CNN’s African Voices Changemakers meets African philanthropists

CNN’s African Voices Changemakers meets African philanthropists

African Voices Changemakers airs on CNN International Saturday 8th February 2025 at 0830 WAT

In the latest episode of African Voices Changemakers, CNN’s Larry Madowo meets Derrick Cobbinah, a British army veteran who is extending his duty to care for Africa’s fallen soldiers, and award-winning singer Patoranking, one of Nigeria’s top afro-dancehall, artist and champion for Africa’s youth.

Patrick Nnaemeka Okorie, better known as Patoranking, has a versatile musical repertoire, including a knack for storytelling, detailing the trials and triumphs of the everyday Nigerian. He tells CNN, “I sing for people, I try to be the voice of the voiceless to my music and if you follow my music, I've coined some terms that I try to live by. For example, I have these four Bs which means building bridges and borders through music.”

Patoranking faced harsh realities early on, growing up in the slums of Satellite Town, a community housing project in Ebute-Metta in Lagos State. Despite his financial situation growing up, he discusses how he used the gift of music as a means of, “Survival and changing the narrative and the story of my family.” Within Satellite Town, he says, “Everybody knows the popular genre called Galala Music.  Galala is the stepchild of dancehall music. I was dancing in school before pitching my tent to singing.”

From this, he started writing his own songs, however, Patoranking was set on being unique, “I always wanted to be different. So growing up listening to those music, I set up a formula for myself which is listening to everybody but not sounding like anybody […]. When I went to Ghana in 2007, Ghana is heavily influenced by reggae and dance hall music. So, for me going, there was also another learning process that helped shift pater reggae. So, when I came back home, I knew I was ready, I was ready for the world.”

Patoranking’s big break came when Nigerian singer Timaya took the singer under his wing as a protege and released the hit track “Alubarika” in 2013. He tells CNN about how this experience changed his life, “When I sang Alubarika, I was still in the area of nothing. I didn't even have a passport, but I could see everything was there. Alubarika from Lagos to America, and the minute the song dropped, everything changed, everything I said in that song happened.”

The song opened the door for several subsequent hits earning the star numerous awards, including an MTV Africa music award for Best New Act in 2015 and African Artiste of the Year at the Ghana Music Awards. Despite these global moments Patoranking never lost sight of his roots which was the catalyst for his philanthropic journey. He explains the reason why philanthropy is important to him, “It's something personal to me before I became Patoranking. I used to pray to God. I said, God, if you put me in a position of making money, I wanna touch lives.”

He launched the Patoranking Foundation in 2018 with a mission to help one million youths by 2035. He talks about the purpose of his foundation, “We build turfs in communities, the whole idea is bringing people together, bringing peace, you can find the people in the community, and also, present opportunities to them.”

CNN had the chance to follow Patoranking to Ebute Metta to his first turf launch. Patoranking Foundation’s Project Manager, Victoria Nkong, explains the purpose of the turfs and of the foundations more widely, “Part of the reason that this turf was built because it was an avenue to get [people] to come together through football, eat and drink, begin to be able to accommodate each other and form some sort of bond.”

In partnership with A-L-X Africa, one of continent’s leaders in tech skills training, the foundation recently invested half a million dollars in scholarships to further their careers in tech and entrepreneurship. Fred Swaniker, the founder of the African Leadership University, explains the benefits of this initiative, “This for me creates tremendous opportunity because young people tend to be more creative, they're more entrepreneurial, they're hungry, they're passionate, um, and I think that many of the world's problems will be solved by harnessing the power of African youth.”

Recently the star was appointed as a Regional Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations development programme. During the two-year appointment the singer will champion youth innovation and enterprise development. On this, he says, “The legacy you leave behind is much more important than everything you think you've done. For the next generation coming, making them understanding that it wasn't easy where we're coming from. Life is not gonna be easy, it keeps going, but making them understanding that it's possible, whatever they set their mind to anything they wanna achieve is achievable, and making them the best versions of themselves.”

CNN also meets with retired army veteran Derrick Cobbinah, who is the founder of Help Africa and CEO of Africa Unconquered Foundation. Cobbinah established the nonprofit, Help Africa, in 2014 to provide support to military veterans in Africa. The inspiration behind this came from his time in the British Army where, “There were a lot of soldiers that had served predominantly in the Second World War that had little or no support from both the UK government and the Ghanaian government at the time.”

The nonprofit sprung from funding provided by the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Service League, in order to, “Help and support these veterans locally.” Cobbinah says he, “Works closely with the veterans’ organisation within that particular country to try and see how we can bring them together because I feel that soldiers when they retire, get bored. And it was a great idea to bring soldiers across Africa together and see how best we can support them.”

Cobbinah is now doing this work in 18 countries across Africa, but he is also making a point of recognising the soldiers’ valour through The FAV award. He explains that this is, “The Forces and Veterans Awards, an initiative whereby we thought it wise that sometimes it's not just about supporting these veterans, it's about giving back to them and recognising their achievement because every veteran, every soldier has their own stories.”

Cobbinah hopes to continue expanding his initiatives to offer more wholistic forms of support to the service members and veterans in need. He finishes by saying, “Our paths have now crossed, and we are now looking at the future of Africa and sports recovery across this continent. So as an African, I mean our goals have aligned and we are doing as best as we can to be able to achieve this for the continent of Africa.”

African Voices Changemakers airs on CNN International at the following times:

Saturday 8th February 2025 at 0830 WAT and 1200 WAT

Sunday 9th February 2025 at 0430 WAT and 1900 WAT

Monday 10th February 2025 at 0430 WAT

Saturday 15th February 2025 at 0830 WAT and 1200 WAT

Sunday 16th February 2025 at 0430 WAT and 1900 WAT

Monday 17th February 2025 at 0400 WAT

https://edition.cnn.com/specials/africa/african-voices-changemakers

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