In the Listen To Your Footsteps podcast, I have in-depth conversations with Africans operating across various fields such as the arts, design, advertising, media, entertainment, communications, 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.
The most foundational theme across all episodes is the idea that how someone got to where they are matters more than where they arrived. Conversations are grounded in backstory, childhood, and the conditions that shaped each guest, not to romanticise origin stories, but to surface the craft of becoming.
We never rush to the destination. Guests are frequently prompted to return to inflection points – the moments a career collapsed, a direction shifted, a decision was made against the grain. This patient, longitudinal approach to storytelling generates one of the show’s most consistent insights: the pivot is rarely accidental; it is usually the accumulation of many smaller acts of listening to oneself.
Recurrent themes include: identity, belonging, and the question of home; reinvention and the courage of the pivot; fatherhood, parenting, and redefining manhood; craft, mastery, and the work behind visible success; quiet leadership; mental health, wellness, and the permission to heal; African creativity; ubuntu, community, and collective responsibility; storytelling and the archive as act of justice; and much more.
Listen To Your Footsteps podcast is available on multiple podcasting platforms including: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Afripods, YouTube, Amazon Music, Castbox, Podcast Addict, and Pocket Casts.
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.
What happens when the life you build refuses to follow a pattern?
South African writer, creative consultant, talent manager and producer Mahlatse James joins Kojo Baffoe for a conversation about fashion, identity and finding your way through a creative life.
From growing up in Lebowakgomo and attending school in Polokwane to navigating Johannesburg’s fashion and media spaces, Mahlatse reflects on learning to adapt without always knowing what comes next. He shares how conversations opened doors to writing and styling, what launching Lucky Boy Clothing taught him, and why a five-year plan could never have predicted the person he would become.
Together, Mahlatse and Kojo explore the versions of ourselves we bring into different rooms, the friendships that change as we grow, and the tension between creative enjoyment and earning a living. There is also a spirited exchange about personal style, familiar clothes and the possibility of finding more things that work.
As the questions begin travelling in both directions, the conversation becomes as much about how we live as what we do.
In this episode:
- Growing up between different social worlds and learning to belong.
- Building a creative career through relationships and unexpected opportunities.
- Fashion writing, personal style and the lessons of Lucky Boy Clothing.
- Working with image-makers and producing commercials.
- Writing for money, changing media models and the value of reputation.
- Returning to study and making room for another version of yourself.
Listen to Episode 148 of Listen to Your Footsteps. Follow the podcast for more conversations about African lives and creative journeys, and share this episode with someone finding their own way. If the conversation resonates, leave a rating or review wherever your platform allows.
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