By Nadia Afnaan
Nadia Afnaan was born and raised in a small country on the east coast of Africa called Kenya. She has a big dream. She hopes to one day follow in the footsteps of her hero, the late Komla Afeke Dumor, and be a phenomenal journalist. Nadia is currently in her third year of university pursuing Communication at IIUM, and already contemplating to become a journalist.
Nadia believes that journalists have the power to change and influence any narrative that is told. She is passionate about telling and un-telling certain African narratives that have been instigated by western influence.
She believes that each story is unique and no one can tell someones elses story better than the individual. As Komla Dumor once mentioned, “Until the lion learns how to write, each story will always glorify the hunter.”
Her father Abdulqadir Abdulrahman is a retired university lecturer who specialised in Automotive Engineering. Her mother, Hibaq Abdulqadir is a housewife and an epitome of love, sacrifice and care. She is the apple of Nadias eye. Nadia has a brother and a sister. Her brother recently completed high school and her sister is a dentist by profession.
Growing up Nadia used to change schools a lot due to her father being transferred to different universities. Being a nomad kind of became her thing. As a result, Nadias love for travelling and meeting new people began at an early age. This was quite beneficial for her as it made her open-minded and accepting of others.
She later went to an all-girls military high school. ˜One of the toughest environments yet one of the most fulfilling experiences, Nadia says. After completing high school she applied to join the International Islamic University Malaysia and fortunately got in.
She is a charismatic individual who loves meeting and socialising with people from all walks of life. She loves travelling and experiencing new cultures. She is passionate about photography and cinematography and these are the skills she would very much want to improve and perfect.
Nadia hopes to one day tell stories using visuals. She loves capturing and narrating lifes moments through a lens. Her hobbies are swimming and watching investigative documentaries during her downtime.
She dislikes disrespect and impolite behaviour. She also loathes individuals who are full of themselves and is quite big on humility herself. She believes in religion and is a practising Muslimah. Her political views are almost close to non-exist, rather peculiar right? Although she does believe in democracy and fully takes advantage of her freedom of expression when required to. She is pro-life and anti-choice especially when it comes to abortion.
When it comes to Nadias potential, her biggest enemy is herself. She suffers from Impostor Syndrome which directly affects her work ethic. She dreams big but doubts herself and downplays all her accomplishments no matter how big or small they are. She is currently working on being the best version of herself and to crush self-doubt. She is trying each day to go outside her comfort zone while living her best life.
Nadia Afnaan dreamed to be a journalist ever since she was a small girl. Growing up her favourite journalist was the late Komla Afeke Dumor. He was a Ghanaian journalist who worked for the BBC. He was the main presenter for the Focus on Africa programme.
Growing up Nadia recalls coming home from school everyday and she would find her parents watching this show. For her, it started by being a force of habit as she would be interested in anything her parents were interested in. Over time it grew into admiration. She would emulate his character, from how he spoke to how he carried himself. She admired his grit and grace, his passion for the African continent and above all how he dedicated his life to telling the African story.
This is how it began for her, at fourteen years of age she had already identified her career path and so the journey began. She loved the art of storytelling through the use of visuals. This paired with her passion for telling the African story ignited a justice-seeking flame. A love of telling stories of the untold and hope of changing the narrative was kindled in her.
Nadia believes in the beauty of her dreams. She is not afraid to dream big and manifests a goal no matter how big or how unreachable it may seem at that moment. She hopes to one day be a phenomenal journalist. She is more than willing to improve her craft and be the best at what she does.
Nadias biggest ambition career-wise is telling the African story just like her heroes before her did by pursuing the truth and bringing justice to all those who seek it. She believes we are all part of something bigger than ourselves, hence if she manages to help influence just a small spectrum of that population, then she would feel fulfilled. She aspires to inspire a generation of future journalists and to make people believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Five years from now Nadia hopes to be a well established upcoming journalist that East Africa should watch out for. She hopes to have improved her craft as a storyteller. She sees herself writing and reporting for Kenyas biggest media house.
Nadia hopes to have built a network of strong and reliable friendships all over the world and inspire the people she meets as she hopes to be inspired by them. She sees herself being financially independent and supporting her family by all means necessary. She hopes to be a caring and loving mother and a spouse by then.
Lets now look at Nadias journalistic skills. With her being in her third year of university, she believes she still has a very long way to go when it comes to her craft. She recently joined IIUMToday to improve her writing skills. She believes she can do way better than what she does currently and that will only be achieved through practice and consistency.
When it comes to research, reporting and interviewing, she has little to no experience in all. She did, however, try out for IIUMTv as a host for the Political Insights segment last semester, but fortunately or unfortunately did not prevail. This experience illuminated her weaknesses and showed her what areas of herself she needs to work on. Nadia understands that she has to improve on all the above-mentioned journalistic skills and hopes that this new venture into IIUMToday will be the beginning of a fruitful journey to strengthen and improve her core values as a journalist.
The first book Nadia ever read willingly was called Slave, My True Story by Mende Nazer. She was twelve years old at the time and she remembers being captivated by the book. She couldnt put it down. Nadia vividly remembers how she fell in love with how the writer captured each moment while simultaneously leaving her with a grotesque feeling inside. That was the beginning of her love story with literature.
She has recently devoured Jeff Koinanges, Through My African Eyes, chronicling the life of a Kenyan journalist who went above and beyond to capture the front-row experience of African history as it unfolded before his very eyes. This book taught Nadia the importance of perseverance and what it means to truly be a truth seeker.
In one of the chapters of the book, Jeff Koinange explains how he came face to face with MEND rebels deep in the Niger Delta (one of the most dangerous places to be at the time as there was political warfare in 2006). This gave Nadia chills as it showed how risky investigative journalism is as a career path but fulfilling nonetheless.
Further afield, Nadia also recently read Khaled Hosseinis And the Mountains Echoed, a story of survival, violence, triumph and a journey of crossing generations, mountains, oceans and continents. This book greatly impacted her as it taught her the importance of being a good narrator and the impact it has on other people.
Nadia also read Making Cents by Waceke Nduati. It aims to help people crush generational curses and helps mould people to become financially literate individuals. She, however, needs to expand her reading palate. Nadia aims to at least read three books a month and has set the goal of setting one hour aside each day to get some reading done.
She is a force to be reckoned with despite where shes at currently. œAll these self-doubt thoughts that tend to engulf my mind is only temporary. I am working tirelessly to defeat them. It’s me against me at the end of the day. Imposter Syndrome will not be my story. I will overcome all of lifes detours as long as I keep going and showing up for myself.
Just as William Makepeace Thackeray mentioned, “Whatever you are, be a good one.” ***
(This article is written as part of individual assignment series for Feature Writing class)