Listen To Your Footsteps

What does it mean to make a photograph that holds more than a moment?
In this episode of Listen to Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with Soweto-born documentary and commercial photographer, photographic artist and printmaker Andile Bhala. Their conversation moves through memory, music, football, bicycles, fatherhood, creative process and the responsibility of documenting the places and people that shape us.
Andile reflects on growing up in a lively four-room home in Orlando West, Soweto, where stories, music and a constant flow of people taught him how to observe. He shares how a football dream gave way to photography; how cycling became a vehicle for community, discovery and visual storytelling; and why the best camera is often simply the one in your hand.
They also explore Andile’s belief that “paper remembers more”, the delicate line between commercial work and documentary truth, and his ongoing project on names, identity and generational legacy. Most powerfully, this is a conversation about seeing Johannesburg honestly: its beauty, its decay, its noise, its contradictions and the hope it must continue to offer those who arrive looking for a future.
If you care about South African photography, Soweto stories, visual culture, Johannesburg, African creativity, documentary practice and the art of paying attention, this episode is for you.
Listen, follow and share this episode with someone who believes that a photograph can preserve what a city might otherwise forget.
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We're looking back on some of our favorite moments from past episodes. The ones that made us pause, reflect, and feel something. In this highlight reel, Zoë Modiga opens up about humanising her father, the beautiful memory of stealing her grandfather's pens, the childhood dentist visit that almost became a career, trusting intuition as a creative compass, why she'll always be an "album artist," and what really brings her joy.
A reflective, heartfelt episode on family, creativity, and staying true to yourself.
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Simmi Areff wants one thing on the record first: he is a comedian. The podcast pioneer, the group head of audio and video, the man who produces Trevor Noah's podcast, all of it comes after the microphone.
In episode 140, Kojo Baffoe speaks to the comedian and podcaster who built South African podcasting before most people could define the word. From Ike's Bookshop in Durban and a father deeply entrenched in the ANC, through three degrees and a decade of radio programme managers who refused to put him on air, to the corridor in Montreal that changed everything.
We get into what actually makes someone a storyteller, why great audio forgives bad video, and why 80 listeners once generated 500 million rand. Then it goes quieter: losing his father in September, hearing him in the wind, and the safety net that lets him say no to anyone, a roof over his head and a hot plate of food. He is certain his moment has not arrived yet. He thinks it will arrive in London.
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In this Memorable Moments clip from Listen To Your Footsteps, RJ Benjamin shares how Trevor Noah once came to him for vocal coaching long before global fame — a connection that later led to RJ collaborating with comedian Kagiso Lediga on a Netflix comedy-musical. He also reveals the deeply personal truth behind one of his most loved songs, originally written about his father before industry pressure reshaped its story. From childhood bath-time sing-alongs to discovering his daughter's perfect pitch, RJ reflects on talent, legacy, and staying open to unexpected creative paths.
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What does it take to turn curiosity into culture, and culture into a lasting legacy?
In Episode 139 of Listen to Your Footsteps, Kojo Baffoe sits down with Osmic Menoe - South African hip-hop pioneer, cultural organiser and creative entrepreneur - for a candid conversation about growing up in deep Soweto and building a life through hip-hop.
Osmic reflects on childhood astronomy, long school journeys that began before dawn, and the power of finding a purpose when the world around you offers too many destructive distractions. He traces his path through graffiti, b-boying, beatboxing, rap, design, mixtapes, early creative enterprise and the grassroots cyphers that helped give Johannesburg’s young hip-hop community a voice.
This is a conversation about South African hip-hop history, street culture, youth identity, creative discipline, entrepreneurship and what it truly means to build cultural architecture from the ground up.
If you are an artist, entrepreneur, culture-maker or anyone trying to create a meaningful path beyond the spaces you were given, this episode is for you.
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