Q&A: Jumoké Fashola, BBC presenter

Jumoké Fashola

Jumoké Fashola currently presents BBC London 94.9’s Sunday Breakfast faith & ethics magazine programme (6am – 9am). She also presents The Ronnie Scott’s Radio Show on Jazz FM.  She is the creator and host of the monthly Jazz Verse Jukebox at Ronnie Scott’s London. As a vocalist, Jumoké has sung most musical forms from Handel & Gershwin to Gospel & Kurt Weill, at venues including the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall.

What are you most passionate about in your work?

Communicating & discussing issues with a wide and diverse audience. My job is never boring!

In what ways does or has Africa influenced you?

I always wear a headwrap and my house is full of African influence. And my love of poetry comes from the Afro-Franco poets of the last century.

Tell us about an upcoming project that excites you.

My monthly Jazz Verse Jukebox event held Upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club that brings together musicians & poets.

What’s an important piece of insider knowledge you have as a broadcaster and journalist?

Be persistent.

What creative masterpiece do you wish you’d written or created (and why)?

The monumental La Sagrada Família in Barcelona designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. Construction started in 1883 and it is estimated it will not be finished till 2026!

Book of the Month, March 2012

Translations of the Night by Jean Joseph Rabearivelo

Translations of the Night by Jean Joseph Rabearivelo is a slim book of poetry that I was introduced to over 10 years ago. Rabearivelo is often cited as the first modern poet of Africa. Born in Madagascar in 1901 into rather difficult early circumstances, he worked as a low paid proofreader for most of his life, editing several magazines and publishing his own work of poetry, prose and plays. Writing in French and his native Malagasy, Translations of the Night was originally published by Heinemann for their Africans Writer Series but is now sadly out of print.

I have a much loved but very battered copy which goes with me everywhere. Every time I dip into it I find something new. His poem on Three Daybreaks which starts, “Have you seen dawn go poaching in night’s orchard . . . “, is one I have  learnt off by heart and anytime I am awake early enough to see a dawn breaking I recite it silently. Somehow it affirms me and my humanity.