Listen To Your Footsteps

Memorable moments from the conversation with Taryn Gill. From leaving a conventional career to creating a business rooted in African beauty, instinct and community, Taryn shares what it really feels like to step into the unknown. It is terrifying, thrilling—and sometimes both at once. Her reminder is simple: courage is not the absence of fear. It is doing the work despite it. And when doubt arrive...

Dr. Lesley Mofokeng - academic, journalist, and author - sits down with Kojo Baffoe to trace a life built on curiosity. From dreaming of being a bus driver in a dusty village outside Mafikeng, to breaking into the Sunday Times newsroom in the mid-90s, to writing bestselling books on Khanyi Mbau and Somizi, Lesley's path eventually turned inward — toward his own grandfather, a Dutch Reformed Ch...

A Memorable Moments highlight from my conversation with artist and storyteller Tsoku Maela, on using lived experience, photography and self-portraiture to make sense of mental health, identity and empathy. #LTYFMoments #ListenToYourFootsteps #TsokuMaela #MentalHealth #AfricanArt #SouthAfricanPhotography #SelfPortraiture #Storytelling

What does it mean to live a tapas life, to sample widely, to commit deeply, to keep becoming? Danielle Bowler has spent her life refusing neat labels, and in this conversation, she makes a powerful case for why she never needed one. Writer, culture editor, researcher, musician, and now opera composer, Danielle joins Kojo Baffoe for a deeply personal conversation that moves from Ifafa Beach on KwaZ...

This first LTYF Moments episode pulls a powerful excerpt from my conversation with ballerina and broadcaster Kitty Phetla, exploring discipline, pain and poise in the pursuit of mastering a craft. LTYF Moments is a new weekly Memorable Moments series, sharing focused highlights from longer Listen To Your Footsteps episodes.

João da Fonseca, better known as J Something, lead singer of Mi Casa, chef, and creative entrepreneur, sits down with host Kojo Baffoe for one of the most honest, joyful, and soul-stirring conversations the Listen to Your Footsteps podcast has produced. Born in Portimão, Portugal, raised in the Eastern Cape, and now 15 years deep into one of South Africa's most beloved musical journeys, J'Somethin...

Writer, documentary filmmaker, photographer, conceptual copywriter, and author of Patient 12A, Lesedi Molefi carries more titles than most, but at the heart of all of them is a single, unshakeable ethic: the restoration of dignity. In this rich conversation with host Kojo Baffoe, Lesedi reflects on a childhood lived across cities, a mother who used books, music, and protest marches as tools of pol...

Nontokozo Madonsela — marketing executive, podcast host, and co-founder of the So Fine Podcast Network — joins Kojo Baffoe for a deeply honest and wide-ranging conversation. From growing up in KZN as the eldest of five and carrying the weight of being a deputy parent, to leaving accounting behind because it didn't "run through her veins," Nontokozo shares the moments that shaped her into one of So...

Joburg‑born filmmaker Stephina Zwane Groenewald grew up in the inner city, learning to read the rough edges of Hillbrow and Joubert Park as closely as she read poetry and history. In this conversation, she talks to Kojo Baffoe about child TV fame on Craz-E, finding her voice behind the camera, and how Sorele Media’s films like Baby Mamas and Love, Sex and 30 Candles centre everyday African lives w...

Lebo Madiba is the founder and managing director of PR Powerhouse, one of South Africa's most respected strategic communications firms. She has spent her career at the intersection of stories, brands, culture, and trust — navigating white boardrooms as a young Black woman, building a business from a bedroom and a Vodacom dongle, managing reputations for the likes of South African Airways, Nedb...

What if the food your grandmother cooked was not just a meal — but a memory that could heal you? In Episode 131 of Listen To Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with Mokgadi Itsweng — plant-based food activist, award-winning chef and author of Veggielicious — for one of the most honest and deeply rooted conversations the show has ever produced. Mokgadi's story moves from a childhood in Mamel...

Veli Ngubane grew up belonging to nowhere. In the mornings he was the township kid at a Model C school. In the evenings he was the "cheese boy" who came back speaking differently. Neither world accepted him. That rejection, navigated daily across two distinct economies, forced him inward — and built a centre so solid that nothing has moved it since. Today Veli is the co-founding partner...

In this episode of Listen To Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with bestselling author, PR entrepreneur and TV co‑producer Angela Makholwa Moabelo to trace her journey from crime reporter to running Britespark Communications and writing some of South Africa’s most compelling noir fiction. Growing up in Tembisa, Angela found refuge in books, hiding in closets with Reader’s Digest anthologies an...

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 pres...

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...

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 host...

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 fami...

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,...

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 a...

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 gruellin...

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...

In this intimate conversation, culture and communications lead  Ntsika Tyatya  traces his journey from “between a mud house and a brick house” to stewarding MAXHOSA AFRICA’s voice on the global fashion stage. He reflects on being a lifelong “B-side” player, exporting African culture from Eastern Cape to Paris, and the sweat equity that turns campus poetry nights into Vogue‑level runways. We explor...

South African conductor, cellist, broadcaster and now author  Kutlwano Masote  joins this episode to trace a life lived between orchestra pits, radio studios and a Soweto home that doubled as a musical oasis. From grandparents who mixed political activism with choir rehearsals to his father Michael’s pioneering work with township orchestras, Masote shows how classical music was never far from Blac...

Donovan Goliath has built a career out of saying “yes” to his curiosity – from comedy stages and Netflix campaigns to design studios, cameras and a 365‑day make‑and‑share project. In this deeply reflective conversation, we slow everything down and unpack what actually sits behind that restless output.​ We talk about the multihyphenate struggle to find a stable “why”, how childhood rejection and ar...

Nomadic childhood. Eight schools in twelve years. Bucket baths in the village, champagne in the city. Kojo sits with African luxury strategist, Matte BLK co-founder and Africa on Luxury podcast host Buyi Mafoko to explore how a life built on movement, matriarchs and education shaped her ability to belong anywhere.​ Buyi talks about money as a means to freedom, the pressure of being “the successful...