Today marks the third anniversary of Komla Dumor’s death.
The BBC TV presenter died suddenly at his home in London at the age of 41, exactly three years ago today.
The BBC reported at the time that Dumor suffered a heart attack.
The Ghanaian broadcaster was a presenter for BBC World News and its Focus on Africa programme.
The iconic Ghanaian journalist joined the BBC as a radio broadcaster in 2006 after a decade of journalism in Ghana.
Komla Dumor featured in New African magazine’s November 2013 list of 100 most influential Africans. It said he had “established himself as one of the emerging African faces of global broadcasting”, who had “considerable influence on how the continent is covered”.
Komla Dumor was born on 3 October 1972 in Accra, Ghana.
He graduated with a BA in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Ghana, and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University.
He won the Ghana Journalist of the Year award in 2003 and joined the BBC three years later.
From then until 2009, he hosted Network Africa for BBC World Service radio, before joining the World Today programme.
In 2009 Komla Dumor became the first host of Africa Business Report on BBC World News. He was a regular presenter of Focus on Africa and had fronted the programme the day before he died.
He travelled across Africa, meeting the continent’s top entrepreneurs and reporting on the latest business trends around the continent.
He interviewed a number of high-profile guests including Bill Gates and Kofi Annan.
A month before his death, he covered the funeral of former South African President, Nelson Mandela, who he described as “one of the greatest figures of modern history”.
He anchored live coverage of major events including the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the funeral of Kim Jong-il, the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the Norway shootings, and the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
In his review of 2013, published in December of that year, Dumor said the passing of Mandela was “one of the moments that will stay with me”.
“Covering the funeral for me will always be a special moment. I will look back on it with a sense of sadness. But also with gratitude. I feel lucky to have been a witness to that part of the Mandela story.”
He left a wife and three children.
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