‘I arrive at an urgent time for black people to see themselves represented’, says Kenya Sade, Globo’s bet

“For many years, they believed that black people were not intelligent and capable. But today I inaugurate a new place for black women who reach spaces.” This is how reporter and presenter Kenya Sade, 30, sees her evolution within the country’s largest broadcaster. Since 2022, Globo has bet on it as one of the channel’s new entertainment faces.

Since then, Kenya has become a fixture in the broadcasts of festivals such as Lollapalooza, The Town and Rock in Rio. At the beginning of this year, she also had the chance to be a reporter for the program The Masked Singer Brasil.

Until five years ago, this was something unimaginable in the mind of the São Paulo native, daughter of a single mother and native of Itaquera (east zone). “I never dreamed of being famous because of the boycott. I self-sabotaged myself for years, because I didn’t think this place was for me. I still try to understand fame, but today I know that I’m on this path because I deserve it”, she says in an interview with F5.

Kenya, whose main references are Gloria Maria (1949-2023) and Oprah Winfrey, states that, when she auditioned for the network, the channel wanted more diversity on the screen. Now, her intention is to be a mirror for thousands of people who dream of one day reaching the position she occupies.

“I arrive at a time of urgency for black people to see themselves represented”, says she, who says she is receiving a lot of affection from the people who see themselves in her. “This is a moment of transformation for a country that wants to see itself on screen.”

During her childhood and adolescence, the reporter says that the family was lower middle class. Daughter of an Angolan father, with whom she had very little contact (“he was the one who gave me my name, as he was a fan of the singer Sade Adu”, she recalls), she says that her mother did everything she could to make her achieve what she wanted.

Therefore, Kenya studied in private schools and colleges, went on exchange and learned three languages ​​(English, French and Spanish). “I was an only child, raised with many women and in a musical environment,” she recalls.

“My mother is a black woman with a degree in economics who always tried to shield me from possible discrimination, saying that I could be whatever I wanted,” he says. “But it is not easy to subvert social adversities living in Brazil.”

Even so, the presenter was not immune to racism and believes that the fight against prejudice is daily. “We have to prove ourselves two or three times more,” she says.

A lesbian, Kenya has been in a relationship with a woman for five years, with whom she plans to build a family in ten years. “This is a flag that I also raise,” she says. “Brazil is homophobic, but it has reevaluated itself on this issue.”

“I feel happy to live in a country that accepts a black woman with another woman,” he says. “I live naturally and if I have to talk out loud about it, I will.”