Listen To Your Footsteps

Kojo Baffoe | Zebra Culture

Kojo Baffoe is a South Africa based storyteller, writer, author & content strategist, driven by curiosity & a fascination with how people got to where they are and how they do what they do. In the Listen To Your Footsteps podcast, he has in-depth conversations with Africans operating across various fields like the arts, design, advertising, media, entertainment, technology and business about their life’s journey and the lessons they have learned along the way. It is a space for reflection, introspection, acknowledgement and celebration.

  1. 4d ago

    Melanie Ramjee, The Empress of Hype

    Melanie “Hypress” Ramjee has been bringing the noise to South African culture for almost three decades – from running nightclub doors and bedroom record labels to steering sold-out festivals and global campaigns as a boutique PR founder. In this episode of Listen To Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with “The Empress of Hype” to trace a journey that includes Black August, the fax-era of press releases, MySpace and Twitter’s early days, and the gritty reality of building Tutone Communications from scratch. They talk about how a mixed-masala childhood in Durban and Joburg shaped Melanie’s belief that “wealth is love and giving back”, why PR chose her long before she knew the job title, and what it really takes to keep a boutique agency alive when algorithms, platforms and audiences refuse to sit still. She opens up about heartbreak, losing everything on a hip-hop concert, choosing clients by energy rather than fees, and learning business lessons SARS-first. Melanie also shares the quieter side of her work: blogging on Hyprïs Life, raising three kids while navigating ageism in youth culture, and finding deep purpose as a board member and deputy chair at Special Olympics South Africa, championing differently abled athletes who rarely get mainstream airtime. This is a conversation about hype, heart, hustling ethically, and growing older without losing your curiosity. If you’re on your own creative or entrepreneurial path – in PR, media, music, sport or storytelling – this episode will give you both practical insight and a reminder that there is no single route to doing meaningful work. Listen, share with someone who needs to hear this, and leave a review so more people can find these African stories. #MelanieRamjee #Hypress #PublicRelations #SouthAfricanPodcast #AfricanStorytelling #TutoneCommunications #SpecialOlympicsSA #MusicIndustry #Entrepreneurship #WomenInPR

    1h 20m

  2. May 28

    Lolo Ndlovu, From Depression To Sneaker Empire

    What does it take to turn grief, depression and a student project into a national sneaker-care empire? In this episode, Kojo Baffoe sits down with Lolo Ndlovu, founder and CEO of The Sneaker Shack, to unpack the story behind South Africa’s leading sneaker cleaning retail chain. Lolo traces his journey from losing his mother at four and being raised by a present, devoted father, to chasing football dreams in Switzerland and the US, and hitting a deep depression that left him staring into “the void”. Out of that darkness came a simple idea: disrupt old-school laundry by building a sneaker cleaning service for a new, convenience-driven generation. We talk about grief that never quite goes away, learning to “feel the feeling” instead of running from it, and how sport taught Lolo more about business, teamwork and leadership than any lecture hall. He breaks down the early days in a 10m² container in Maboneng, the moment a Springbok and a tired mother validated the concept, and why he believes The Sneaker Shack is really in the business of behaviour change and saving people time. If you’re building something from scratch, juggling mental health, or just trying to make peace with your own story, this conversation offers practical insight and a lot of quiet courage. Listen, subscribe and share this episode with a founder, sneaker lover or friend who needs to hear that you can start exactly where you are. Leave a review to help more listeners discover African stories like this. #LoloNdlovu #TheSneakerShack #AfricanEntrepreneurs #SneakerCulture #SouthAfricanBusiness #MentalHealth #GriefAndHealing #BusinessOfTime #KojoBaffoe #ListenToYourFootsteps

    1h 20m

  3. May 14

    Ephraim Molingoana, Stitching Memory Into Modern Fashion

    Soweto streets. QwaQwa cattle. Boarding‑school dorms that almost burned. Fashion runways from Johannesburg to Istanbul. In this episode of Listen To Your Footsteps, Ephraim Molingoana traces how South African history, township life and village memory shaped his journey from breakdancer and “silent actor” model to founder of menswear label Ephymol. He shares vivid stories of growing up between hostels, trains and a grandmother’s homestead, dancing for Brenda Fassie, navigating 80s and 90s modelling cliques, and eventually stepping behind the scenes as a stylist and creative director before designing his own collections. You’ll hear how miners’ patched trousers, string‑cars, Pantsula culture and kasi classic cars became design references, and how he uses colour, lace and tailoring to expand ideas of Black masculinity on and off the runway. Ephraim also reflects on the loss of community, the rise of individualism and the impact of AI and technology on fashion work – asking what it means to protect craft, jobs and humanity while still evolving with the times. This is a masterclass in South African cultural history, fashion storytelling and the courage it takes to keep reinventing yourself without losing your roots. If this conversation resonates, follow the podcast, share the episode with another creative, and leave a review – it helps more listeners discover these African stories. #EphraimMolingoana #Ephymol #SouthAfricanFashion #SowetoStories #QwaQwa #Menswear #AfricanDesign #TownshipCulture #FashionHistory #ListenToYourFootsteps

    1h 50m

  4. May 7

    Tats Nkonzo, Laughing Through Generational Reckonings

    When South African comedian and musical satirist Tats Nkonzo sits down with Kojo Baffoe, laughter becomes a way of working through generational reckonings – from fathers and family businesses to childhood characters, mental health and the country their children will inherit. In this episode of Listen To Your Footsteps, Tats reflects on growing up as the last born in a loving but complicated family, watching his father carry responsibility and choosing which parts of that inheritance he is willing to accept. He and Kojo unpack how art, stand‑up comedy and recorded conversations become a living archive, giving their kids language and context for who their parents are and why they made certain decisions. Together they move through stories of family businesses, neighbourhood patrols, community WhatsApp groups and the people they now recognise as people living with unspoken pain. They interrogate birth order, masculinity, duty, mental illness and the tension between African communal life and modern urban individualism – always returning to the question of what we actually pass on when we say we love our families and our country. If you are a creative, a parent or a South African wrestling with your own generational story, this conversation will remind you that laughter is often how we touch the hardest truths and still move forward together. Listen, share and subscribe to Listen To Your Footsteps on Spotify, YouTube and your favourite podcast app. If this episode resonates, leave a rating, write a review, and send it to someone navigating their own generational reckonings. Recorded at Vodcasttv #TatsNkonzo #ListenToYourFootsteps #SouthAfricanPodcast #StandUpComedy #AfricanStorytelling #GenerationalReckonings #ArtAndLegacy #Fatherhood #MentalHealth #Community #SouthAfrica

    1h 52m

  5. Apr 30

    Emily Ntuli, Taxi Ranks To C-Suite

    Her father owned taxis. She runs a law firm. Emily Ntuli grew up the fourth daughter in a township in Pretoria, in a household shaped by the grit, dignity and stigma of South Africa's taxi industry. There was no professional blueprint to follow, no family member who had walked into a boardroom before her. What Emily had was a work ethic inherited from her parents, a quiet and relentless drive, and an ability to read systems — in organisations, in people and in herself. Today she is the Chief Operations Officer of HBGSchindlers Attorneys in Johannesburg, a Non-Executive Director, a Committee Chair, an IoDSA member, and one of the most compelling voices in South Africa's legal and corporate leadership space. The distance between the taxi ranks and the C-Suite is not a gap she glosses over. It is the whole story — and in this episode, she tells it with full honesty. This is a conversation about what it takes to move from a reception desk to a corner office, how to build HR and operational systems that actually serve the people inside them, and why the most powerful thing Emily Ntuli can do now is be visible — for her daughter, for township youth, and for every first-generation professional trying to find their footing in a world that was not designed with them in mind. On this episode: Growing up in a taxi-industry household and the values her parents built into herMoving from receptionist to HR administrator and discovering her gift for people and processHow law chose her — long before she had the language to choose it backNavigating retrenchment on both sides — as someone retrenched, and as someone who had to do it to othersRunning a beauty salon as an act of entrepreneurship, survival and self-determinationBecoming a mother and how it sharpened her sense of purpose and urgencyQuiet leadership — why introversion is a strategic advantage in loud corporate environmentsBuilding systems that protect people, not just organisationsHer vision for making South Africa's legal sector more human and more inclusiveLegacy, visibility and the open door she is determined to hold for those coming behind herFrom the taxi ranks of Pretoria to the C-Suite of a Johannesburg law firm. This is Emily Ntuli's story. Listen now and follow Listen To Your Footsteps for new episodes every week. #EmilyNtuli #ListenToYourFootsteps #TaxiRanksToCsuite #HBGSchindlers #WomenInLeadership #COO #SouthAfricanPodcast #LegalSector #HRLeadership #BlackWomenInBusiness #TownshipToBoardroom #CareerJourney #FirstGenerationGraduate #AfricanLeadership #WomenEmpowerment #SocialMobilitySA #OperationsManagement #SystemsThinking #SouthAfricaBusiness #PodcastSA

    1h 34m

  6. Apr 23

    Eddie Hatitye, Quiet Architect of African Sound

    Eddie Hatitye has spent two decades quietly building the infrastructure behind African music. From growing up in Harare with no access to instruments to leading the Music In Africa Foundation and founding the ACCES music market, he has become a key architect of how African sound is documented, funded and shared. Kojo and Eddie unpack the African music ecosystem beyond the stage: live performance and touring, royalties and data, management as the continent’s biggest missing skill, and why civil society and independent organisations are doing so much of the heavy lifting. They discuss diversifying revenue, youth internships and what it takes to turn creative passion into a sustainable career. Eddie also reflects on leadership, fatherhood, travel and the opportunities and risks AI brings to music makers and arts institutions. If you care about African music, creative careers or the future of the continent’s cultural economy, this episode is your starting point. Recorded at Vodcast TV #AfricanMusic #MusicBusiness #MusicInAfrica #CreativeEconomy #ACCESMusicMarket #AfricanCreatives #MusicManagement #LivePerformance #Royalties #ArtsFunding #CreativeCareers #AfricanSound

    1h 26m

  7. Apr 16

    Nzinga Qunta, From Newsroom Lights To Law

    From teen model and Channel O presenter to SABC business news anchor and, now, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Nzinga Qunta has lived several professional lives before forty. In this intimate conversation, she opens up about feeling like she was “performing smartness” on television and why she walked away from the newsroom to test the true limits of her mind in the notoriously gruelling Johannesburg Society of Advocates pupillage programme. Nzinga traces a childhood spent in exile across Botswana and Zimbabwe, the shock of coming “home” to South Africa to confront race labels and class divides, and how language, Pan-African politics and Black Consciousness shaped her sense of belonging. She speaks honestly about imposter syndrome, becoming a beginner again among younger lawyers, and the quiet discipline of building a reputation through work rather than social media performance. Along the way, we move through modelling castings and music television stages, the baptism of fire that was ANN7 and SABC live news, to international moderation gigs with presidents and CEOs, and her commitment to showing up as a fully visible Black woman—headwrap, Umbhaco fabric and all—without dimming her intellect. We also sit with motherhood, scouts, school runs and the realities of raising a daughter while fighting through one of the toughest spaces for Black women in South Africa’s legal profession. If you have ever wondered whether it is too late to start again, whether your mind can stretch further, or how to find your place when you do not quite fit the mould, this episode is a masterclass in purposeful reinvention, humility and courage. Listen in, share it with someone who needs to hear it, and leave a review so more people can discover these stories. #NzingaQunta #ListenToYourFootsteps #AfricanStories #BlackWomenInLaw #CareerReinvention #SouthAfricanPodcast #BusinessNewsAnchor #AfricanIdentity #JohannesburgSocietyOfAdvocates #Storytelling

    1h 19m

  8. Apr 9

    Apiwe Bubu, Persistence Between Two Worlds

    In this episode, South African pianist, producer and label head Apiwe Bubu unpacks a 20-year journey from Eastern Cape school halls and Roman’s Pizza shifts to Berklee College of Music, Grammy-winning LA studios and Amapiano nights in Los Angeles. He shares how three failed Berklee auditions, immigrant hustle and a belief in persistence shaped his craft as a mix engineer, composer, DJ and founder of global music ecosystem We Want More and the AmaKinezi Vibe brand. Apiwe reflects on turning jazz piano into a foundation for everything from TV scores and trap beats to his debut solo album, why he calls mixing the “dark art” of music making, and what it means to build home across Pretoria, Johannesburg, the Eastern Cape and LA. The conversation dives into mentorship, signing his own mentor, navigating label partnerships with Virgin, and designing systems that let African creatives thrive across continents. If you are an emerging producer, sound engineer, artist or storyteller balancing multiple paths, this is a masterclass in craft, resilience and improvising a life that fits who you are. Listen, follow and share this episode with a friend chasing a creative path between worlds, and leave a rating or review so more people can discover these stories. #ApiweBubu #SouthAfricanMusic #JazzPiano #Amapiano #MusicProduction #SoundEngineering #BerkleeCollegeOfMusic #CreativeJourney #AfricanCreatives #ListenToYourFootsteps

    1h 14m
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About

Kojo Baffoe is a South Africa based storyteller, writer, author & content strategist, driven by curiosity & a fascination with how people got to where they are and how they do what they do. In the Listen To Your Footsteps podcast, he has in-depth conversations with Africans operating across various fields like the arts, design, advertising, media, entertainment, technology and business about their life’s journey and the lessons they have learned along the way. It is a space for reflection, introspection, acknowledgement and celebration.

Information

  • Creator
    Kojo Baffoe | Zebra Culture
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    129
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 880426
  • Show Website
    Listen To Your Footsteps

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