Rex Orville Montague Paul (born January 8, 1945), better known as Kojo Nnamdi ( ), is a Guyanese-born American
radio journalist
Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...
based in
Washington, D. C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
He is the host of ''The Kojo Nnamdi Show'' and ''The Politics Hour'' on
WAMU
WAMU (88.5 FM) is a public news/ talk station that services the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It is owned by American University, and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington. WAMU has been the primary Nation ...
, and hosted the ''Evening Exchange'' broadcast on
WHUT-TV
WHUT-TV, virtual channel 32 (UHF digital channel 33), is the secondary Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television station licensed to the American capital city of Washington, D.C. The station is owned by Howard University, a historical ...
from 1985 to 2011.
Early life
Nnamdi was born Rex Orville Montague Paul in
British Guiana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...
on January 8, 1945.
As a high school student, Nnamdi and his friends opposed British colonialism, at odds with their parents.
In 1967, a year after
Guyana became independent from British rule, Nnamdi moved to
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
to attend
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
after his mother secretly saved her earnings from selling insurance and filled out an application on his behalf.
While attending McGill, Nnamdi became interested in the
Black Power movement.
After a year at McGill, Nnamdi moved to the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
borough of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
in the U.S., where he worked on
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
and joined the
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
.
However, not long after joining the Panthers, Nnamdi drifted out of the Party. Nnamdi had been seeking a
Black Nationalist
Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race (human categorization), race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black natio ...
and
Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...
supporting organisation, whereas by this time the Black Panthers had embraced internationalism and were committed to working with people of all races towards a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
America. It would not be until later in life that Nnamdi would embrace
Marxist theory
Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fro ...
as the Panthers had.
Nnamdi moved to
Washington, D.C.
)
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in 1969 and enrolled in
Federal City College, now the
University of the District of Columbia
The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...
.
While attending the college, Nnamdi joined former members of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...
to form the Center for Black Education.
Broadcasting career
Early radio career (1969–1985)
Nnamdi began his radio career in 1969 as an actor and director for children's plays that aired Sundays on Washington rhythm and blues radio station
WOL.
With the on-air name "Brother Uwezo", Nnamdi became editor for ''Sauti'', a news magazine program on WOL, in 1970.
After marrying in 1971, he adopted the on-air name that he would use for the rest of his career, Kojo Nnamdi. He described it as an "African Christian name and surname that made more sense", first name "Kojo" being an
Akan name
The Akan people of Ghana frequently name their children after the day of the week they were born and the order in which they were born. These "day names" have further meanings concerning the soul and character of the person. Middle names have cons ...
for "Monday" and surname "Nnamdi" after the first
President of Nigeria
The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the head of state and head of government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Niger ...
,
Nnamdi Azikiwe
Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, (16 November 1904 – 11 May 1996), usually referred to as "Zik", was a Nigerian statesman and political leader who served as the first President of Nigeria from 1963 to 1966. Considered a driving force behind the n ...
.
In 1973, Nnamdi became news editor at
WHUR
WHUR-FM (96.3 MHz) is an urban adult contemporary radio station that is licensed to Washington D.C., and serving the Metro D.C. area. It is owned and operated by Howard University, making it one of the few commercial radio stations in the Unit ...
, the radio station of
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
, a
historically black university
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
in Washington.
Later becoming news director, Nnamdi helped produce ''The Daily Drum'', a local news program.
''Evening Exchange'' (1985–2011)
Nnamdi left WHUR in 1985 to join Howard television station WHMM (later
WHUT) as host of ''Evening Exchange'', a
public affairs show. Nnamdi hosted ''Evening Exchange'' until 2011.
On June 13, 1990, ''Evening Exchange'' received its highest viewership numbers when Washington mayor
Marion Barry
Marion Shepilov Barry (born Marion Barry Jr.; March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as the second and fourth mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served ...
announced on the show that he would not seek a fourth term.
''Public Interest'' and ''The Kojo Nnamdi Show'' (1998–present)
On August 31, 1998, Nnamdi became host of ''Public Interest'' on Washington public radio station
WAMU
WAMU (88.5 FM) is a public news/ talk station that services the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It is owned by American University, and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington. WAMU has been the primary Nation ...
, a show renamed from ''The Derek McGinty Show''. In January of that year, previous host
Derek McGinty
Derek McGinty is an American news anchor and television journalist, who in the 2010s anchored for WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.
Career
McGinty spent much of his early career hosting a radio talk show called ''The Derek McGinty Show'' from 1991 ...
left WAMU for
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
.
A two-hour program, one hour focused on local issues and was broadcast exclusively on WAMU, and the other discussed national topics and was distributed by
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
(NPR) to around 40 stations.
On September 30, 2002, ''Public Interest'' was renamed ''The Kojo Nnamdi Show'' and dropped national distribution.
On Fridays, Nnamdi hosts ''The Politics Hour'', which covers topics related to political issues and events in the
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
metropolitan area, including surrounding Maryland and Virginia regions. Before May 2008, the show was titled ''The D.C. Politics Hour'' and focused solely on the D.C.-area political scene.
The show was renamed ''The Politics Hour'' in May 2008, after WAMU fired resident political analyst and ''
Washington Examiner
The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American conservative news outlet which consists principally of an online/digital website with a weekly magazine, based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, which is ow ...
'' columnist Jonetta Rose Barras over a salary dispute. The show then featured guest analysts until the long-term hiring of
WRC-TV
WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A television se ...
political reporter Tom Sherwood in February 2009.
Barras joined the program after the late Mark Plotkin left in April 2002 to set up shop at all-news station
WTOP, where he hosted ''The Politics Program''. Originally called ''The Politics Hour'', the name of Plotkin's show was changed after WAMU threatened a lawsuit. Nonetheless, Plotkin said in a 2006 online chat that he and Nnamdi remain friendly and regularly have dinner together.
Every Tuesday the first half of the show consists of a segment called ''Tech Tuesday'' that attempts to keep listeners current on various computer/computing and technology issues. For a number of years, the first Tuesday of the month featured "The Computer Guys," John Gilroy and
Tom Pivovar. Pivovar left the program in early 2006 in a contract dispute and has been since replaced with a rotation of recurring expert guests, most of whom are employed at either Mid-Atlantic Consulting or the
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...
.
On April 1, 2021, Kojo ended his daily program, but the Politics Hour continues on Fridays.
References
External links
*
The Kojo Nnamdi Show' official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nnamdi, Kojo
1945 births
Living people
Guyanese journalists
African-American communists
American male journalists
American radio DJs
Guyanese radio presenters
Guyanese emigrants to the United States
McGill University alumni
University of the District of Columbia alumni
NPR personalities
Radio personalities from Washington, D.C.
People from Brooklyn
Members of the Black Panther Party
20th-century African-American people