The Media Blog: Funmi Iyanda (sort of) brings back New Dawn

Funmi Iyanda

It’s easy to forget that, when she isn’t ruffling feathers on the internet, either for opinions about marriage or for speaking up for gay people, or for her thoughts on the relationship of Nigerians with class and colour, Funmi Iyanda’s main claim to fame was (or is) as a pioneer in the Nigerian media space.

As host (and producer) of New Dawn with Funmi, she captured the attention of Nigerian audiences between 2000 and 2008. Beyond being an enlightening and heartwarming programme, where she put the spotlight on stories about everyone from celebrities to survivors of abuse, New Dawn with Funmi was not without its own controversy. Who can forget the, quite frankly, legendary episode where she interviewed an openly gay man on National television. To imagine that happening even today seems like a stretch of the imagination, which is probably why Iyanda was never allowed any live shows on NTA after that.

[Read also: Bisi Alimi: Profile of an unapologetic gay man]

Anyway, it’s many years later. Iyanda busies herself with different projects. But she’s also decided to bless the internet with old episodes of the show. A few are already up on her YouTube channel, and she’s only just started. Given that she has about 5 years worth of episodes – episodes from the first 3 years of the show are gone to never be recovered (thanks to the NTA’s penchant for recording over, or outrightly discarding old material,) as she only took over archiving of the show in 2003 – there’s a wealth of interviews to look forward to.

Check out the first couple of episodes below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbfs5aTxmvM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33oLJdMX2gM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YaPziUZUrs

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