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I’ve been thinking a lot about the conversations around the treatment of Black employees at companies and the treatment of Black women in particular. It’s important to note that “Black companies” are not exempt from this. Black leadership is not exempt. [A THREAD]
I’ve come to acknowledge my own part in maintaining the status quo over the last few years with my silence, but I want to talk about my experience at OkayAfrica and the environment that the current CEO Abiola Oke created while I was there.
From Aug-Sep of 2019 about ⅓ of the team resigned/was terminated following the introduction of a new employee agreement by leadership. I’ll just give my personal account—the contract brought up questions of existing conditions against new demands of the staff.
Over my 3+ years of working directly under Abiola I witnessed and experienced his disdain for women who challenged his leadership, his manipulation, gaslighting and vindictiveness against those he felt personally slighted by.
Prior to my decision not to sign the new contract Abiola largely sang my praises in public. Behind the scenes he told me and others that he ‘made me,’ that I was a ‘very young girl’, who was ‘naive’, and needed to be ‘put in my place.’
On one occasion we were looking to book the first woman headliner in a large yearly event series in partnership with a client that wanted to highlight women. Abiola wanted to leverage the name of a potential male opener and offer him majority of the budget (1/3)
While securing the woman for significantly less, or hopefully nothing at all, with help from her record label. When I brought up my concern about appearing to be centering women while paying them far less than their male counterparts privately via a slack DM I was told (2/3)
that it was not my place to question the decisions he made on behalf of the company and for the business. Separately he messaged my then manager to tell her that I needed to be put in my place. (3/3)
In the weeks following the introduction of the new contract the team had a meeting with Abiola to address any questions and concerns. I brought up the question of any new benefits/considerations that could be made considering employees were prohibited from freelancing (1/2)
Under the new contract despite being paid largely severely under market rate. I was told that the experience that I ‘enjoyed’ I could not have gotten anywhere else and that the benefit I received from this experience far outweighed any potential cost to me (2/2)
On 8/6/19 he called a meeting with the staff in which he spoke for approx 10 mins w/out input from anyone else lamenting that ppl were questioning his leadership, that he didn’t want to work with anyone who didn’t trust him + if we didn’t like it we could leave & then stormed out
On 8/20/19 no one had signed the agreement and staff received an email saying if we didn’t sign w/in 24 hrs we would be terminated effective immediately. The next day a few resigned, more didn’t sign. I was the only person terminated on 8/22.
This kind of behavior happened on multiple occasions. In my last call with Abiola he expressed his disappointment in my decision not to sign the contract but told me that he didn’t take it personally. He told multiple others in private conversations a different story.
Within the space of 24hrs the company was ‘in flux’ and I soon became his scapegoat. Abiola decided that it was my fault that people wanted to leave, that I had tried to lead people astray. He fabricated stories of my personal background, and my need for the job (1/2)
Telling other employees that I was trying to make a point, that my family ‘had five houses around the world,’ that I was young and naive (despite objective legal advice I had been given), and that I “needed to be humbled.” (2/2)
He made further threats to tell future employers that we were ‘untrustworthy.’ Following termination leadership attempted to block my unemployment by stating that I had voluntarily quit my job despite the evidence against this claim. The attempt failed.
There are so many stories, so many direct examples to give but I want to make one point clear: Abiola Oke presents himself as a man who supports Black women but has consistently and repeatedly undermined, exploited and dismissed the women who have worked with him and under him.
