Bakare Mubarak wants to be an ambassador for Africa. The 28-year-old Nigerian is on a mission to develop more international connections and create new pathways for Africans and African diasporans to unite.
“We want to do business with the world,” Mubarak explained. “We want to be able to catalyze and be impactful by virtue of collaboration. The resources are there and, to cap it all, we are now top on the youth population index across the world.
“There is no part of the world that has as much of a youth population––youthful populations that are very vibrant, you know, and energetic––as the African continent,” he added. “So, it is important for us to utilize that for the better. And how can we do this? We can’t do it alone. It is important that we synergize with our brothers and sisters outside of the African continent, who’ve got the expertise, who’ve got the financial and other resources. When we begin to synergize, we begin to collaborate for the betterment of all.”
For Mubarak, this is an exciting time. During this, his first visit to the United States, the organization MIPAD (Most Influential People of African Descent) named him to its 2024 cohort, allowing him to attend a special gala hosted by Black Professionals in International Affairs (BPIA) in Washington, D.C., meet with business leaders in New York, Florida and Cleveland, and spend recent weeks networking with other like-minded people.
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Mubarak has already made himself known, earning some recognition as the founder of BilARTeral, a Nigeria-based firm that specializes in promoting and showcasing “art from Africa and its diaspora,” he said. He believes today’s African art is undervalued and that, if it were sufficiently promoted, it would be garnering the cultural and financial praise it truly merits. Mubarak is also the co-founder of Expedition 54, a platform designed to connect and integrate African businesses with other companies around the world, particularly African diaspora firms.
He’s a young man, but Mubarak already has connections to important business leaders on the continent. He first gained attention in Nigeria because of his style and his 6’9” stature: Mubarak is officially the tallest model in sub-Saharan Africa. He started modeling in 2010, while he was attending boarding school. “There was a movie that was actually done in my school. And, lo and behold, I was casted, to take a role in that movie. To my own greatest surprise, I did exceptionally well translating that role,” he said. Since he felt comfortable in front of the camera, Mubarak also started modeling, even going as far as to compete for the state pageant title in his mother’s native Kwara State, Nigeria; he was named Mr. Kwara International in 2015.
“But modeling was never the ultimate goal,” he said. “For me it was a deployment strategy to position for global impact.”
Upon arriving in the United States, Mubarak immediately had to beat assumptions that he was pursuing or already playing basketball. This bothered him at first, but he eventually learned to leverage those presumptions for his benefit.
“You know the reason why a lot of people say that is because the game is so lucrative, right? People built it with their blood, sweat, and tears, right? But why can’t we build other things? My belief is that we can be iconic; we don’t necessarily need to play basketball to be impactful, to be iconic,” Mubarak said. “We can be iconic doing so many other things besides playing basketball. And that’s one of the reasons why I have decided to leverage my unique status as a model to promote African culture whilst incorporating art tourism and business.
“I am dedicating my entire existence and embodiment to this work,” he added. “My mission is to be the bridge between home and abroad, between the continent and the diaspora. To be able to be one of the pioneering forces to help unify and bring about collaboration between the continent and the diaspora.”