The idea that birthed the BeamAfrique International Media Network Limited was conceived in Ghana during the 2017 edition of the annual MICE West Africa fiesta.
The Nigerian duo of Rasheed Olokode and Femi Ogunniyi, being on a journalistic bit to cover the week-long event, for the first time ever, became truly exposed to the immeasurable depth of the beauty and blessings that Africa was and still is to the entire human race.
The parade in the Ghana event was a classical display of the rich, diverse culture and economic assets of Africa, facilitated by the presence of MICE delegates from across Africa, delivering bold speeches that simultaneously and ironically gladenned and saddened the crowd.
In particular, the truths that spewed from the mouths of Teketel Kumneger, an iconic, pan African Ethiopian national and Special Guest of Honour at the Event, literarily made the African-dominated audience to perceive themselves as unclad race dancing naked in the global market.
To realise that Africa, had for long, been metaphorically perceived by the rest of the world as a beautiful but uncivilised naked woman that was meant to be exploited and raped was not only saddening, it was also depressing particularly to the two Nigerian journalists at the event hosted by His Eminence, Royal Panford.
Kumneger's speech and those of others were far from being destructive or even pessimistic. They were eloquent, corrective words crafted to right the wrongs. Words that inspired us, the Africans, to pause, rethink, rewrite and reshape our collective destiny with our own hands.
Kumneger did not stop at merely passing the bulk to African media practitioners and organizations whom, the Party's resolutions identified as one of the major culprits responsible for Africa's misperception and maltreatments at the global level, the Organizer of Hotel Show Africa and CEO of MICE East Africa extended an invitation to the two Nigerian journalists - Rasheed and Femi - to come to Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian trip which held in January 2018 turned out a convergence of selected African journalists for the sake of repositioning and boosting the capacity of the African media to truly project Africa on the international scene from the African perspectives.
Indeed, it was an inspiring experience of the African beauty as personified by the awesome and irresistible physical and mental attractiveness of the average Ethiopian which sharply contrasted the prejudices unconsciously vomited by some non-African tourists in Addis Ababa.
The voluntary confessions of a group of Japanese ladies at the Lobelia Hotel practically confirmed the evil, as postulated by Kumneger and others, which the zero African participation in international media practice represented.
And, when, on one beautiful Saturday, the Ethiopian Government organized a Country Tour for all the visiting African journalists, the bitter realities finally dawned on us. Africa is not only culturally rich, it is richly economically endowed and technologically gifted, in contradistinction to global prejudices.
The visit to the Bishoftu Automotive Engineering Industry, Ethiopia's sprawling automobile manufacturing facility finally made it compelling for the Nigerian media team to hearken to the voice of wisdom.
The establishment of the BeamAfrique International Media Network Limited in February 2018 was, thus, the pro-active response of Messrs Rasheed Olokode and Femi Ogunniyi to the irrepresible, great challenge that emerged from the 2017/2018 media pilgrimage to Ghana and Ethiopia.
The challenge of mobilising and uniting the orientationallly divergent African media practitioners to tell the stories of Africa with one voice to the rest of the world.
Towards this end, the need for all hand to be on the deck was manifested through the encouraging roles played, so far, by the governments of Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ethiopian Airlines, the Dangote Group, Sifax Group, MICE West Africa, MICE East Africa, Hotel Show Africa and others towards the birth and nurture of the BeamAfrique International Media Network Limited.
And, since its 2018 birth, the journey of the BeamAfrique International Media Network Limited towards its current status as a truly African international media voice has been replete with daunting challenges.
However, the vision to emerge as a global media network owned and operated by Africans and friends of Africa across the world for the purpose of objective multimedia projection of Africa was already verging the precipice of extinction until the divine appearance of an incurable and unrepentant pan Africanist, Mr. Lancelot Ntsepileng Sello-Zuma of the Republic of South Africa on the scene to salvage the lofty BeamAfrique dream.
And, within a twinkle of an eye the BeamAfrique International Media Network Limited became a gigantic media tree which branches are now firmly rooted across and beyond the African earth space.