Uniting The Black Diaspora

MEMORANDUM
Legacy Files

Dr. Nii-Quartelai Quartey takes us on a journey of self-discovery and political revolution with his captivating memoir, Kamala, the Motherland, and Me, as author Taroue W. Brooks sits down with the creator of this project to discuss the cultural significance of the new book.

By: Taroue W. Brooks

MONARCH: Tell us about your education.

DR. NII-QUARTELAI QUARTEY: I am the product of a well-rounded California education. I was educated by the Christian brothers at De La Salle High School in the San Francisco Bay Area. I later attended the University of Southern California, where I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in critical approaches to leadership. After spending some years in the workforce, I worked full time while pursing my master’s degree at Pepperdine University, in social entrepreneurship and change, and later returned to obtain by doctorate in organizational leadership. Outside of academic scholarship, I learned a great deal as a practitioner in my early career in the fields of advocacy and organizing.

MONARCH: Why did you become a journalist?

DR. NII-QUARTELAI QUARTEY: For almost 15 years, I focused on channeling my talents in the field of advocacy, political communications, and organizing on a variety compelling civil and human rights issues, reforms, and public health campaigns. During the COVID pandemic, I grew increasingly unfulfilled and yearned to return to my first love of journalism to combat what I saw as growing misinformation, disinformation, and signs of a weakening democracy. My return to journalism was born out of a sense of patriotism.

“I grew increasingly unfulfilled and yearned to return to my first love of journalism to combat what I saw as growing misinformation, disinformation, and signs of a weakening democracy.”

MONARCH: What was the experience of traveling to Ghana with Vice President Kamala Harris?

DR. NII-QUARTELAI QUARTEY: It was a dream assignment! To return to Ghana, my father’s homeland, covering Vice President Kamala Harris on a historic first visit to Africa felt like an opportunity written in the stars. Like the Vice President, as someone who is multiheritage, this assignment was a great opportunity to learn, write, observe, and reflect across cultures. It was an opportunity to reexamine assumptions about the Vice President, Africa, and Black people across the diaspora. What I discovered inspired my new book, Kamala, the Motherland, and Me, for a time such as this.

MONARCH: How did you create the opportunity to fly with the Vice President of the United States?

DR. NII-QUARTELAI QUARTEY: At the time, I co-anchored a daily news program for Fox Television and Fox Soul in addition to hosting a weekly radio show on KBLA Talk Radio. I had interviewed a number of people in the Biden-Harris Administration, including White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. When I learned of the opportunity, I reached out to White House Director of African-American Media with a pitch, she sent it along to the Vice President’s team, and the rest is history. Now I proudly serve as Chief White House Correspondent for KBLA and enjoy being a member of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

MONARCH: What inspired you to publish your book, Kamala, the Motherland, and Me?

DR. NII-QUARTELAI QUARTEY: The uptick in book bans, efforts to ban Black history in schools, attacks on diversity and inclusion, the caricature of Vice President Harris, and stories that my father told me about how folks perceived Africa and Africans when he arrived in America in 1970 all played a role in giving me the confidence to tell this story, pulling from every part of me. This book is both a personal and professional achievement. I didn’t take this assignment thinking I was going to write a book, but I’m so glad I answered the calling to share this story at what has turned out to be divine timing given the turn of events in the 2024 presidential election. People want to know who the Vice President is in her fullness on the world stage, and this book offers some important clues.

MONARCH: What would you like for people to walk away with from reading your book?

DR. NII-QUARTELAI QUARTEY: I want people to walk away inspired to reexamine their assumptions about the Vice President, the continent of Africa, and the future of the Black diaspora. By 2050, one of four people on the planet will live in Africa. The average age on the continent is 19 years old. I want readers of conscience to reimagine the future, where Africa is at the center of the global economy and not on the periphery. What we achieve and ignore in Africa will shape the future.

MONARCH: Why do you feel exposure is so critical?

DR. NII-QUARTELAI QUARTEY: We cannot become what we cannot see and do not know. This book exposes readers to a consequential story that was underreported in a place that is full of possibilities to supercharge the global economy—socially, politically, creatively, culturally, and economically.

MONARCH: What do you feel about legacy?

DR. NII-QUARTELAI QUARTEY: I believe your legacy is in the eye of the beholder, not the sower. I believe this book represents my best work yet, but I’ll let the readers and historians be the judge of that. In the meantime, I’ll continue to tell stories of consequence and profile leaders among leaders.