Akwe Amosu, allAfrica.com, participated in an IWMF Live chat on Tuesday, September 24, 2002.
What was your first job in the media?
I went from college to an influential London-based news magazine called West Africa to be their librarian. Two years later I was on the writing staff and (mostly) sure that I was on the right track.
Did you have a career plan?
I didn't know when I began that I wanted to be a journalist, nor did I have any clear sense of anything else specific I should be doing. I just knew it would have something to do with Africa -- the subject of my degree and my home -- and that, in keeping with my political take on the world, I wanted to do something in which I would find out the real causes of our problems on the continent. That might take in a number of options -- research for policy organisations, work with an aid agency like Oxfam, for example.
Who was your most important mentor? What did you learn from her/him?
I had worked, on and off, for an excellent and very sharp publisher of African books and reference works since my mid-teens and he'd told me about the opportunity at West Africa. I valued his advice enormously, although it was always very upfront and frank. He saw that although I was articulate, I was very young -- I had to go out and test all my confidently-delivered theories before I had the right to express them so forcefully! Anyway he argued with me, told me what I ought to be reading and challenged me to prove what I believed. Above all, I think he thought I could do whatever I wanted to do, if I was serious about it; that gave me great confidence. To this day, I value clear, honest feedback much more than being handled with kid gloves.
How did you apply that in your career?
He'd always told me to knuckle down and learn some solid skills -- from typing on up! It was excellent advice and I took it. I try to listen properly, to not to jump to conclusions, to be thorough and so on -- and not fall prey to easy explanations, spin and PR. I think all that was strongly inspired at first by him, albeit by others too.
What was the biggest roadblock that you faced, as a woman, in your career? How did you overcome it?
I've been fortunate, I think, in not being held back in my career because of my gender. I’ve had enlightened employers and worked in a field where good knowledge of the field and the subject came first. Where gender -- and for me color -- issues have been a problem, it's been at the level of occasionally difficult relations with colleagues -- particularly in a newspaper newsroom, which is a notoriously hard-bitten community where any weakness -- actual or perceived -- can, and often will be, mined for its potential.
None of that is to say that gender hasn't played a part in my working life; I found it difficult sometimes to work in African locations where being a woman made me vulnerable. For example, in conflict situations and in very male-dominated political and business contexts, but everyone has to deal with that, in some measure.
In one simple sentence, what one piece of advice would you give women who want to succeed in the media?
Make sure you know WHY you want to do something and that it is a good, even vitally important, justification that goes beyond simple success in its own terms. Whether you are in need of personal courage in the field, of brilliance in order to do well in an interview for a job, or of enough obstinacy to stand your ground under pressure from the boss, a colleague, an interviewee or your partner, being convinced that you MUST get to where you want to be will carry you forward.