Normalising Black female excellence: An interview with Flavilla Fongang
Flavilla Fongang, brand strategist, speaker, author, podcaster and founder and MD of tech marketing agency 3 Colours Rule tells Computing why she set up GTA Black Women in Tech, and shares details of her mission to normalise Black female excellence.
GTA Black Women in Tech is a working group launched in 2019 under the Tech London Advocates (TLA) group started by Russ Shaw. Flavilla Fongang had already created the leading tech branding agency 3 Colours Rule and had built a strong personal brand as a keynote speaker and broadcaster. This activity led to her meeting with Shaw, and her realisation that a Black women's network was required.
Fongang recalls: "I went to a few of the events that TLA were organising, and I realised first of all there were not a lot of women who looked like me, and sometimes there wasn't a woman at all. Technology is so important and impacts on everyone and we need to make sure Black women are represented. I realised that the best person to do this was me!"
Fongang launched TLA Black Women in Tech in September 2019. Her vision is to normalise Black female excellence. The group acts as a network of support for Black women working in tech and those who are considering transitioning to the sector. Black Women in Tech also aims to amplify the voices of successful Black women and highlight their work to help to inspire younger women and children.
This work means speaking at events such as the BYP Network Leadership Conference which brought together thousands of attendees earlier this month. The BYP event is the largest Black professional networking conference in the UK. Fongang spoke on a panel to discuss the importance of mentoring and coaching.
Voices in the Shadow
In addition to working with potential and current tech employees, the group also works with employers seeking greater diversity in their workforces, and has attracted high quality sponsorship which supports initiatives such as an art collection (exhibited earlier this year and available here and also Voices in the Shadow, a collection of the stories of 51 Black women in the UK who have made an impact on the tech sector.
"Last year we launched our first volume and distributed it free to schools in the UK. We quickly realised that many teachers were not aware of lots of the technology roles in the book so it helps to educate them as well as children on what is possible."
A second volume of the book is due for publication later this year along with digital versions, which Fongang says will be distributed more widely outside of the UK. As founder and MD of 3 Colours Rule, Fongang is able to apply her creativity and background in psychology for the betterment of Black women.
"It's always a mind exercise. We live in a bubble and all see the world from our own perspective. The only way to change this is to make people feel uncomfortable in a situation but also welcome. That's the space I've created."
Raising aspirations and role models
Black Women in Tech has grown rapidly to around 12,000 members. The group has expanded beyond the UK to Ireland. Fongang is opening a French chapter next year, and has the US in her sights. The group has grown out of its original London base so quickly that it's had to be rehomed under the Global Tech Advocates (GTA) banner.
"We started having some very candid conversations not just about personal branding and how to raise your profile but also to examine how you go beyond a role and what you have to do to progress. How do you break the glass ceiling? And as we grew, we realised that some women have done really well but never been in the limelight."
Much of Fongang's agenda is to try to raise aspirations, and, like many of her Tech Advocates peers, to challenge the perception of what a career in tech can involve.
"What needs to change is the mindset of what technology roles look like and who works in technology. We don't want kids to just grow up wanting to be influencers. There's nothing wrong with social influencers, but there is so much more - you have the power to change people's lives.
"So, it's about elevating the most successful Black women to inspire the next generation but also to support women who haven't broken the glass ceiling to show them - this is how she's done it."
Fongang's own experience of arriving in the UK, from France as a non-English speaker in her formative years inculcated in her a profound belief in the importance of representation.
"I remember the first time when I arrived in this country thinking that Black people seemed to be doing so much better than they do in France. People didn't realise they were influencing me but I think if I'd stayed in France I wouldn't have achieved as much because my aspiration would have been based on what I saw. That is why representation is so important.
"I have a different type of mindset now where if I don't see it, I'm going to create it. But when we're younger we look for people who look like we do and that we can believe in."
The power of networks
Black Women in Tech is a large (and growing) network, and Fongang is emphatic that networks are pivotal in determining whether business ideas flourish, or wither on the vine.
"So much comes down to who you know. Everything I've achieved is based on the power of my network. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't be where I am now."
The socio-economic reality is that some people - typically from privileged backgrounds which are predominantly white - are born with business networks already at least half built. It's why the children of successful people often go on to become entrepreneurs themselves. Start-up and scale-up capital tends to be a lot easier to come by when your parents are relatively wealthy, even if they don't provide it directly.
It takes time to build networks when it isn't done for you. In Fongang's opinion this combines with the habitual underestimation of Black women and a lack of cultural understanding to make VC funding much harder to win for Black women. On that the statistics speak for themselves. Black women receive less than 0.5% of total VC funding in Europe. GTA Black Women in Tech cannot alter these perceptions, biases and straight-up unfairness on its own, but it can help Black women build a network that enables them to compete - even though the pitch is very far from being level.
Computing and CRN will once again be hosting the Women in Tech Festival with content that doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of being a woman within the tech industry across the world. Join us in London on 3 November and online on 9 November.
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