Komla Afeke Dumor (3 October 1972 – 18 January 2014) was a

Ghanaian The Ghanaian people are a nation originating in the Gold Coast (region), Ghanaian Gold Coast. Ghanaians predominantly inhabit the Republic of Ghana and are the predominant cultural group and residents of Ghana, numbering 34 million people as of ...

journalist who worked for

BBC World News BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...

and was the main presenter of its programme '' Focus on Africa''.

Early life and education

Dumor was born in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

, Ghana. His father, Ernest Dumor, was a professor of sociology and his mother, Cecelia Dumor, had a master's degree in Mass Communication. His grandfather was

Philip Gbeho Philip Comi Gbeho (14 January 1904 – 24 September 1976) was a Ghanaian musician, composer and teacher. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Arts Council of Ghana and was a director of music and conductor of the National Symphony Or ...

, composer of the music of Ghanaian national anthem, and his uncle, James Victor Gbeho, is a leading Ghanaian diplomat. Dumor initially studied pre-clinical medicine at the

University of Jos The University of Jos, abbreviated as Unijos, is a federal university in Jos, Plateau State, central Nigeria. History What became the University of Jos was established in November 1971 from the satellite campus of the University of Ibadan. T ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, but left for his home country where he started as a medical student at the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

but later graduated with a BSc. in Sociology and Psychology, and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

with a Master's of Public Administration. His sister was Mawuena Trebarh, former Chief Executive Officer of th
Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC)
and his brother is Dr. Korshie Dumor, a medical doctor based in the United States.

Broadcast career

Dumor started as the morning show host for Joy FM in Accra,

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. In 2003, he was awarded Journalist of the Year given by the Ghana Journalists Association. In 2006, Dumor joined the BBC African Service in London as host of the radio programme ''Network Africa''. From 2008 to 2012 he presented '' The World Today'' on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

. In 2011 Dumor began presenting the ''

World News World news or international news or even foreign coverage is the news media jargon for news from abroad, about a country or a global subject. For journalism, it is a branch that deals with news either sent by foreign correspondents or news agen ...

'' and ''

Africa Business Report ''Africa Business Report'' is a business news programme produced by BBC News and is shown on BBC World News. This programme was launched on 2 February 2009 as a monthly half-hour programme presented by Komla Dumor. Following a hiatus on 1 Augu ...

'' on

and early mornings on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

and the

BBC News Channel The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London from which it is anchored during ...

. When the latter was relaunched in 2013, fellow BBC correspondent

Lerato Mbele Lerato Mbele is a South African journalist and broadcaster working for the BBC. Mbele currently presents ''Talking Business Africa'' for the network. She previously presented the '' Africa Business Report'' and ''Newsday''. Early life Mbele was ...

was chosen as host. In December 2013, he was named as one of the 100 most influential Africans of 2013 by ''

New African ''New African'' is an English-language monthly news magazine based in London. Published since 1966, it is read by many people across the African continent and the African diaspora. It claims to be the oldest pan-African monthly in English, as well ...

'' magazine, with the citation: "It has been a coming of age for Kumla Dumor this year. The presenter of '' Focus on Africa'', the BBC's flagship and first-ever dedicated daily TV news programme in English for African audiences, broadcast on BBC World News, has established himself as one of the emerging African faces of global broadcasting. As a lead presenter for BBC World, Dumor has considerable influence on how the continent is covered." At the time of his death, Dumor was the only

West African West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Ma ...

newsreader on BBC World News. In the words of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' and ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'' presenter

Mishal Husain Mishal Husain (born 12 March 1973) is a British journalist, broadcaster and author. She is best known for having presented a range of BBC News programmes, most notably BBC Radio 4's ''Today'' programme. She has occasionally appeared as a relief ...

, "Komla developed his own unique on air style, seamlessly moved between TV and radio and influenced Africa coverage across the BBC."Press Association
"BBC presenter Komla Dumor dies"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 18 January 2014. He was also described by

Peter Horrocks Peter John Gibson Horrocks CBE (born 8 October 1959) is a broadcast executive and a former Vice-Chancellor (chief executive) of The Open University. He was educated at the independent King's College School in Wimbledon and at Christ's College, ...

, the BBC's global news director, as "a leading light of African journalism – committed to telling the story of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

as it really is." He conducted interviews with a wide range of high-profile figures, including

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

and

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born Grace Ngozi Adichie; 15 September 1977) is a Nigerians, Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, poem, and children's books; she is also a book reviewer and literary critic. Her most famous works include ''Purple ...

, and the many important news stories that he anchored included the

2010 World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's trip to Africa, and the funeral of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

Personal life

In 2001, Dumor married Kwansema, née Quansah, with whom he had three children: Elinam, Elorn and Efika Aruba. He was Ewe Ghanaian and his widow, Kwansame, is Fante Ghanaian.

Death

Dumor died from a heart attack on 18 January 2014 at his home in

Rickmansworth Rickmansworth () is a town in south-west Hertfordshire, England, located approximately north-west of central London, south-west of Watford and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal ( ...

, having been on air the day before.

President of Ghana The president of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current president of Ghana is John Mahama, who won the 2024 presidential elect ...

John Mahama John Dramani Mahama (; born 29 November 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who has been the 14th president of Ghana since January 2025. A member of the National Democratic Congress (Ghana), National Democratic Congress (NDC), he served as the 12th p ...

said in a message on Twitter that Dumor was one of Ghana's "finest ambassadors" and "was a broadcaster of exceptional quality and Ghana's gift to the World." On 3 February 2014, Komla Dumor's body was flown back to Ghana, where it was received at

Kotoka International Airport Kotoka International Airport is an international airport in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The airport is operated by Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), which has its offices on the airport property. Until the upgrading of the Tamale and Ku ...

by a group of family members, friends, government officials, sympathizers and members of the

Aflao Aflao is a border town in the Ketu South District in the Volta Region of Ghana on the Ghana–Togo border, border with Togo. Aflao is the twenty-eighth most populous Human settlement, settlement in Ghana, in terms of population, with a populat ...

traditional council, who also performed some traditional rites, since

was his hometown. Funeral ceremonies for Dumor were held from 21 to 23 February 2014 in

Legacy

* The

Association for International Broadcasting Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

(AIB) presented a special posthumous Founders Award to Dumor's family in November 2014. * At the 2014 African Achievers Awards Dumor was honoured with a posthumous award for Excellence in Broadcasting. * Honouring Dumor's legacy, in 2015, the BBC launched the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award, presented each year "to an outstanding individual living and working in Africa, who combines strong journalism skills, on air flair, and an exceptional talent in telling African stories with the ambition and potential to become a star of the future." The award was presented to Ugandan journalist

Nancy Kacungira Nancy Kacungira (born 1986) is a Ugandan presenter and reporter at BBC News. She presented ''Focus on Africa (TV programme), Focus on Africa'' from 2017 to January 2019 ''and World Business Report'' on BBC World News. After a stint presenting ' ...

in 2015, Nigerian journalist Didi Akinyelure in 2016, Nigerian journalist Amina Yuguda in 2017, Kenyan journalist Wahiga Mwaura in 2018, Ugandan journalist Solomon Serwanjja in 2019, and in 2020 Kenya's Citizen TV news anchor Victoria Rubadiri. The winner is given a three-month training and development contract in BBC News. * In February 2020, two books were launched by the Komla Dumor Memorial Foundation to honour him: ''The Dreamer, Komla Dumor the Boss Player in His own words'' and ''Komla Dumor in His Element'', authored by his brother, Dr Korshie Dumor, and his father, Professor Ernest Dumor.

References

External links

* Marcus Williamson
Komla Dumor Obituary
''The Independent'', 22 January 2014. *.
"About Us"
BBC World Service.
Focus and Network presenters
BBC World Service. *Cephas

allAfrica, 21 August 2009. *Jason Von Berg and Nikita Camacho
"Video: Komla Dumor – The man behind the suit"
DStv, 18 November 2013.
"Komla Dumor – The big anchor with the patience of a saint"
Joy Online, 4 December 2013.
"Telling the African Story — Komla Dumor"
TEDxEuston, 1 March 2013. * Josef-Israel

''

The Africa Report ''The Africa Report'' is a Paris-based English-language quarterly magazine that focuses on African politics and economics. History and profile Created in 2005 by Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in Franc ...

'', 20 January 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dumor, Komla 1972 births 2014 deaths 21st-century journalists BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC World News Ewe people Gbeho family Ghanaian broadcasters Ghanaian expatriates in England Ghanaian journalists Ghanaian Roman Catholics Harvard Kennedy School alumni Mass media people from Accra P.V. Ansah Journalist of the Year University of Ghana alumni