‘It’s time to change global narrative on Africa’

Born Zaina Ejiofor, Asher (she got the name from the Bible for what it represents) graduated from Oxford University, where she studied French and Spanish and graduated with a distinction in oral Spanish. In 2006, she earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Before pursuing a career in journalism, Asher worked as a receptionist with a production company and was keen on becoming a top echelon player. The job was her first when she graduated from the university. However, providence already charted a better path for her. The experience, however, is still instructive to her. Asher joined CNN in 2013 where she served as a CNN business correspondent covering the stock market from the New York Stock Exchange, U.S. Federal Reserve monetary policy and high-profile IPOs. She currently anchors the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom for CNN International and is based in New York. She is also a regular fill-in on the network’s premier business programmes, Quest Means Business, The Express and First Move with Julia Chatterley. She also hosts Marketplace Africa, CNNI’s weekly business show about the continent and its place within global markets, and often interviews CEOs and world leaders for the programme.

What led you to the media?
I have always loved language(s). It’s like my favourite subject in the world. I studied French and Spanish in the university. Growing up, I lived in Mexico and France. I always felt that journalism was going to be something that allowed me to really entertain my passion for other cultures. I love to travel and I am a very curious person.

I don’t think I would be able to sit down and work in an office all day, so, this idea of having a job that demanded constant curiosity, constant study and exposure to new things and ideas and new people and culture, I felt it would literally be the perfect job for me.

For someone who monitors the Nigerian media space what do you think we are not doing right, and what should be done?
I think that one of the most challenging things of the Nigerian media space is censorship. There is a real sense of fear of speaking out on certain topics. As a news outlet, that doesn’t really exist where I live. I hope that in the Nigerian media space, one day, journalists would be able to speak much more freely on issues affecting the country without fear of retaliation.

When you get to see negative image of Africa how do you react to that?
These are the kind of things I really try to address in my show. I am aware that apart from there being stereotypes about Africa, there is also a lack of content. Africa isn’t really covered in Western media, except when there is a major story, which happens every few years. One of the things I try to do with my show is to level the playing field to make sure that Africa has a voice. We don’t always fit in to the negative stereotype, but we showcase the vibrancy of the continent, the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, the drive, especially, among young people.

That doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen, bad and good things happen just like everywhere else. There has been, traditionally, a focus on feeding into negative stereotype on the continent that; is something that I have tried to undo on my show.

Do you think that international broadcasters are doing enough to give Africa a chance in their network?
I can say that my show is doing a lot right now. One of the things that I try to do is to ensure that people, wherever they are watching -in Sweden, in Italy- can understand why what happens in Africa is relevant to them. We live in a connected world, a global world and traditionally it is always the other way round. Africans have always been told about what happens in other places, that what happens in Europe is what Africans should focus on.

We are so connected that really, what happens in Africa matters to the rest of the world as well. It is abundantly clear to me that the Western way of life would not be possible without Africa.

It is important for the world to know that the Western way of life will not be possible without Africa. So many of the raw materials we take in everyday comes from Africa. And this continent has been so under-appreciated and under-represented in the global narrative. I think it’s time to change the narrative. What I hope that my show achieves is that I want people watching from Stockholm or England to understand that what happens in Africa actually matters to them.

If you drink tea, coffee or have a cellphone, the tantalite in your cellphone comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. If you are engaged and you have a diamond ring, it’s the same thing. It is a continent that is so overlooked and so undervalued. It is important to talk about those narratives. My goal is to really democratize news narratives so that it is not heavily focused on any particular region, Europe or United States but really that everybody has an equal voice, everybody has an equal seat at the global table.

We have a war happening in Ukraine and networks are focused on that particular story. Since my show was launched last year, we have done so much to give Africa a voice.

You see a narrative where people in Africa are told that what happens in Europe and the United States is the only thing that matter; I want to switch that a bit so that we understand how interconnected the world is. What happens in Rwanda or Lagos can affect people in Dubai and Paris and to do that is complicated, part of the reason why they overlook Africa is because they don’t really understand and know enough of what is happening here. A big chunk of my show is dedicated to explaining what is happening on the continent. I hope to bring in more people that are not African into the fore for them to understand why Africa matters.

What has been the challenging moment in your profession?
It was prior to getting my big break into CNN. I was working as a receptionist for almost four years, before I ended up at CNN. At a time, it was really difficult. I really didn’t know where I was going in life. There was no direction. I was working in a production company and I was not promoted. No matter how hard I tried, how much I pleaded and showed people in charge that I was ripe for promotion, it never happened. I was a receptionist and my job was to serve water to anybody who came in to apply for the job that I wanted. It was a really hard time for me. It was also a humbling experience doing that for people that came in to apply for the job that I wanted. But I had no choice. I kept on hanging in with thought, maybe, if not this month, next month they will change their mind and believe in me. It was a difficult period of my life because I was so hungry to achieve my dreams and goals.

Eventually, I got the message, I sat down, and I figured out what I was meant to do on this earth. I rekindled my love for journalism.

How much of yourself are you giving as training material for the younger ones here?
I do it a lot. There are interns within CNN, and outside CNN, there are young Nigerian journalists, who reach out to me. People I know through friends and the ones I never met, because I am so blessed, people around the world view me as a role model.

The most important thing I can do is to give back. The most valuable way to give back is through time, mentorship, giving advice and it is a lot, because somebody did that for me: spending time with somebody that was on TV a lot.

When I was growing up as a young girl in London, I would see Femi Oke on the screen and as part of my mother’s desperation for images of black success, every time she came on, my mother would shout to us, Nigerian on CNN and we would run downstairs and sit in front of the TV. So, as I grew older, Femi Oke moved around different media organisations in the UK.

Eventually I came to America and one day, I turned on my TV and I saw Femi Oke on CNN. I was so moved by how well this Nigerian woman had done. I sent her an email, just telling her what she meant to me, growing up and seeing her on TV some years ago.

She didn’t know me at all. I was a young student, I reached out to her, I told her ‘I admire you a lot I would love some advice.’ Surprisingly, she replied, gave me her phone number and said I should call her at any time. I called her and we kept in touch over the years and eventually, maybe five to 10 years later when I had an interview at CNN, I reached out to her and she really indeed worked me through how the interview process at CNN was like, how to answer the questions and what a typical day at CNN is like, what they expect of me, taking me on what to say and what not to say. Obviously, it worked out perfectly and I owe a lot to Femi Oke.

It is important knowing that someone that didn’t know me changed my life. It is important to do that to other people, as well, people write me, they have taken the time and trouble to write me email, I have to write them back, I can’t give everyone a job, but at least, I can give them some advice.

If you were not a broadcaster what would you be doing?
Definitely, a teacher. I think that sharing knowledge, connecting with other people is something that I feel great passion for. In a way, my job overlaps with teaching a little bit, because when you present in the news you explaining; when you share other peoples story there is a lot of connecting: I think that the closest thing on a much smaller scale is teaching.

What word has kept you going on in life?
Possibilities. I am blessed. I was born in London and I never gave thought to having the British passport, the fact that I had a British passport; I have been able to travel the world without restriction. It means that I can live in America and it has given me freedom and possibilities and I am grateful for that.

My mother raised us to understand that though we might be minority– perhaps, one of the few black people in your school– she really worked hard to change the narrative in our household about what it means to be black and what black people could achieve. She would take newspaper cuttings of black success stories, especially Africans, and plaster it on our walls, we would come home and our walls would be covered with images and stories about black success and it really did change our opinions of what we could achieve growing up.

If you think of television in the 1990s, in the UK, there were so many stereotypes of the black people and my mother worked hard to undo some of that. I think one word that comes up in my childhood memory is understanding of possibilities.