Bose Ogulu, mother and manager of one of Nigeria’s biggest Afro-fusion stars, Burna Boy holds more than motherhood as her title. She wears various professional hats that has shaped her career trajectory significantly.
With a Bachelor of Arts in foreign languages (she speaks French, Italian, German, English, and Yoruba), and a Masters of Arts in translation, Ogulu has gone through many successful professional iterations, first as a translator for the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce, then as the CEO of Language Bridges (1997 to 2015), a language and music school, where she organized cultural immersion trips for over 1,800 young people. She also taught French for 10 years at the University of Education in Port Harcourt, retiring just last year. Beyond being a caricature of Nigerian motherhood, She’s an academic, and a professional,
Mama Burna as she’s fondly called, importantly identifies with a unique sense of gender balance and Africanness, much so that at the BET Awards 2019 she said “Every black person should please remember that you were Africans before anything else…”
Speaking to Okay Africa in an interview, she says:
“When the speech went viral and everyone supposedly loved me, or whatever, I remember telling one of my daughters that I don’t get excited about this love because they’re going to abuse me in a minute, because I’m going to keep saying and doing exactly what I think, It’s about knowing who you are—regardless of social media murmur—knowing what you want to do, and then giving yourself fully to that cause”. Speak your truth. If it’s a lie and you know it’s a lie, don’t say it. Don’t get paid to say it.”
Ogulu urges ambitious young women not to wait for others to give them recognition, but instead to continue to do the work that will make their presence impossible to ignore. In other words, if we waited on others to create room for us to thrive as individuals, we’d be waiting too long.
”I’ve never gone through life looking for anyone to make space for me. I try to create my own space or fill the space that is available so that I am relevant.” “I am capable.”
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