Kweku Adoboli & Mo Farah

Ahmed Sule of CFA examines society’s attitude towards two different individuals with similar backgrounds, but different fates.

Around 28 years ago in Mogadishu, Somalia, a woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy. The child was given the name Mohammed. Three years earlier in 1980 in Ghana, another woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Kweku.

Aged eight, Mohammed left Djibouti (where he was based after his birth) for England to join his father in the UK. Likewise Kweku also came to England at the age of eleven in 1991.

Mo (as he is now referred to) attended Feltham Community College in London where he struggled academically, but excelled as an athlete. Kweku on the other hand attended Ackworth School, a private boarding school where he excelled academically. He was appointed the Head Boy of the school in his final year. Kweku later attended the University of Nottingham, where he obtained a degree in e-commerce and digital business.

After education, their careers took different paths. Mo became a long distance runner specialising in the 5,000m and 10,000m races. At the commencement of his career, Mo Farah was an average runner achieving an average placing of seventh in various races at the European and World Athletic Championships between 2005 and 2009.

Three years after graduating from University, Kweku Adoboli secured a job at the blue chip Swiss investment bank UBS. Kweku was hardworking and extremely intelligent and within a couple of years of joining UBS in 2006, he rose through the ranks, eventually attaining a position as a Director of ETF Trading along with a seven-figure pay packet. Kweku was well loved by his colleagues and was a star trader.

What Kweku achieved in the trading room of UBS, Mo began to achieve on the running tracks around Europe. Between 2009 and 2010, he won three gold medals in the 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m events at the European Athletics Championships. The year 2011 proved to be a watershed one for these two hardworking Britons of African descent, who were both propelled in the global media spotlight. At the World Athletics Championship, which took place in South Korea just a few weeks ago, Mo competed in the 5,000m and 10,000m events.

He won a silver medal in the 10,000m final but his crowning moment came on the September 4 when he won the 5,000m race, beating America’s Bernard Lagat. Mo had became the first British athlete to win a global gold medal at 5,000m and a medal over 10,000m.

Exactly eleven days later on September 15, all eyes were on Kweku Adoboli following revelations that he was alleged to have lost his employer $2bn as a result of a rogue trade. The amount lost by Kweku was the biggest loss ever accrued by a single trader in British financial history. Kweku’s story made headlines all over the world, his face adorned on the front pages of the tabloids, the broadsheets and the financial newspapers. Kweku was eventually arrested and has been charged with fraud. At the time of writing, he is yet to be convicted.

Mo and Kweku are both British citizens who have spent between 60% and 70% of their lives in England. They are also products of the British sports and financial institutions respectively in addition to the British educational system. Although they are of African descent, they are British by culture, citizenship and fame.

However, at the peak of their fame, one notices an asymmetric treatment of their recognition as Britons. While most people have recognized Mo as British, the reverse is the case for Kweku who has been widely described as African. To illustrate my point, I highlight below references in the press to both Kweku and Mo at the peak of their fame.

Following his gold medal in the 5,000m, the press gushed with pride at Mo’s achievement with the Daily Mirror saying he had claimed his place “among British all-time greats with World title triumph" while The Sun simply said “MO FARAH became the first Brit to win a global 5,000m title and then roared: ‘Bring on 2012’". The Guardian admired him for his drive to win adding, “few British athletes have sacrificed more to win" while the Daily Mail quoted broadcaster and former distance runner Brendan Foster describing Mo as "Britain's greatest ever long distance runner."

Just a few days later, when the news of Kweku's trading troubles were revealed, the press had a field day with The Telegraph charting his journey as “From Ghana to the City: the rise of a trader who had it all."

The Guardian decided to mention he had been educated in Britain but was of African descent as did the Daily Mail, who wrote “The Ghanaian, who was privately educated in Britain and is the son of a retired UN worker, is accused of being responsible for the biggest loss ever accrued by a single trader based in London”. The Sun decided to focus on his physique, calling him a "well-built Ghanaian", who wept during a hearing at the City of London Magistrates' Court.

As the saying goes, “success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan”. Could this explain why Mo Farah is referred to as British while the public forgets his Somalian roots and why Kweku Adoboli is referred to as Ghanaian, Nigerian or African and his British affiliation is easily forgotten?

Would Kweku have been referred to as Ghanaian or African and not British if he had won the Nobel Prize for Economics, discovered a cure for cancer or if he won the gold medal in the 100m Olympic final?

Likewise, would Mo have been labelled as British and not Somalian if he was found to be a terrorist, had failed a drug test or was a serial killer?

It is time for Britons of African descent or Africans of British birth to be recognized as either Africans or Britons irrespective of success or failure, fame or notoriety, good or evil; after all Brits of Jewish descent are recognized as Brits; Brits of Australian descent are recognized as Brits and Brits of Australian descent are recognized as Brits.

Picture: Kweku Adoboli and Mo Farah

Ahmed Sule, CFA