Although we’ll still celebrate this festive season still battling the effects of the “pancession” – the COVID-19 induced economic recession – and having to observe safety protocols intended to contain the spread of the COVID-19 infections, at the Brandhill Africa group we will pause to reflect on the year that was and put into perspective our reservoirs of inspiration which were even enhanced by the African Union (AU) declaring 2021 as “The Year of Arts, Culture and Heritage”. By the way, it was an honour for me this year to be elected into the National Steering Committee of the National Writers Association of South Africa (NWASA) on a three-year tenure and being given the responsibility to head the organisation’s portfolio on Cultural Diplomacy and Strategic Alliances – reporting into the Presidency.
So amidst the trials and tribulations of 2021 as the founding Group CEO and Chairman, I drew inspiration from the arts, culture and heritage to ensure I remained focused on my long-term vision. So in this last edition of this year’s news portal, I am going to share with you some of the quotes that empowered to maintain my sanity. As a brand architect, I knew from day one when I decided to embark on this entrepreneurial journey that I had travel full circle – “in my end is my beginning,” as the American-British bard, T.S. Elliot mused.
Why am I saying this? I have known about this journey since I was a thirteen year old urchin in rural Hammanskraal when I was forced to start working as a gardener on Saturdays; use the loot in buying a stock of a crate of eggs, peanuts, Cardbury Romantics (pink pilletjies for soccer fans trying to impress their girlfriends) and Wilson’s XXX Strong (for those at varsity we dubbed “mangobia” – meaning those without girlfriends, or those who needed something strong to disguise the stench of alcohol smell in their mouths); boil the 36 eggs in the morning of Sunday; then go to the soccer playgrounds to go sell boiled eggs, peanuts and romantics. I then saved enough money to buy myself a camera and I then took photos of people at soccer matches and students at school – particularly during school trips (yes, this was long before the advent of digital photography and smart phones). Yes, I managed to take myself to school from Standard Three (now Grade 3) up until I passed matric. I only stopped being self-sufficient when I went to the university because I then augmented the sacrifices from my dad, Samuel Molobi (1929 to 2009, may his beautiful soul rest in power) with bursaries I managed to clinch.
Back to this year of challenges arising from the economic lockdowns continuously effective from last March is eloquently eulogised by Charles Dickens dirge: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” My principle was premised on the adage “don’t let any good crisis go to waste”. And Rene Descartes every second whispered in my ear: “Cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am.)
While Immanuel Kant is always reminding us “the best way to predict the future is to invent it…”, as a brand architect I extended it with Socrates’ instructive message: “The way to gain a reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear…”. So we embarked on promoting positive narratives about Africa through this news portal, Jambo Africa Online, and the annual Biashara Services and Products Africa (BiSPA) Conference and Exhibition – and its quarterly instalments of webinars building up towards the annual jamboree. Yes, we have also created two WhatsApp groups as per the mandate from the delegates from our webinars. Our belief was premised on the advice from Ben Okri, when he mused: “A people are as healthy and confident as the stories they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick. Without stories we would go mad. Life would lose in moorings or orientation… Even in our silence we are living our stories. Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart larger.”
Yes, all our platforms as the Brandhill Africa group deliberately shy away from communicating any negative narratives on Africa – there are plenty such as the BBC, CNN and other online news outlets. So we’re not spreading any fallacies. We’re also mindful of the advice that was given by Irvin “The Iron Duke” Khoza when he wrote in a tribute to his late daughter, Zodwa, in the 17 February 2006 edition of the Sowetan: “The quickest way to kill a brand is to communicate something that falls short of the brand promise… ”
Yes, our platforms promote positive narratives about Africa while also being factual – it isn’t either or between the two. Dickens said: “NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these [proverbial] children nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’
On 1 July 2020 after I announced through social media, including LinkedIn, that I was joining my company, Brandhill Africa (Pty) Ltd – that I registered in May 2016 – on a full time basis, many, though out of concern for my social security, asked: “Are you sure about this decision?” Yes, I was quitting a well-paying job as a Group Executive: Trade, Investment and Regulatory Enablement at the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA). Though, admittedly so, it was scary, I took the plunge. I was exiting the public service after twenty years. I went into my study room at home, and reread Ben Okri: “The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering… This is what you must be like: grow wherever life puts you down…”
From 2016, Brandhill Africa’s pay-offline as a competitive identify and public diplomacy agency was: Research. Innovate. Re/Engineer. The last bit spoke to me personally about re-engineering my personal brand from two decades of being a conscientious civil servant to becoming an entrepreneur. I still harboured my ideal of being a change agent. And Okri’s relevance ruled supreme: “You can’t remake the world/ Without remaking yourself./ Each new era begins within./ It is an inward event,/ Without unsuspected possibilities/ For inner liberation…/ Only free people can make a free world./Infect the world with your light./ Press forward the human genius./ Our future is greater than our past…”
Looking at the past year, we have done relatively well in terms of building the Brandhill Africa brand – the World Brand Congress even bestowed upon us the “Best Brand Award” during the “Brand Leadership Awards 2021” on 15 July 2021.
Now as we prepare ourselves for next year, let’s take a hint from Dickens again: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” As according to one of the foremost thought leaders on marketing, Phillip Kotler, marketing is “the science and art of exploring, creating and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market AT A PROFIT…” my challenge is to build all the subsidiaries in the group to become profile. These are Brandhill Africa (Pty) Ltd (a brand development and management agency established in 2016; Brandhill Africa Media Holdings (Pty) Ltd, established last year as a publisher of Jambo Africa Online, my boom “Sound and Fury: The Chronicles of Healing, and a few titles in the pipeline; Brandhill Africa Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd which was established last year and mobilizes funding for over 52 infrastructure development projects in a number of African countries; Brandhill Africa Institute which was established this year and runs our public diplomacy programmes: and Brandhill Africa Foundation NPC which was established in 2018 and runs successful corporate social investment programmes. Although these companies are independent and autonomous from each other, and each has its own CEO except for the first one for which i serve as the CEO, my key competence as the Group Chairman is to ensure strategic and operational alignment across the group to ensure we brand position Africa and her countries as viable destination for tourism and investment while we strive to open market access opportunities for the “Made in Africa” service and product brands.
While we joined the Dubai-headquartered World Free Zones Association (World FZA) – which is a federation of the special economic zones (SEZs) from all over the world – last year in 2020, this year we formally joined the continental Africa Tourism Board (ATB) as a member too. I have also re-instated my membership of the Marketing Association of Southern Africa (MASA) and have always been a member of the Institute of Marketing Management (IMM) – which is a member of the African Confederation of Marketing (ACM) as an alumni of the IMM Graduate School of Marketing.
Although I conducted numerous media interviews this year, two notable ones were with Dr Nimrod Mbele on his “Beyond Governance” show on Chai FM – a radio station who listeners are primarily the Jewish community that include captains of the industry – in which we unpacked the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). While I first did an interview with Chai FM by Charisse Zeifert, the Communications Head of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), during the launch of my book in February 2020, the station was this year highly generous as it featured me thrice – courtesy of Dr Mbele. In the first interview, we reflected on economic diplomacy as a cornerstone of contemporary international relations by drawing from my experience as South Africa’s Consul-General to Milan, Italy, from 1 April 2012 to 31 June 2016. In the second interview, Dr Mbele hosted me with Unathi Mtonintshi, head of Nehemia Consulting. And in the third interview, I was with Victor Kgomoeswana, the author of “Africa Bounces Back” – a great sequel to his first book, “Africa Open for Business“. And the last was on 16 December focusing on the benefits accruing from the AfCFTA for the youth sector. I’ll always be grateful to Dr Mbele for having given me the opportunities.
I have no chance of survival without making the Brandhill Africa group successful – it is my alpha and omega; my beginning and my ending; it is the centre of my universe. I eat, drink, think, sleep, talk and walk this brand. It is what I hope will define my legacy to this world.
As the CEO of Brandhill Africa (Pty) Ltd, I hope to ensure the Africa IPA CEO Forum becomes a reality as a structured mechanism for engagement among the CEOs of Africa’s economic development agencies. I also hope to enhance my service offerings in brand development and management by continuing with my candidacy of Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) – with global marketing as an area of my specialisation – at the University of Northampton while also attracting clients to the company from Africa as a whole and other continents with interest in Africa. Yes, I intend my academic research in two years to develop a brand development and management framework for Africa based on the practical work I will be undertaking through my company in building the continent’s brand equity. As I always say, the work is cut out for me.
Before I sign off, let me pay a special tribute to fallen diplomatic and literary soldiers, HE Mr Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim (1 July 1937 – 6 December 2021), Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza (13 August 1938 to 6 December 2021) and American author, Bell Hooks (25 September 1952 to 15 December 2021). I have worked closely with HE Mr Ebrahim when he served as a Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) while I served as the Department’s Chief Director: Public Diplomacy. I have fond memories of travelling with this unassuming and highly humble thinker and intellectual to Cuba in 2011. While during my 2010 visit as part of the state visit delegation we only stayed in Havana, my trip with this revolutionary leader saw our hosts taking us to obscure villages to have a complete picture of Cuba’s development – including in rural areas. As a Motswana (a member of a TRIBE of Batswana. I’m emphasising the word TRIBE because there’s a retro tendency in South Africa emerging recently in which tribes are erroneously and despicably accorded a nation status), I was fascinated to be served my traditional “tshotlo” (crushed meat) – though there Africans indigenous to Cuba, I was surprised because this delicacy is served by Botswana in South Africa and Botswana. Yes, we did visit Heroes’ Acres and paid our respects to the fallen combatants of the Cuban internationalist forces, laid wreaths at the statues of Oliver OR Tambo and Alex la Guma, our scribe, at the Garden of Remembrance. As I am an ardent cultural activist and no social misfit, I explored Havana’s night life. I visited the Havana clubs, factories producing the iconic cigars, flea markets and the house of the legendary journey Ernest Hemingway.
Another memorable trip I undertook with the Deputy Minister was to a few cities – we started in Greece, then Croatia, Cyprus (where we also visited the disputed border area between the country and Turkey) before going to Germany where we attended an international event hosted by the Art of Healing at a Berlin stadium and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a globally revered spiritual and humanitarian leader, bestowed an award upon our Deputy Minister. Later in 2011, my last trip was with the Deputy Minister to the Africa-Arab League Summit held in Sirte, Libya, which was chaired by the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The Deputy Minister was supporting HE Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, the then Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa. May comrade Ebbie’s revolutionary soul rest in power.
Both Amb Mabuza and Bell were academics and cultural activists whose literary and scholarly outputs transformed our lives as cultural workers. In their cases, perhaps I could quote what Frederich Engels wrote on Karl Marx’s epitaph: “A great thinker has ceased to think…”
Enjoy your festive season. Observe COVID-19 safety protocols. Respect road safety rules and regulations. Drink responsibly. Enjoy your quality time with your family and all your loved ones. And I wish you a prosperous and highly successful 2022.
Let me finally close by quoting a “senryu” from Thabo Lehlongwa (stage name, “Mothofela“): “Kaofela kaofela/ before the light shines we need/ space to be black/ we’ve set up bombs to make/ 2022 explode / we just have to detonate one/ the target is on sight…”
Our next edition of Jambo Africa Online will be on 8 January 2022.
Stay blessed.
Saul Molobi
Publisher
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