Safiya Songhai

Safiya means "clear and pure-minded woman" in the Swahili language. Songhai is from the largest and most accomplished 15th- and 16th-century West African Empire, now Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, whose leaders emphasized education and social, economic and gender equality. Her ancestry comes from the Yoruba, Bantu, Kpelle, Bamileke and Mandika people of Western and South Africa.

Songhai was an Anchor for Arise News Now at the international news network, Arise.tv. In 2012, Songhai was a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter for the ABC affiliate KQ2 in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 2008, she covered the Crime and Justice beat for the Richard French Live show on WRNN-TV in Westchester, NY. Songhai has also contributed to the online news network FDNN-TV covering human interest stories of East Coast firefighters. While in college and graduate school, Songhai worked as a TV host, and producer for WHUT-TV, the PBS affiliate in Washington, DC. She won a Student Emmy as a co-producer for a special called the Spring Black Arts Festival. Songhai also produced the weekend lottery broadcast at WJZ-TV 13 in Baltimore, serving as the back-up announcer.

In 2010, Songhai joined the faculty of Prairie View A&M University as a full-time professor of mass communications. She was nominated by students and faculty for the President's Teacher's Award, and the PV Choice Awards for excellence in teaching.

Safiya Songhai, is an American film director, television anchor/reporter and beauty queen. She was the 1st runner-up to Miss Black USA 2008, representing Massachusetts. Songhai was also a local winner and runner-up in both the District of Columbia and New York state pageants for the Miss America competition. From 2010 - 2012, Songhai served as a professor of Mass Communications at Prairie View A&M University, receiving three teaching award nominations from students and faculty.

Songhai was first runner-up in the Miss Black USA 2008 pageant, representing Massachusetts in the competition. Songhai has had a notable career in the Miss America Pageant system, winning the title of Miss Five Boroughs in 2004 placed in the top ten winning preliminary on-stage questions in the Miss New York Pageant. Prior to this win, Songhai was first runner up to Miss District of Columbia 2003, second runner up to Miss District of Columbia 2001, and was first runner up to Miss Metropolitan Manhattan 2004. Songhai's talent is usually a comedic monologue, and she has won top-interview, and on-stage question at nearly every pageant in which she has competed.

In 2003, Songhai began her fledgling film production company Mpirefilms. The first projects were short films, public service announcements and even audition tapes for reality show hopefuls. Her first film, LadyLike, received distribution through AltCinema and has been screened internationally.