With technology ever advancing in the fields of transportation and communication, the world is smaller than it has ever been before. A handful of artists and entrepreneurs are seizing this opportunity to rebuild a connection between the African Diaspora and continental Africa.
One such entrepreneur is the founder of the PR company Ford Communications, Lakeshia Ford. Born to Jamaican parents in the United States of America, Ford first touched down on the continent “many moons ago.” When she was studying in China to learn Mandarin and Chinese history, Ford noticed the large influx of Chinese activity on the African continent. Her interest was piqued. She leaped at the opportunity to extend her study abroad program in Ghana.
Inspired by Africa
“I think I was like 19 years old and I thought, this is not what they show us about the African continent,” she explained in an interview on Face2Face Africa. “What I saw was totally opposite, and I was inspired to open people’s minds to the truth and the reality of what the African continent is.”
According to Ford, her migration to Africa was a “cumulative” process. The seed was planted within her as a student. Five years later she was awarded a fellowship which brought her back to Ghana after her degree. She started looking at the impact of Chinese trade – focusing on the telecommunications and mining sectors – on the nation. Her research was slow and tedious, but it left her with the time and freedom to examine her surroundings.
Ford adheres to certain principles when it comes to starting a venture. “You need to do your research,” she explained in the interview. “Look at what the market needs. A lot of time we think as entrepreneurs, or as people who want to do business, that we must bully our way, our solutions, into a market. [Instead] know what problem you’re solving and make sure it’s a problem to the people within this space, within Ghana.”
Ever observant she realized certain deficiencies with the market. “I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to use some kind of medium to connect the diaspora and Ghana.”
Growing Her Business
She started writing. Writing for everyone. She wrote for restaurants, for artists, conducted customer service training, and did free PR. Admittedly, it only clicked that this could be a career when customers would call her again for more assignments, cementing in her mind that there was something here. When she finished her research she decided to settle in Ghana and start Ford Communications, her way of connecting the diaspora to the continent and vice versa.
Today Ford and her team work as that ever-important bridge between Ghana and the world outside the continent. “This was something I wanted to see more of, getting the world more interested in what’s happening on the African concept — culturally and business-wise,” she explained.
WoodXWatta: Bringing the Diaspora to Africa
One of the ways Ford created this bridge was by using her own compound identity as a template. The Jamaican-American spearheaded a Caribbean-African event that would become WoodXWatta. “It was born out of elevating the concept of bringing the diaspora to Ghana, and what we can do around business, investment and pop culture,” she explained. “What is the future of Africa and the Caribbean?” WoodxWatta is now endorsed by Ghana’s government initiative ‘Beyond the Return’ and the Jamaican Consulate and Office of Diaspora Affairs.
While Ford Communications has existed for less than a decade, its impact has touched not just small local businesses and upstart initiatives, but the company has worked with some of the biggest institutions in the world. Both the United Nations and World Remit can be counted as clients who have tapped into Ford’s considerable talents and contacts to establish a foothold within Ghana and by extension the continent.
Despite achieving so much, Ford is far from satisfied. “We want to see the future of Africa. We want to see what it looks like,” she declared. She’s pursuing investors who believe in the future of both Africa and the Caribbean. She calls for Black emerging nations to interact more, trade more, and learn more from each other. “It’s not about looking at the West to see what is possible. It’s about our time to create our own solutions.”
