Africa News

BBC Komla Dumor Award 2023 launched

The BBC is seeking a rising star of African journalism for the BBC News Komla Dumor Award, now in its eighth year.

Journalists from across Africa are invited to apply for the award, which aims to uncover and promote fresh talent from the continent.

The winner will spend three months at the BBC headquarters in London, gaining skills and experience.

Applications close on 14 February 2023 at 23:59 GMT.

The award was established to honour Komla Dumor, an exceptional Ghanaian broadcaster and presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014.

Dumor’s widow, Kwansema Dumor said she was “proud” of her husband’s impact at the BBC, and also said her family were “thankful to the BBC for remembering him” through the prize.

The BBC is encouraging journalists across Africa to apply for the prize, which seeks to promote and celebrate outstanding journalistic talent living and working on the continent.

As well as receiving training, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to travel to a country in Africa to report on a story that they have researched, with the report broadcast to the BBC’s global audiences.

Known for championing robust, dynamic journalism and for his commitment to reporting African stories comprehensively and authentically, Dumor made a significant impact on Africa and the rest of the world.

The BBC is committed to continuing his legacy through the award by empowering journalists from Africa to tell original and nuanced African stories to reach international audiences.

Zambian TV host and reporter Dingindaba Jonah Buyoya was last year’s winner - the first to come from southern Africa.

During his placement he travelled to Seychelles to report on how the country’s ocean plants could help tackle climate change.

“Komla Dumor was an inspiration to me, so to win the award and take part in his legacy has been an honour,” Buyoya said.

“I encourage African journalists to apply for the awards, it’s an incredible way to learn and further develop skills needed to tell even more groundbreaking stories in Africa.”

Liliane Landor, senior controller of BBC News International Services, said: “The award and our previous winners are a fitting testament to Komla’s dedication to telling African stories with depth and integrity.”

Dumor was the presenter of Focus on Africa, the BBC’s first-ever dedicated daily TV news programme in English for African audiences. It was broadcast on BBC World News, which later this year is merging with the BBC News Channel to create a single 24-hour TV news service.

He was also one of the lead presenters for BBC World News’ European morning segment.

He joined the BBC in 2007 after a decade of broadcast journalism in his native Ghana where he won the Ghana Journalist of the Year award.

Between 2007 and 2009 he hosted Network Africa for BBC World Service, before joining The World Today programme.

In 2009 Dumor became the first host of the African business news programme on BBC World News, Africa Business Report. He travelled across Africa, meeting Africa’s top entrepreneurs and reporting on the latest business trends around the continent.

In 2013 Dumor featured in New African magazine’s list of the 100 most influential Africans.

Arthur Ashe: How the former Australian Open champion impacted Nigerian tennis

In February 1976, Arthur Ashe - threetime Grand Slam singles champion, including the 1970 Australian Open - and some of his contemporaries cheerfully jetted off to Nigeria to participate in the Lagos Tennis Classic.

A week later, they were forced off the court at gunpoint - and were soon fleeing the country for their lives.

Ashe was the most famous member of the group that had flown to Africa for the Lagos-based round of the World Championship of Tennis (WCT), which had a $60,000 prize fund courtesy of business tycoon Olatunji Ajisomo Alabi - popularly known as Lord Rumens.

Ashe was the reigning Wimbledon singles champion, but also on the trip were Tom Okker, Dick Crealy, Jeff Borowiak and Brian Fairlie.

The tournament’s big claim at the time was that it was the first of its kind in black Africa.

Coincidentally, Brazilian football icon Pele was also in Nigeria that February on an ambassadorial tour sponsored by Pepsi.

The director of Nigeria’s International Tennis Academy, Godwin Kienka, remembers it as a great moment for lovers of sport in the country.

“Arthur Ashe was as famous as Pele was in football. It was auspicious,” he recalled.

“It just happened that two great sportsmen were in the country at the same time.”

Forced off court General Murtala Mohammed’s assassination was the trigger for the crisis that unfolded

The tournament at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club (LLTC) had passed off without a hitch until Friday 13 February, the fourth day of the Open.

That was the day General Murtala Mohammed, the Nigerian head of state, was assassinated whilst on his way to work in Lagos as part of a military coup attempt .

Nonetheless, the organisers of the tournament - led by John McDonald, international director of the WCT - pushed for the tournament to continue, despite the chaos that began to envelop the country.

WHO WAS ARTHUR ASHE? • Started playing tennis at the age of six • First black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team, winning four titles • Only black man ever to win the singles titles at the US Open (1968), the Australian Open (1970) and Wimbledon (1975) • Also won Grand Slam doubles titles at the French Open (1971) and the Australian Open (1977) • Retired in 1980 • Believed to have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during a heart bypass surgery in 1983 • Died from Aids-related pneumonia in 1993

Matches resumed on Sunday 15 February, with four Americans - Dick Stockton, Bob Lutz, Ashe and Borowiak - in the quarter-finals.

A day later, the LLTC was filled to capacity with spectators on centre court excitedly taking their seats to watch Ashe play his semi-final against Borowiak.

But, just as it began, five men marched on to the court and stopped play.

“Arthur Ashe was actually playing a match when the army guys - upset about the coup and the murder of Murtala Mohammed - came,” remembered Kienka, picking up the story.

“And they said, ‘what are you guys doing here?’”

According to Kienka, Ashe and Borowiak raised their hands in a surrender motion. They were told “get out of here” and then “they led [Ashe] out with a gun.”

As events unfolded, the capacity crowd also began to flee, running from the stadium into the street.

Kienka told BBC Sport Africa how Ashe went into the changing room where the director of the tournament was holed up. From there they ran into the crowds until they found a cab sent by the US Embassy to come and collect them.

“Then, when they got into traffic, the car couldn’t move,” he added.

“They got down and started running towards the embassy. They just found the next plane out of the country.

“They could not have continued; it was too traumatic for them.”

A legacy in Lagos Nigeria now has a regular place on the tennis calendar in the form of the Lagos Open - played at the same venue Ashe had to flee

Ashe had been pivotal to the WCT’s decision to take the event to Lagos in the first place; he had previously visited Nigeria in 1970 with fellow American tennis star Stan Smith as part of a US State Department goodwill tour.

Despite the way it ended, the president of Nigeria’s Tennis Federation, Ifedayo Akindoju, thinks the impact of Ashe’s visit cannot be underestimated.

“Arthur Ashe brought two things: he came to Nigeria to play tennis and gave confidence to Nigerians that they can equally excel in this game,” he said.

“We didn’t have to travel to the US, we didn’t have to travel to the UK - tennis was right here under our nose in Lagos. We saw the same game being played with the same racket we hold.

“Secondly, not too long after, we had a lot of Nigerians - up to the early 1980s - that went even as far as playing in the Grand Slams.”

Nigeria has never had a Grand Slam champion but Kienka says Ashe’s memorable visit did bring national success.

“The young boys who were ball boys and officials at the tournament are still talking about it to today,” said the ITA director.

“Many of them became national champions in the country. The inspiration came from the visit of Arthur Ashe.”

Indeed, Kienka thinks it ultimately led to a “golden age” of Nigerian tennis.

“The impact still lives on, the legacy is enormous,” he claimed.

“It’s the same as when you have Messi, or Ronaldo, or Mbappe coming to Nigeria and playing football with children in schools.

“What impact they have on their sports career cannot be quantified. And that’s actually what happened.’’ BBC

Ashe was the reigning Wimbledon singles champion at the time of the attempted coup on his visit to Nigeria in 1976