Page 57 - Powerlist 2020

Afua Hirsch

Journalist, Author, Broadcaster

Journalist, broadcaster and best-selling author Afua Media, Publishing & Entertainment
Hirsch began her career aged 15 as a writer on The Voice
newspaper, chronicling the challenges and struggles facing
Britain’s black teenagers.
She went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics
at Oxford, then moved to Senegal where she worked
for the non-profit foundation established by billionaire
philanthropist George Soros. After converting to law,
and completing her pupillage at human rights chambers
Doughty Street, she joined The Guardian newspaper in 2008
as legal affairs correspondent.
She became the newspaper’s first West Africa
correspondent and now writes a regular column on topics
ranging from international trade to social justice.
Following three years as a correspondent for Sky News,
Afua is a regular presenter on current affairs show
The Pledge, a panellist on CNN Talk, and presents Yanga’s
Journalists Hangout UK – a discussion show dissecting
global news for an African diaspora audience. She has made
several documentaries recently, including The Battle for
Britain’s Heroes, an hour-long Channel 4 programme.
Afua’s first book Brit(ish) explores heritage, belonging
and Britishness. It deals with Afua’s life-long interest in
identity and Britain’s struggles to face up to its past and
accommodate its multicultural future. Brit(ish) won a Royal Akala
Society of Literature Jerwood award for non-fiction and Educator, Rapper, Poet, Activist
has been shortlisted for two awards, the Jhalak Prize and
Independent Book Week award for non-fiction.
In the past year, Afua has been appointed a Visiting Over the past few years, Akala has emerged from London’s
Professor at the University of Southern California in the hip hop underground into the mainstream as one of the
prestigious Wallis Annenberg Chair of Journalism. She was leaders of a new British artistic renaissance.
also appointed a judge on the Man Booker prize for fiction. A MOBO Award-winning hip hop artist, writer, poet and
Afua will co-present a documentary series with Samuel L educator, Akala fuses a unique rap/rock/electropunk sound
Jackson on the transatlantic slave trade, and a series for the with fierce lyrical storytelling. Inspired by the likes of Saul
BBC on African art. Both will go to air in early 2020. Williams and Gil Scott-Heron, he has developed a stellar live
She has also founded a new clothing line, Afua x Sika, show, headlining six UK tours.
in collaboration with ethical, handmade British Ghanaian Akala is more recently known for his compelling lectures
designer Phyllis Taylor. and seminars, journalism (The Guardian, Huffington Post
UK and The Independent), TV presenting and script writing.
He has gained a reputation as one of the most dynamic and
literate talents in the UK.
He has also featured on numerous TV programmes
promoting his music and poetry, as well as speaking on
wide-ranging subjects from youth engagement to the arts.
2018 saw the publication of Akala’s acclaimed book
Natives; Race and Class in the Ruins of the Empire.
The powerful Sunday Times best-seller is part biography,
part polemic, and confronts the issues of race and class that
are at the heart of the legacy of Britain’s racialised empire.
He has also released a children’s book, Hip and Hop;
You Can Do Anything. It aims to inspire children to grow up
as happy, emotionally intelligent and socially responsible
human beings.
Akala has been awarded two honorary doctorates: one
from Oxford Brookes University and another from the
University of Brighton.
He premiered a new live show about race and society at
the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2019. And his book Natives
made it on to the final shortlist of four for the James Tait
Black book prize.

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