – Connecting Hearts’ in April, you shared that your late father started a school in his childhood village in Ghana, near Kumasi.
What kind of opportunities and legacy do you hope he will have created for people there?
Just for people to get a basic education. I would love to think that he has paved the way, somehow, for Ghana’s next top engineer or architect, because all you need is one person to see your potential in an educational setting, which is what happened for my dad. People paid his school fees throughout his life, so he ended up studying and working in dentistry in the UK, and then he had me here, and throughout my career people have taken a chance on me and my talent so that I could achieve incredible things, and I hope to pass that on to someone else.
It’s about taking a chance on young children and building a school for them, so that someone will take a chance on them later on in their lives.
As a leading voice on diversity in the UK, you spoke out against Piers Morgan’s derogatory remarks earlier this year about Meghan Markle.
How far do you think that UK society has to go in terms of tackling racial inequality, and what could be done to ensure fair opportunities for Black people and people of colour?
The UK has a massive way to go, and I think things had gotten a lot worse prior to the murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and prior to the Meghan Markle-Piers Morgan debacle as well. Racists have been emboldened by the hostile, right-wing government that we have in power, so there has been a lot of opportunity to make things better, but it hasn’t been taken. The recent Sewell report, which investigated racial and ethnic disparities in the UK, gaslighted the lived experiences of Black and brown people around the country, and what happened with Meghan Markle was such a British thing to happen because British people don’t like to admit that they’re racist – if you tell them that they are, they take a huge amount of offence instead of wanting to learn from it.
The misogyny, the racism, the classism… it’s all so British, and after the Euros it was even worse with people posting racist abuse on Twitter along with their real names and workplaces visible because they just don’t care. They think it’s okay, and that they won’t get called out for it.
In terms of what can be done for racial equality, that’s a huge question and I don’t have all the answers, but Britain needs to accept that institutional racism exists, and unless that happens, we can’t do anything. Unless that admission is made by people in power and by the government, then we’ll never be able to unpack it. That needs to be the first step.
What advice would Afua Adom give to young Black people wanting to embark on a career like yours in the media?
My dream job was to work at Pride Magazine, and I got my dream job when I was 28! It was then a case of “Well, what do I do now?” Don’t have rigid ideas of what it is that you want, because that could change over time.
And a lot of it is not ‘what you know but who you know,’ so don’t be afraid to try and get in front of the right people. It’s also about your attitude and how you show up, especially as a young Black person, because people will have a certain view of you. And there will be disappointments along the way, so be prepared to pivot, be tenacious, and be yourself.
You can be, do, and have anything you want – I’m proof of that.
What’s next for Afua Adom?
I’m working on a new Black woman’s magazine, and a ‘Made In Ghana’ UK project – we’re doing an event on the 25th September and holding the expo in March next year. I’m also writing my book, and I’m doing lots more TV!
What do you love most about being Ghanaian?
I love being Ghanaian so much, and I love the richness of our culture. Of all the African countries, Ghana is the coolest because we’re less aggressive than Nigerians, we’re less shy than the Gambians, and not as many people get murdered in our country, haha. I love our flag, our food, and I love our Ghanaian pride!
Ghana is just ‘good vibes’ – you’ll have the best time there no matter what, and it can be a lifechanging place to visit.
To keep up to date with Afua, follow her @afuathescot on Instagram or Twitter.
