Akunna Cook

AKUNNA COOK​

Chief Executive Officer/ FOUNDER

Letter from the founder

Friends,

Join us as we embark on the mission to shift the narrative about Africa and the Black Diaspora by telling African stories for global impact.

Welcome to Next Narrative Africa – a multimedia production company building a robust ecosystem to support African & Black Diasporan content creation to advance economic progress.

For far too long, we have seen images about us that are overwhelmingly negative and stereotypical.  Our creativity, intelligence, business acumen, remarkable resilience, and tenacity are missing from popular culture. These negative perceptions and media portrayals don’t include us as sources of global solutions or equal partners in providing the resources to strengthen how the world sees and engages with Africa.

We are changing that.

With over two decades of experience as a senior U.S. government official, diplomat, nonprofit founder, lawyer, and strategist working to build economic power in black communities, I have seen firsthand the gap between the reality of who Black people are and the images that dominate the media about us.  It is hard to get investment into African or Black businesses and Founders when the narrative is overwhelmingly dominated by stereotypes that cast shadows on the brilliance and talent in our communities.

I want to see heroes on the screen that look like me.  I want my son and daughter to see them too.  

Next Narrative Africa develops and produces entertaining and narrative-shifting content about Africa; leverages relationships with diverse stakeholders through events that connect the ecosystem to support creativity and innovation; and most importantly, is building a fund to support Black diasporan storytellers who are shifting the narrative about Africa and people of African descent.

We invite you to join the journey and champion change as we know we cannot do this work alone. It will take the entire ecosystem to tell the stories, change the minds, and shift the narrative so that Black creativity and content are not just a commodity to be extracted, but a source of pride and global wealth and prosperity. 

There has never been a better time for this work. It is time for the next narrative about Africa.  Join us.

In solidarity,
Akunna

Biography: Akunna Cook

 

 

Akunna Cook is the visionary CEO and Founder of Next Narrative Africa, a media production company telling African stories for global impact. Akunna recently led Africa policy at the State Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.  She has successfully led initiatives in the private, public, and non-profit sectors.  The Nigerian-American diplomat, lawyer, and strategist now brings her multi-sector track record of success and passion to the mission of changing the narrative about Africa and people of African descent. Akunna is a proud graduate of Howard University, from which she graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in economics and business administration.  She is also a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she earned a masters degree in public policy with a concentration in political advocacy and leadership, and the Yale Law School. Akunna serves as an advisor to Keseb, the Harambeans, and on the board of directors of the Alliance for Justice.

 

Akunna is a creative at heart, having grown up in Abia State, Nigeria and Somerset, New Jersey with dreams of becoming an actress and writer.  She has studied acting at the Theater Lab in Washington but mostly uses her legal and policy skills to promote African creativity and economic prosperity. She is a mom of two young adults who think she listens to too much Afrobeats but will admit their mother is the coolest.