International Women’s Day Feature
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In a live broadcast control room, there is no room for hesitation. Cameras move, commentators speak, producers call for replays, and somewhere in the middle of the controlled chaos someone must decide what millions of viewers see next. The authority in that room belongs to the person who calls the shots. For a long time in African television, that voice was almost always a man’s.
When Afeafa Nfojoh stepped into that space as the first woman in Africa to head the production of football coverage, the moment carried a significance that extended far beyond a single broadcast. It was a quiet but decisive disruption of an industry assumption: that technical authority, especially in sports broadcasting, belonged almost exclusively to men. In environments where decisions must be made instantly and confidently, leadership is measured less by declaration than by precision. The person calling the shots determines the rhythm of what audiences see and how the story of the game unfolds on screen.
Moments like this rarely arrive with dramatic fanfare. They unfold quietly, inside control rooms, studios, and production floors where professional credibility is built through competence rather than spectacle. Yet these moments matter deeply because they reshape what an industry begins to accept as normal. Every time a woman occupies a space that once excluded her, the boundaries of possibility shift slightly for the women who will enter the industry after her.
For Nfojoh, however, the journey into television production began long before she entered those control rooms. “Before film found me,” she says, “storytelling had already found me.” As a child she was constantly writing stories and organizing small performances, drawn instinctively toward the act of shaping narratives and sharing them with others. The impulse to tell stories did not arrive as a career plan; it emerged as a natural part of her curiosity about the world. Growing up in a household surrounded by journalists, writers, and poets meant that storytelling existed as a form of everyday expression rather than an unusual aspiration. Yet while the written word offered one path for creative exploration, film and television eventually revealed a broader possibility. Moving images could carry emotion, tension, and meaning in ways that felt immediate and communal.
At the National Film and Television Institute in Ghana, where she studied directing, that instinct began to transform into discipline. Film production revealed itself as both creative and technical, a field where storytelling depends as much on logistics and coordination as it does on imagination. Directors and producers must not only envision narratives but also orchestrate teams of people, equipment, and timing with careful precision. Learning the craft meant understanding how authority functions within collaborative environments, where dozens of professionals must move in harmony to produce a single broadcast or film.
Over time Nfojoh would refine that ability within Ghana’s broadcast industry. At Charterhouse Ghana, she became involved in the production of some of the country’s most recognizable television properties and entertainment events, including the Ghana Music Awards, Miss Malaika, and Stars of the Future. These productions were not merely cultural spectacles. They were complex operations requiring coordination between camera operators, stage managers, performers, editors, and technical crews working under intense time pressure. For producers and directors, the responsibility is not simply to imagine the final result but to ensure that every moving part of the production arrives at that result without visible disruption.
Productions of that scale often become training grounds for leadership. They demand quick thinking, clear communication, and the ability to guide teams through high-pressure environments where mistakes must be corrected instantly. Yet even within such professional spaces, women in film and television frequently encounter expectations that extend beyond the work itself. Authority expressed by women can sometimes be interpreted differently than the same authority expressed by men.
Nfojoh speaks about that tension with clarity. “There have been moments where I had to choose between being liked and being respected.” Leadership in creative industries often requires decisions that not everyone will welcome. Balancing collaboration with authority can become particularly complex for women, who are sometimes expected to soften their leadership style to maintain social harmony. Over time, Nfojoh learned that respect must take precedence. Consistency, professionalism, and fairness gradually reshape how leadership is perceived. When teams witness competence repeatedly, skepticism begins to fade.
Even then, women working in film and television often discover that competence must be demonstrated again and again. Technical environments within the industry still carry subtle assumptions about who belongs in them. “Women in film often have to prove themselves repeatedly,” Nfojoh explains.
Her work in sports broadcasting illustrates that challenge clearly. Football production remains one of the most technically demanding forms of live television. Multiple cameras capture different angles simultaneously. Directors coordinate those feeds in real time while producers monitor commentary, graphics teams prepare replays, and technicians maintain broadcast signals. Decisions must be made within seconds, often under immense public scrutiny. When Nfojoh assumed leadership within that environment, she was not simply managing a broadcast. She was occupying a position where women had rarely been visible.
Behind such achievements lies another truth about careers in film and television: sacrifice. The early years of production work are defined by long hours, constant deadlines, and an almost relentless pace.
“Something I gave early in my career was my time,” she says. “I sacrificed a lot of leisure and social moments because I was deeply committed to learning the craft.”
Those sacrifices are rarely visible to audiences who experience the final production only as entertainment. Yet they form the foundation upon which careers in media are built. Experience accumulates gradually through repetition, problem solving, and the quiet mastery of complex systems that allow television production to function seamlessly.
Today Nfojoh brings that experience to her role as General Manager of Adesa Productions Limited, where she oversees large-scale content production across Media General’s platforms including TV3, Onua TV, 3FM, and Onua FM. Her work now extends beyond directing individual productions to shaping the broader direction of programming and creative development within the organization.
Yet leadership alone does not transform an industry. Progress also depends on collaboration and mentorship.
“Women need to be deliberate about supporting each other,” Nfojoh says.
Support can take many forms. Sometimes it involves sharing professional knowledge or recommending a colleague for an opportunity. At other times it simply means encouraging younger women to pursue roles they might otherwise feel hesitant to claim. In industries where relationships often determine access, these gestures can reshape professional pathways.
Looking ahead, Nfojoh hopes the next generation of women entering film and television will encounter a landscape that moves faster than the one she navigated. Leadership roles should not require decades of persistence to reach. Technical departments should feel open rather than intimidating. Authority exercised by women should eventually become ordinary.
The ambition is not merely to increase the number of women working in the industry.
It is to make their leadership unremarkable.
International Women’s Day often celebrates the visible achievements of women who break barriers. But the deeper transformation happens gradually, through the everyday work of professionals who continue to occupy spaces where their presence once seemed unusual.
Each production directed, each broadcast managed, and each young professional encouraged expands the boundaries of what the industry considers possible. And slowly, over time, the voice calling the shots in the control room stops being surprising.
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