This Cambridge Life

Recent graduate and former president of the African and Caribbean Society, Toni Fola-Alade, talks about advocacy, start-ups and fundraising for Nigerian fishermen – and looking forward to the day when he doesn’t have to talk about race.

I never expected Stormzy, the Vice President of Malawi and the General Counsel of GE Africa would accept our invitation to the Motherland Conference, but they did. And I don’t think we expected to fill out the Cambridge Union. That was just a fun bonus.

The Conference came about after I’d attended a debate about race and educational privilege in my first year, hosted by Tiwa Adebayo (Sidney Sussex 2016). After the debate, a couple of us were hanging around and chatting about the issues raised. My friend Daniel Afolabi (Caius 2017) and I decided that there was no point complaining about this, we should do something about it.

Someone made a joke about how cool it would be to get a rapper and an African President in a room together and everybody laughed. But as Daniel and I were walking back to College we thought: “there’s something in that”. We got to work with the amazing African and Caribbean Society committee to make it happen.

Talking to Stormzy was an amazing experience. I’d had the privilege of being on the selection panel for the first Stormzy Scholars, so it was exciting to be interacting with the man behind this incredible initiative.

We talked everything from his music and personal story, to politics and mental health. He emphasised the role of foresight in everything he does; sensing trends, planning and positioning himself accordingly, and believing unwaveringly in the outcome. Outside of our Q and A, he was very gracious, incredibly witty and even obliged me in taking a selfie with the audience. 

Motherland was a new introductory event for people interested in learning more about the African continent or the Caribbean, but who didn’t really know where to start. We brought together people from culture, politics and business. We just wanted to see what it would look like for those ideas to kind of flow together.

The morning after the event, I gave an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme with Cambridge’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope. Afterwards, the Vice-Chancellor said he had a project he’d like me to be a part of. A couple of months later I was asked to sit on the Advisory Group for the enquiry into the University’s role in Legacies of Enslavement, which I accepted.

It was brave of the VC to proactively tackle this sensitive subject, and I’d love to see this proactiveness ripple throughout the University. While I can’t talk on behalf of the Legacies of Enslavement board, I can share my hopes for the outcome of the work that is taking place.

Advocacy comes with the territory when you take on a role, as I did, like President of the African and Caribbean Society (ACS). ACS exerts a surprising amount of influence within the University and the media. This means that you can advocate for an improved experience for members of your community but also comment on wider issues. I still find it funny how much people are prepared to listen to a bunch of 19-year-olds in a university. But they are, and so it’s important to use this position, and the platform it gives you, well.

Access is growing rapidly at Cambridge. Everyone I’ve met and sat on boards with genuinely cares about diversifying the University and are making great strides to do so. However, there’s still a much-needed enclave for people with a cultural affinity to be together, especially when there are inherent difficulties of being black at Cambridge. First and foremost, ACS serves as a community to make you feel valuable and welcome.

As a black student at Cambridge, there are things that you just have to accept. For example, there are artefacts that are valuable to your culture that are in the University. There is an awareness that the College you’re sleeping in has probably taken donations from the oppression of people that look like you, and the curriculum doesn’t necessarily reflect some of the knowledge that is inherently from the culture you come from. These are things that students campaign on but cannot always afford to labour on excessively, with the pressures of the degree. They are things you are conscious of as you study here.

I would welcome seeing a commitment to diversifying the academics and promoting black research at the University. In terms of continuing to drive access, getting more black students into Cambridge is really important. I think increased financial support would make it possible for more black British students and especially students from African nations or the Caribbean to study here.

I’ve recently co-written a paper that seeks to quantify the economic contributions of black Britons to the country, with Maro Okiti (Trinity Hall 2019), Tabitha Balogun (Jesus 2018) and Demi Akinjide (University of Bristol). We look at how the economy can be re-imagined so that it is inclusive for all British people. The paper also highlights the worsening effect that COVID-19 could have on the black wealth gap.

Economic empowerment is the overriding theme of everything I work on, whether it’s in Britain or in Africa. A couple of years ago, a mentor of mine asked if I would like to join the founding team of DoGood, a not-for-profit organisation he was setting up which would use crowdfunding to provide essential financial and technical support for social impact organisations in Nigeria and beyond.

We ran a campaign and raised $8,000 (~ £6,223) in ten days. This was used to buy 12 fishing boats which we donated to the fishing community in Makoko, which is the largest slum in Africa. We’re now building schools out of plastic bottles, bringing electricity to rural communities and providing orphans with digital skills.

Travelling to Makoko was such an impactful experience that I chose it as the subject of my dissertation. I wrote about the historical, political and economic factors that had prevented the slum from improving and how we could bypass these to help the community develop.

Inspired by an internship in the economic team of the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria, at the end of my second year, I cofounded a FinTech start-up with my friends, Nyasha Fraser-Yerro and Ayoola Oluwanusin. We focus on empowering small businesses in Nigeria. This involves building an ecosystem of products that will make running a small business easier, making it possible for the average Nigerian to build up prosperity for themselves.

In March this year, just before lockdown began, I unexpectedly became CEO of our start-up, Nomad, and secured investment for a six-month incubation period for the business. This meant that for the next six months I was waking up at 4am to pray and go for a run, then I’d study from 5am–9am while the house was quiet, and then from 9am–5pm I would be working on building the business.

It was a crazy few months, but it taught me a lot about adaptability and resilience. To graduate with a First class degree showed me that anything can be achieved, with strategy and focus. I’m writing and self-publishing a book The Game has changed about studying at Cambridge, leadership and starting a business. I hope to be able to help young people develop skills for a dynamic world of work and the uncertainty of a rapidly changing economy.  

I’m passionate about representing my community and talking about African issues, but it’s not the entirety of who I am. There are lots of things I’m excited about that I’m doing from a business and technology perspective.

There’s a cool Toni Morrison quote: “The very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being... None of that is necessary.” Ultimately, I believe in a world where everyone gets an opportunity, where we can all enjoy peace and prosperity. I can’t wait for the day when I don’t have to talk about race, when I can just do my work and, hopefully, let my contribution to that vision speak for itself.

This profile is part of our This Cambridge Life series, which opens a window on to the people that make Cambridge University unique. Cooks, gardeners, students, archivists, professors, alumni: all have a story to share.

Interview: Charis Goodyear.