Shaheera Asante

Shaheera Asante was born in 1966 in London, UK to a Guyanese/Brazilian mother and Ghanaian father. Her parents met at Cambridge whilst studying Obstetrics (mother) and Law (father).

Early life

The name “Shaheera” means 'Famous/Popular' and is of Egyptian extraction and was a family nickname given to Asante by her grandmother, although her birth name was Carolyn. She legally changed to Shaheera at age 18.

Asante grew up in both UK and Guyana, and in her later teens her mother re-married and emigrated to Alberta, Canada where she studied Humanities at University of Alberta.

Career

In 1993, Asante entered broadcasting and became one of the first black female music television presenters in Canada, working for CityTV, Much Music, Vancouver Television, and Rogers Cable Television where she produced and presented several award winning world music and entertainment television programmes which earned her Best Ethnic and Cultural Expression TV Series Award two years running, from the Hometown USA Video Festival. After attending a VIP media junket in Tokyo in 1997, Asante created a stir in Japan when she was romantically linked to then Yokozuna Sumo Champion Akebono, a rumour she fiercely denied and later said ‘it was completely crazy, I was chased all over the city when the truth was the Yokozuna only wanted to talk to someone on the ‘outside‘ - about hip hop; we became good friends‘. Asante then went into Radio broadcasting which she continued in the United Kingdom upon her return in 2000 as a presenter for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and as a presenter and editor of various BBC on-line Africa content music programmes.

Asante founded the African Image Alliance in 2005 a two-year long project to promote positive images of Africa in the diaspora through large scale curatorial exhibitions, the organisation has put on some high profile events at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London to which music stars such as Quincy Jones have attended.

Asante, along with other invited guests from a new generation of Africans living in the United Kingdom, who have each excelled in their field to better the image of Africa’s contemporary society – was honoured to meet Her Majesty Queen Elizebeth II at a reception at Buckingham Palace by invitation from The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh in November 2007.

Personal life

Asante lives with her partner and son outside London.

References

* BBC Radio 3 Site - Presenters Shaheera Asante
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/presenters/shaheera_asante.shtml
* African Image Alliance - www.africanimagealliance.org
*Black Britain Interview: http://www.blackbritain.co.uk/news/details.aspx?i=2036&c=uk&h=New+website+celebrates+African+culture
*http://www.africanimagealliance.org/
* BBC Africa on Your Street: http://www.bbc.co.uk/africabeyond/africaonyourstreet/hosts/shaheera/