Komla Dumor: icon, iconoclast, great broadcaster (2)
Last week I set out to determine the outstanding characteristics that define the late presenter of the BBC, Komla Dumor and I established that there were three: he was an icon, an iconoclast and great broadcaster. Please enjoy the second part of the piece.
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Throughout his professional life as a broadcaster, Komla Dumor changed things that were perceived to be normal and acceptable and some other times things that were not normal or usual he made or contributed to making them usual.
As an example, we all remember how his award for Journalist of the Year by the Ghana Journalist Association in 2003 sparked a row that almost broke that organisation. The popular belief, albeit erroneously held, among members of the GJA at the time was that, a journalist was the one who had gone through a journalism school and therefore only such people could be awarded with the topmost award and since Komla didn’t go to one he could not be awarded.
Among the myriads of articles written in protest of his getting the award was one by Paul Awortwi-Mensah who asked the question: “"Is Komla Dumor a journalist?" The answer is obviously a "Big No". If the answer is no, then why was he given this prestigious award which is reserved for hardworking professional journalists? If the answer is no, then how can JOURNALISTS remain silent for a RADIO PRESENTER (emphasis mine) to be given such a prestigious award that belongs to journalists? We should not throw the profession to the dogs.”
This was the same man, who though didn’t find himself in any formal journalism school, had no degree, diploma or certificate from a journalism school, who when he died at the age of 41 has been touted locally and globally as one of the greatest journalists to have lived.
Komla Dumor thus singlehandedly smashed this anachronistic and infantile argument that one only had to go through journalism school to become a journalist and thus paved the way for hard working media professionals who may not have gone through journalism school to be recognised for their work and not for their certificates or diplomas.
Another example of this iconoclasm refers to how he walked through the BBC like there was nothing to hinder him and shone bright to the very end. A certain Whatsapp message that made the rounds upon his demise, which Komla was purported to have sent to some of his friends, talks about how two days before his death, he was told by his boss that he would be the main anchor for the BBC during the world cup in Brazil later in the year.
That was a big one not because it was above him to do, but because it was a big one for, what he would usually refer to as, “the boy from Aflao.” However, that was just one of the many feats Komla chalked at the during the eight years or so that he worked there.
Within six months of arriving at the BBC and working at the African section, he got to host the BBC Africa Radio Awards in Nairobi and also got on the World Today and News Hour at the BBC World Service as the first African to get that prestigious opportunity. He would later anchor the famous Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, a ceremony which was nothing but a traditional British event.
When the BBC designed a programme that looked at the economic and business development trend taking place in Africa, they chose Komla Dumor to travel across different countries on the continent to talk to the people who were at the fore front of redesigning the business landscape of the continent and to present this programme! He became the face of BBC Africa Business Report. Also when the BBC re-launched its news on the World Service, Dumor was the face of it.
Like Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who saw no Alps, Komla Dumor saw no obstacles or hindrances where he wanted to make a change. He just did it or presented himself to be given the opportunity to do what he wanted to do.
He changed the status quo at the BBC and due to this, I have no doubt that, going forward, Africans of the soil at the BBC who will excel to even half of the level Komla was would be given the opportunity to anchor big news events and cover the juiciest global news stories.
Above all, the BBC announced that it would set up a foundation for African journalists in his honour. No wonder his ‘boss’ at the BBC, Peter Horrocks said Dumor “blazed a path for so many others.” That is what iconoclasts do, they pave the way for others.
DUMOR THE GREAT BRODCASTER: It will be very ungrateful and deceitful to say that Komla Dumor is the only great broadcaster this country has known. There have been some exceptionally great broadcasters in this country and there still are some good ones. However, do they all come in one total package as Komla? No, they don’t.
Some broadcasters are exceptionally good at playing music, some good at interviewing, others good at engaging their audience and yet some others good at a combination of some of these and others. In my view, and if I have to limit it to the last decade and half, no broadcaster has come with all the elements in one total package like Dumor.
He had wit, he was an exceptionally good interviewer, he respected his audience, he immersed himself in the subject he talked about, he read widely to gain knowledge, he set standards and worked towards meeting them and above all he knew which music to choose for which occasion back when he was on radio as a presenter.
When he was on air, be it radio or TV, Komla oozed with confidence like no other presenter I have ever known. Perhaps it is that confidence in himself and his abilities that most people who never came close to him misconstrued as arrogance and haughtiness. He never was arrogant and that could be attested to by people who got close to him.
The thing about Komla and the reason he was so successful was that he had passion for whatever he did and he set himself high targets and he tried to beat himself all the time to ensure that he would reach the heights of any endeavour he embarked upon. I have no doubt at all that if Komla had gone on to become a doctor, he would have been a great doctor just the same way he would have been an outstanding architect if he had chosen that path.
All through the time that I have been writing this column, I had expected the best from broadcasters and if they didn’t live up to that I chastised them. Some took kindly to it and changed while others thought I was being silly and yet others considered it a hatchet job. The point is that I had listened to Komla and had used him as a measuring rod most of the time that I have been writing this column.
Today Komla Afeke Dumor, The Boss Player, The Agbedefu, the man who loved his mother for many reasons, but especially for preventing his father from naming him Nyatefe, is gone. That is one great broadcaster and journalist gone home to his ancestors.
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CONCLUSION: A lot has been said over the last two weeks about Dumor’s stature in Ghanaian, African and global broadcasting and though there is still much that can be added, I wish to assure him as Sir Elton John said to Norma Jean (Marilyn Monroe) and then Princess Diana, that his candle will burn out long before his legend ever will. We shall continue to remember the greatness of Komla Dumor to the very end of time.
In all these I pray for strength for his family – wife, children, father, siblings and other relatives. They have lost a husband, father, child and a brother and the rest of us have lost a legend, but God knows best and we all need to be strong. RIP Komla
@TheGHMediaGuy!