Founder of the African University College of Communications and Business, Kojo Yankah, has reiterated the need for Public Relations professionals to enhance their communication strategies by rooting them in African cultural contexts.
He made the call while speaking at the second edition of the PR Legends Night held in Accra on May 9.
The PR Legends Night is a platform designed to celebrate pioneers in Ghana’s public relations industry and foster knowledge-sharing between seasoned practitioners and emerging professionals.
This year’s event was held in honour of Kojo Yankah, a Fellow of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) and a key figure in Ghana’s media and communications landscape.
Yankah, who also chairs the Board of Media General, used the occasion to challenge PR professionals to rethink their approach to client communication.
“We assume that everybody speaks English,” he said. “But if we are not speaking the local language and we think we are reaching the hearts and minds of the people, then we have to be careful—particularly those of us in PR.”
He stressed the importance of understanding clients’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds, urging PR practitioners to bridge communication gaps with tailored, context-specific strategies. “If you don’t understand the languages of both sides—your client and their audience—how can you truly communicate effectively?” he asked.
Yankah further called on the PR industry to reconnect with its African roots and question long-held professional assumptions shaped by Western perspectives.
“It is about time we examine our understanding of the profession and enrich it from the customer’s point of view,” he said. “PR is more African-based than we have been made to believe. The textbooks we’ve relied on are largely written from a European standpoint, and we’ve accepted them wholesale. IPR and IPRA in Africa should challenge this by researching and embracing our own models.”
The night also marked the official launch of the IPR Ghana Mentorship Programme, an initiative aimed at nurturing the next generation of PR professionals through direct mentorship from experienced industry leaders.
Beyond celebrating Kojo Yankah’s lifelong contributions, the event served as a rallying call for Ghana’s PR community to realign its strategies with cultural authenticity, indigenous knowledge, and thought leadership.
As the Public Relations landscape continues to evolve, Yankah’s message was clear: African PR must define itself—on its own terms.
