Afua Hirsch Keynote Speaker

Social Affairs and Education Editor, Sky News (2014-present)
Former West Africa Correspondent, The Guardian (2011-14)
Barrister, and human rights activist

Afua Hirsch's Biography

Afua Hirsch is a Ghanaian-British journalist, barrister and human rights activist. She speaks widely on current affairs, the media, the importance of diversity and justice.

Afua is the author of Brit(ish), a Sunday Times bestselling Jonathan Cape publication that explores Britishness and identity, and their seismic social and political impact. Afua has worked as social affairs editor for Sky News and West Africa and legal affairs correspondent for The Guardian. She is the author of Equal to Everything, a children’s book which tells the story of Lady Brenda Hale, the first female Supreme Judge in the UK.

She is a former barrister and has also worked in international development. In addition to reporting on issues ranging from politics and policy, terrorism, the War in Mali, and Africa’s tech revolution, she writes and speaks extensively about social issues around justice and identity around the world. She was the co-presenter of Samuel L. Jackson’s major BBC TV series Enslaved in 2020.

Afua is currently the Social Affairs and Education Editor at Sky News. Prior to that, Afua was the West Africa correspondent for The Guardian, and was previously the newspaper’s legal affairs correspondent in the UK, where she also headed The Guardian Law website.

After receiving a degree in politics at the University of Oxford and a law degree, Afua practised law in criminal defence, public and international law. She also frequently publishes commentaries on a diverse range of subjects, and appears regularly in radio and TV broadcasts. Afua has also worked in development in 18 West African countries.