By Daniel Logue
To round off Africa Communications Week, Chair of the CIPR International Committee and Co-Founder of Platform Africa, Samantha Seewoosurrun, hosted a webinar on 26 May on how to communicate the successes of women in Africa.
The webinar featured the CEO of African Media Agency, Eloïne Barry, the Group CEO and Co-founder of Africa Communications Media Group, Mimi Kalinda, and a Google Facilitator for #IAmRemarkable, Izabela Hamilton.
Samantha Seewoosurrun began by recalling a recent bus trip where a girl from Johannesburg told her: “I am African, and we are fighters. And we never, ever give up,” something she viewed as an inspiring illustration of “the African spirit” in a way which could be explored in the session.
Eloïne Barry: Stand for a clear mission, vision and passion
The first panellist Eloïne Barry, born in Lyon and having grown up in Guinea-Bissau and Abuja, studied in France, Germany and the UK where she started her career working for the press release distribution company PR Newswire on the Europe, Middle East, Africa and India Media Relations Team.
Ms Barry believed that businesses around the world are interested in investing in Africa considering it is the “youngest continent” with plenty of young talent, but African media outlets don’t do enough to promote tourism in the continent.
“I feel like we have a moment where there is African, there are women, and this is what people actually want to listen to,” Barry noted, and she believed that if women stand for a clear “mission and vision and passion,” then communicating their personal stories will have the strongest impact in her view.
Ms Barry believed there is a healthy appetite for news about African women globally, stating: “There is now readiness for American people… to understand what the African story is,” after events like the Black Lives Matter movement – she credited “fashion and the movie industry,” for already successfully portraying Africa, creating a “wave” of interest in the continent.
Women in Africa are also “hungry for a more authentic story,” that they can relate to more.
Eloïne Barry explained that relatability is the key ingredient for getting wide-scale coverage – sharing a story or problem that “millions of ladies” around the world have.
Ms Barry also outlined vulnerability and authenticity as other factors to achieve wide-scale pick up.
Mimi Kalinda: Embrace your story
Mimi Kalinda, as the second panellist, originally from Rwanda and the DRC, echoed the moral of Samantha Seewoosurrun’s story by saying: “There’s a fighting spirit that we have in Central Africa, for good or for bad,” a notion that has inspired Kalinda to fight for “spaces at the table” or positions that people don’t ordinarily expect her or others to hold.
Kalinda began her career aged 18 on the pan-African television music channel Channel-O after calling out a lack of diversity in ethnicity and music from across the continent, not just South Africa – she went on to hold MTV’s East and Central Africa channel to account for the same lack of representation before eventually working for the company.
Ms Kalinda’s advice to women is to “embrace your story,” and they should use the framework of “challenge, solution and impact,” to craft their messages about their successes.
In terms of personal experiences, Mimi Kalinda noted that events or topics will trigger some people’s memories and emotions more than others – “It’s speaking to you based on what I call the baggage that you’re bringing into the room,” and this includes “your experience, it’s your background, it’s where you’ve been, the people you’ve interacted with.”
“People buy into people before they buy into anything else,” Kalinda said, highlighting the importance of women disassociating themselves from their business so that they still have powerful personal stories to tell.
Mimi Kalinda set out that businesses need to “identify the specific markets that are going to be impactful for your business,” in order to go “pan-African,” but most importantly they should be “crafting messages that work in those markets.”
However, pan-African businesses must ensure their stories are a solution rather than an irritant given the social, economic and political circumstances in the respective country at that specific time.
Izabela Hamilton: Take your time, stop and find your uniqueness
Speaking as the third and final panellist in the webinar, Izabela Hamilton has led a career of communication and coaching is what Hamilton set her sights on a few years later, before setting up her #IAmRemarkable workshops to help and inspire other women to identify their unique skills and traits, developing their confidence and ultimately their careers.
“#IAmRemarkable is like a global movement that empowers everyone to promote themselves, to talk about their accomplishments because we often don’t,” Hamilton explained – and she was particularly pleased with how self-promotion is becoming more natural to women which is a positive step forward.
The main challenge women face in promoting themselves is “to overcome that perception of self-promotion,” according to Ms Hamilton who attributed this hesitancy to her clients being conscious of potentially “alienating colleagues” less successful than them – although she has noticed that “African women are self-promoting more,” over time.
Ms Hamilton has trained over 100 women from different countries and “they are actually sharing very interesting experiences and things from their careers, and their professional and personal lives,” she reported.
“We are all striving at the end of the day to be a better person, better colleague, better friend,” Hamilton said, highlighting how everyone can benefit from self-reflection and that nobody is born perfect.
The main method Hamilton suggested for women to get started was to “build some allyship” with colleagues, especially more senior colleagues who can “put a good word” in for them, thus helping to promote the success and achievements of women without them having to self-promote.
“Just focus on yourself and really connect with that. Take your time, stop and find your uniqueness,” Hamilton concluded, implying that positivity and self-confidence don’t arise from comparing oneself to others.
Sharing personal stories and experiences is crucial for women in Africa to communicate their success and mostly importantly to empower others to share theirs too.
To watch the replay of the webinar click here:
