Smiling in Pain: my Tribute to Komla Dumor

I idolised him and my thrive to become a journalist to a large extent was fuelled by the zeal and passion with which he did his presentation. I will always push my younger sister out of my room each time Komla was on set in order not to allow her to talk me out of Komla's articulate voice and giant-looking personality. My sister would prefer to call me Komla because I would always try to mimic how Komla talked. In the afternoon of Saturday, January 18,2014, I had buried my headphone into my ears enjoying in my own world with tunes of songs from the late Luke Dube, my sister dashed into my room, red eyed and morose, her eyes were wild and from her lips came a sad tale, “your mentor and admirer, Komla Dumor is died!”. What! Komla is what! I became petrified and all of a sudden messages from whatapp and facebook started pouring in, Komla is dead!

The new year was greeted with a flurry of activities and events, but the tragic and shocking revelation that jolted the nerves of many people especially those in the media fraternity was the death of the ace Ghanaian BBC world service presenter, Komla Afeke Dumor, whom many young professionals in the media world in Ghana and beyond saw as a benchmark for excellence and inspiration.

The torrent of tears brewed from the ear-piercing cry that was let loose still continues to stream the cheeks of many people such that not even time has been able to heal.

Having spent four years in the medical school but dropped out, many would have thought, Komla Afeke Dumor would have resigned to fate but contrary to that, he was able to defile all conventional notions and became a global icon and was even listed among 100 most influential people in Africa.

Having dropped out of the much revered profession, medicine, he did not crash down but wriggled his way out of despair to become a global icon. If he had being a medical doctor, probably he would have being an obscure doctor in one corner shelved in his own world without a trace of him in the global history, but today even though he is no longer with us, the candle he lit continues to burn inextinguishably and his powerful voice continues to echo in the ears and hearts of many people across the globe and the candle will continue to burn for posterity yet unborn to witness.

President John Mahama described Komla in his tribute as “one of the most illustrious sons of Ghana” and in another sentence said “he was an inspiration to his generation”. The president couldn't have eulogised him with words infra dig to how the president described him.

From a very humble beginning, Komla rose through the ranks and landed at the enviable BBC World Service. In reality, manna did not just fall from heaven for him but Komla indeed paid the price for his achievements

Even though his career had seen an upward trajectory which many people thought it was all rosy and would wish to aspire in life, but the hard truth is that Komla was just enduring life to serve his generation with passion, zeal, hardworking, respect, dedication and sacrifice. In a text message sent to some close friends about how far he has journeyed, Komla revealed how he manoeuvred through life to serve humanity even at the peril of his life. One part of the message read, “I remain silent in my personal strife and misery...I kept smiling and pushing on to present better and to engage my audience and increase my following, long days and frustrating times”. In another snippet, he revealed, “but I kept going through the Westgate mall coverage through the Mandela funeral...even when illness had me collapsing I delivered...”. So Komla was not after all the happy man many people thought he was? So Komla was smiling in pain?

His life and legacy serves as large reservoir of great lessons for the youth especially those of us whose umbilical cords are attached to the media. He demonstrated that the price of success is costly but with sacrifice and dedication, one can cruise even beyond barriers.

The highly polarised media landscape which has been poisoned with the venom of political manipulation and manoeuvres, can easily raze down the walls of integrity, fairness, accuracy, objectivity and all the professional ethics that serve as the pillars and commandments' of journalism.

But we can take respite in Komla exemplary life that whatever a person does, posterity will judge him or her and moreover we are our own architect and writers of our tribute for rendition by posterity.

The BossPlayer, you were indeed a BossPlayer!

Writer: Abdul-Karim Mohammed Awaf
Communication Studies,
University of Cape Coast
Abdulkarimmohammedawafblogspot.com