Esteem International Magazine is an international branch of a media organization that also publishes The African Voice, a monthly newspaper. The managing editor of the Chicago-based Esteem International Magazine is Femi Odere. He spoke with VOA English to Africa reporter Angel Tabe about his periodical’s mission.
“What Esteem does is celebrate people of African descent, both here and in the continent of Africa…We realized that the image of continental Africa, especially in the Diaspora, is not encouraging for the most part, and that…a huge number of African Diasporans…are…accomplished in their chosen field of endeavor. And there was no publication to chronicle their achievements.”
Odere says he is overwhelmed by the appreciation for Esteem, an off-shoot of his organization. He describes the success of highly professional links created through the publication.
“People are satisfied we produce a high quality, high gloss cover to cover color magazine, not so much about celebrity, we do give information about the subject we are covering, so they have a bit of both worlds. We profiled a lady, who is vice-chairman of the Democratic Party in Waukegan, Illinois, and after, the governor of Akwa-Ibom State in Nigeria gave her a consulting job. We are like a conveyor belt that transports people from the Diaspora to the Nigerian readers and we also expose people in Nigeria to Africans in the Diaspora, so it’s a two-way street that we’re doing.”
The editor says naming the magazine was quite a process and led to a fitting choice.
"We decided on so many names when we started, but Esteem is more appropriate because what we’re trying to do is getting people who are very reputable in their chosen fields,…[and] Esteem gives you a [positive] personality mindset.”
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