Inside Russia With Angela: Being Black In Sochi

In a few hours from now, I will be boarding the plane to Moscow. I do not know what awaits me in the capital city of this immense country, Russia. What I know, as things stand, is that Sochi treated me well.

As I attempt to forward MP4 files to my video editors at Nsroma TV, the slow and unstable wifi at the airport reminds me that I could very well exercise my patience by getting busy tackling my pending assignment; that is, in other words, to pen my first blog post for the travel agency that helped me with preparing my trip, Fly Soul Mates.

This first blog post is long overdue. In an ideal setting, I’d have written a post per day – or once every two days, at the very least. In my first week in Russia, unfortunately, I’ve been juggling between my day job, my long commutes to the Fisht Stadium, my errands around the city, and some much-needed rest sleeping (or oversleeping, I should say!), leaving practically no room and energy for my blogging activity.

My first eight days in Russia have been nothing short of packed, fun, but challenging as well. I still regret the absence of my good colleague, Nana Yaw Asiedu, whose World Cup travel plans failed to materialize due to the most irritating cause: lack of sponsorship.

I’m calling on my fellow Ghanaians to help me get a response to my question: Why is lack of sponsorship a recurring matter in the sports and entertainment industry in our country? Upon studying the robust marketing plan Nsroma TV and my brand, CRD7, had put together for our World Cup 2018 movement, I can only conclude quite bitterly that major Ghanaian companies who actually possess enough funds for advertisement do not understand anything about the value of digital marketing.

We approached a couple of big travel and tours agencies. None of them was able to comprehend how beneficial a partnership would have been to them, had they come on board to sponsor us. They did not. Today, their presence on social media is still pretty poor. What a pity, knowing that sponsoring Nsroma TV, CRD7 and its European-based affiliates would have put those travel and tours companies’ brand on the map and certainly opened the way for international clients to use their services!

It would probably take me a long while to get over Nana Yaw’s inability to join me on this World Cup 2018 trip, especially since he pushed me in the first place to believe that attending the tournament was indeed possible. It’s unfair to him not to be with me here on this beautiful trip and it’s unfair to me to be without professional support to shoot my videos.

Nsroma TV’s Nana Yaw Asiedu during the unveiling of CRD7 caps

I’ve heard those three words, “lack of sponsorship”, one too many times in the past 10 years when collaborating with the Ghanaian media industry. This has to stop. Talents and valuable programs are being suffocated by big companies who certainly need to reshuffle their priorities and advertising strategy.

Using my Plan B, I was able to get myself to Russia. I am missing Nana Yaw, though. If he were here with me, he’d have made wonders with my Nikon D5100 DSLR. In his absence, this responsibility – on top of the other duties mentioned further above – falls on my shoulders. Challenging, it is… but it is what it is.

Tonight, I’m catching up on what I should have written and shared with you during the past week. In my next blog post, I’ll do my best to share my first impression of Sochi with you and why it’s led me to create the #SochiIsBae hashtag as I narrate my experience of #BeingBlackInSochi. Yes, the dark color of my skin has positively been a key factor in brightening my adventure here.

Angela Akua Asante is covering the World Cup in Russia. Follow her blog posts with the Joy Sports team. Sponsored by CRD7 CRonaldoDaily.com