Former Senior Partner Manager at Twitter in Africa and Brand Consultant, Bernard Sokpe, famously known as Meister has alluded that the perception of Africa outside the continent is not one to write home about.
According to him, despite some efforts to ignite the actual outlook of African countries as one full of unique talents and far from ‘barbaric’, the western perception of Africa remains unchanged.
In an exclusive interview with Y 107.9 FM’s Brown Berry on “Ryse n Shyne”, he reiterated that the huge talent and creativity on the continent has little representation on the global face. Hence his drive is yearned at making Africa a contributor to the global conversation of talents and creativity.
“My passion has always been Africa to the world and that is basically what I focus on. Everything that I do now is making sure that Africa can contribute to the global conversation,” he told Brown Berry.
“There’s so much talent here, so many voices, creators and contributors here but the world basically blacks us out. I think the western media has done that for a long time that representation is so low so we Africans are doing amazing stuff here but the world doesn’t know,” he added.
Recounting an experience during his time in Europe he furthered, “I did my masters in the UK and I was the only black person and African in the class of 30 people. Every time I started talking in class my mates were so blown away about what I knew and the insight I had, the way I was vocal and the ideas I had. They were shocked and all will be like are you really from Africa? Because the perception out there is that Africa is just a jungle and it’s so real over there.”
Meister has promised to soon launch his curator space to resolve issues of lack of infrastructure to enhance the potential in Ghana and beyond.
By: Jude Tackie