Harry Jerome Award for media professional Patricia Bebia-Mawa
April 9, 2021
Patricia Bebia-Mawa has fond memories of the first Harry Jerome Award show she attended.
It was in 2004 just four years after migrating from Nigeria.
She and her husband, Moses Mawa, travelled from Ottawa where they resided at the time.
“It was a magnificent event and I was very inspired by the stories of the award winners and just being around excellence in Canada’s Black community,” she recounted. “Though I was still going through challenges as a newcomer, I found hope in the stories and it occurred to me back then that one day I could have a story that will inspire others.”
It didn’t take long for Bebia-Mawa to create her story.
Featured in 2013 on CNN’s ‘Africa Voices Changemakers’ that highlights the continent’s trendsetters, she and her husband launched the 24-hour ‘Afroglobal Television’ five years ago.
“Initially, we had a TV show, ‘Planet Africa’ and a few magazines, but having a television channel was the long-term goal,” Bebia-Mawa said. “When the opportunity arose for us to do that, we were ready.”
Like most businesses, Silvertrust Media —which Moses Mawa established in 1996 -- faced challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have a large studio space and control room and a fair amount of human resource staff,” she pointed out. “We didn’t care took much about programming as we had enough content to do repeats if necessary. Once we overcame the fear of the unknown, we decided to pivot to online training, using our equipment and technologically versatile team. We started to approach individuals and companies, saying we can produce training videos and online events. That has helped us to keep our heads above water. We were also able to find out who had advertising dollars, including the government and hit them. We are still knocking on doors and doing much better now.”
Patricia Bebia-Mawa (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
A television host and producer in Nigeria, Bebia-Mawa came to Canada for the first time 21 years ago to attend ‘Input 2000’, a one-week conference for industry professionals organized by CBC Television.
She booked a flight to Montreal, thinking that Halifax was a short taxi ride away.
“The taxi driver told me it would take over 14 hours and that if I had the money, he would take me to where I was going,” she recalled. “I had to come up with $300 to get a flight the same day to Halifax because the conference started the next day.”
Intending to return to Nigeria after visiting family members in Ottawa, Bebia-Mawa changed her mind after meeting Mawa.
“I came with just one suitcase and my intention was never to stay in Canada forever,” she said.
While in Halifax, Bebia-Mawa learnt of Mawa through a media professional at the conference.
“He said if I event went to Ottawa, I should touch base with Moses as he has a media organization and is always looking for Africa-related content,” she said. “When we met the first time, he was very busy looking at his computer screen that he hardly glanced at me. On another visit for him to convert some of my videos to PAL, he got a sense of the magnitude of the work I was doing in Nigeria and became interested. He said he was trying to get a show on TV and suggested we could work on it together. We became good friends and the rest is history.”
Married in 2002, the couple have four children.
Shortly after her marriage, Bebia-Mawa lost her full-time job with a private company in Ottawa.
“My family came for the wedding and I called my boss to say I would be a bit late for work as I had to drop my dad off at the airport,” she said. “I was told by her that it was fine, but when I got to work, she met me at the door, saying I couldn’t enter and that I was fired. Shocked and in disbelief, I decided it was time to join Moses full-time. Back then, we did wedding videos and productions for government departments and we also started an online directory.”
Inquisitive and talkative, Bebia-Mawa thought law was the perfect career fit.
As the writer and director of plays for her local church, she caught the attention of a parishioner who suggested she consider pursuing a television career.
“This person said I spoke well and thought this was something I should look into,” said Bebia-Mawa who spent three years in a nunnery. “At the time I didn’t think that was feasible as I was a first-year university student. However, when I learnt that I could do it on weekends, I jumped at the opportunity.”
After completing undergraduate studies at the University of Calabar, she enlisted in the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program that was created after the Nigerian Civil War in 1973.
With television experience, Bebia-Mawa was allowed to do her NYSC duties at a TV station. At the end of that stint, she accepted an offer to work as daily talk show host in Lagos before coming to Canada.
Patricia Bebia-Mawa (l) & her husband Moses Mawa with ReelWorld Film Festival founder Tonya Williams (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The Black Business & Professional Association (BBPA) administer the Harry Jerome Awards that honour the memory of Jerome who set seven world records in track and field and helped create Canada’s sports ministry. He was slated to be the keynote speaker at a celebration to mark the record performances of Canada’s athletes at the 1982 Commonwealth Games when he died suddenly a fortnight before the organizers contacted him.
Since the inception in 1983, a total of 470 Harry Jerome Awards (this year included) have been presented to individuals and two groups – Eva’s Initiatives in 2005 and Little Jamaica in 2020 – for excellence in myriad fields.
Bebia-Mawa is honoured to be part of the distinguished list.
“Every time I get one of these, I pause to reflect and see what more I can do to make a difference,” she said. “Getting an award comes with responsibility as it says you are doing a good job, but there’s more that can be done to be really worthy of the honour. Also, the BBPA is a highly respected organization in Canada, doing an amazing job to inspire professionals and business people.”
Other recipients this year are Velma Morgan, Louis-Edgar Jean-Francois, Jamaal Magloire, Taylor Lindsay-Noel, Ken Jeffers, Al Ramsay, Ransford Jones, Claudette McGowan, Kathy McDonald, Dennis Mitchell and Joseph Smith.
The 39th annual awards ceremony will be held virtually on April 17, starting at 6 p.m.
