En Route

Like many young, black South Africans Yonela was nudged by her parents to pursue the sciences for the promise of a comfortable salary. Taking just as easily to science as she did to fashion, Yonela went ahead and studied Geology in university. While she was there, she met creative young people who were studying the arts. “It was unbelievable to me that people would go to school to study writing.” At the thick of the ‘Rhode Must Fall’ movement, as her political consciousness was being raised, her creative ambitions were piqued. She learned about activism through the arts and she was forever changed. After a trying journey to graduation, Yonela put her science degree away and pursued fashion styling, “fashion was the one thing I was always sure of. Even in science I was fashion,” she says, referring to the elaborate outfits she wore to chemistry class, where she stuck out like a sore thumb. Not long after, Yonela explored the visual and performance arts. Before she knew it, she was a solo-exhibiting artist. She talks about how her journey to the fine arts was a confidence game; the power that came with picking up the camera; and how she’s bet on herself and taken leaps of faith every step of the way. Music By Thesis ZA– Iintloni –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naCNvleJA0M Facebook –  https://www.facebook.com/thesisza Soundcloud –  https://soundcloud.com/thesis_za/iintloni

Like many young, black South Africans Yonela was nudged by her parents to pursue the sciences for the promise of a comfortable salary. Taking just as easily to science as she did to fashion, Yonela went ahead and studied Geology in university. While she was there, she met creative young people who were studying the arts. “It was unbelievable to me that people would go to school to study writing.” At the thick of the ‘Rhode Must Fall’ movement, as her political consciousness was being raised, her creative ambitions were piqued. She learned about activism through the arts and she was forever changed. After a trying journey to graduation, Yonela put her science degree away and pursued fashion styling, “fashion was the one thing I was always sure of. Even in science I was fashion,” she says, referring to the elaborate outfits she wore to chemistry class, where she stuck out like a sore thumb. Not long after, Yonela explored the visual and performance arts. Before she knew it, she was a solo-exhibiting artist. She talks about how her journey to the fine arts was a confidence game; the power that came with picking up the camera; and how she’s bet on herself and taken leaps of faith every step of the way. Music By Thesis ZA– Iintloni –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naCNvleJA0M Facebook –  https://www.facebook.com/thesisza Soundcloud –  https://soundcloud.com/thesis_za/iintloni

After living in the UK for 13 years, Luntu and his mom were deported back to South Africa. The future Luntu had worked hard for in the British theatre was suddenly taken away from him. Nonetheless, Luntu came to SA and continued to pursue a career as an actor and stumbled upon a business idea in the process. Luntu decided to use the theatre techniques he’d learned to make an intervention in the customer services industry and ‘Changing Your Business Through Theatre’ was born. After graduating from drama school, Luntu started looking for “quality over quantity” and landed ENGEN as a client. In this episode, Luntu talks about perseverance, surrender, and triumph in the face of struggle.  Music By Thesis ZA– Iintloni –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naCNvleJA0MFacebook –https://www.facebook.com/thesiszaSoundcloud –https://soundcloud.com/thesis_za/iintloni Luntu’s crowd-funding pages: SAhttps://lnkd.in/dM_n-Ve UK/USAhttps://lnkd.in/dwjvcFz     Articles about Luntu’s crowd-funding campaign: BrandSAhttps://lnkd.in/g7cZDGJ Good Things Guyhttps://lnkd.in/dj5WthX

After living in the UK for 13 years, Luntu and his mom were deported back to South Africa. The future Luntu had worked hard for in the British theatre was suddenly taken away from him. Nonetheless, Luntu came to SA and continued to pursue a career as an actor and stumbled upon a business idea in the process. Luntu decided to use the theatre techniques he’d learned to make an intervention in the customer services industry and ‘Changing Your Business Through Theatre’ was born. After graduating from drama school, Luntu started looking for “quality over quantity” and landed ENGEN as a client. In this episode, Luntu talks about perseverance, surrender, and triumph in the face of struggle.  Music By Thesis ZA– Iintloni –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naCNvleJA0MFacebook –https://www.facebook.com/thesiszaSoundcloud –https://soundcloud.com/thesis_za/iintloni Luntu’s crowd-funding pages: SAhttps://lnkd.in/dM_n-Ve UK/USAhttps://lnkd.in/dwjvcFz     Articles about Luntu’s crowd-funding campaign: BrandSAhttps://lnkd.in/g7cZDGJ Good Things Guyhttps://lnkd.in/dj5WthX

Although Thulani’s private school education afforded him plenty of access to information regarding what career opportunities he could pursue, he still found himself unsure of what to study after high school. He went from wanting to pursue a law education, to attending business school, and finally pursuing his passion as an entrepreneur. He went on to co-found Young Aspiring Thinkers with his friend, Monewa Matlwa, because he thought, “If I had so many resources and still didn’t know what to study, how much harder must it be for young people in under-resourced schools?” Thulani talks about his career journey, what work readiness actually entails, and what’s missing in our public school system. Music ByThesis ZA– Iintloni – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naCNvleJA0MFacebook – https://www.facebook.com/thesiszaSoundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/thesis_za/iintloni 

For Nonto, journalism came naturally, but she always felt a tug towards the arts. She figured out how to merge the two, but after a while, even that wasn’t enough. In this episode we talk about how she learned to stop self-sabotaging and went after her dreams. 

Notes: Find out more about Lesoko Seabe and Athi-Patra Ruga’s initiative to save the Lovedale Press here: https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/victory-of-the-word 

In this episode of EN ROUTE, Ayanda Charlie speaks to fashion media content producer, Modupe Oloruntoba. After graduating as a fashion designer in 2013, Modupe took a peek at fashion media and never left. She’s since been published in Vogue Arabia, Refinery29, Man Repeller, GQ South Africa, Fashionista.com and has worked at Superbalist, Elle and Woolworths. She has developed a complementary set of digital publishing skills over the years, and every other week she discusses global fashion industry headlines in her newsletter ‘Insert Fashion Here’. Modupe wants to develop local fashion publishing to support African fashion and further it in the global conversation.  Modupe’s latest article is the Jidenna cover story for GQ South Africa’s May/June 2020 music issue.