All this time on your hands, all this weight of figuring out what to do, w have spent the most amount of time online, even spawning a culture of insomnia and night owls during this pandemic. The internet has given us the power to curate the content we consume by streaming, music, Youtube, Netflix, and most notably, podcasts.
To Recap on Season One, I covered a new podcast closer to home, Unravel with Nokuthula Khwela. Since the publication, Madam Khwela’s podcast has grown from strength to strength, gaining newspaper coverage and a steady following. Back for a full-length interview, welcome back Nokuthula Khwela.
How Has Life Been During This Pandemic? Did You Get Time To Review Certain Life Decisions, How Have You Been Dealing With Grief And Loss What Do You, Miss, About Life Before Lockdown?, Take Me Through Your Experience Of The New Normal?
Life during the pandemic is a mixture of all emotions. You are sometimes happy to have so much flexibility and frustration not being as busy as before, especially with someone like me who likes spaces and not remote learning. I am not a homebody, so sometimes the new normal bores me, but I’m happy we at level 1cause I can sometimes do my podcast interviews at public places. I’m back home after years at res. It’s a full house that hasn’t happened since high school and has its pros and cons. I miss my freedom above all that I had before lockdown, and the pandemic has shown me that it comes with the work I am doing.
Given what we have gone through and the rumors and conspiracy theories, would you take the vaccine and advise taking the vaccine to the fans and consumers who are the lifeline of our creative industry and the artists and media personal who have to work in the field predicated on human interaction?
I cannot take a vaccine without seeing the side effects or interacting with someone who has taken it, but even that doesn’t mean it will react the same way. Personally, I don’t see myself taking it.
We are in one of the most hard-hit industries, which have seen a slump in revenue; concerning Unravel With Nokthula Khwela what has lockdown done for your brand? Have you seen growth?
Funny enough, my brand began in this Lockdown around May. For the longest time I doubted my creativity, and it took lockdown to break out of my shell. I don’t think the media industry has entirely suffered cause literally every source of information goes through it. Actually, it’s the best time to be in the media space right now, considering that the new normal is digital. The only exception is artists (musicians)that took a knock, but I also think they also found ways to do more.
There has been a revolving conversation around Netflix content Spotify Playlisting, apple music charts, podcasting, and streaming culture’s power having more relevance and potential; to replace radio, TV mediums, and the traditional media approaches to having a national and international reach. What are your views on the changing culture of media consumption and online store culture?
I think radio will still have its people, and I’m saying this cause it’s my niche as well. Stations are also adopting the inclusion of podcasts to give viewers options. It’s streaming; this now forces people of analog media to now subscribe to digital media cause; it is meant to evolve in essence. It’s gonna be tedious for those who refuse to learn, for example, our parents.
South Africa is facing a spike in unemployment, and the alarming element of the unemployment culture is the number of unemployed graduates in the country. This has led to a debate of Skill Vs. Theoretical knowledge, what is your stance on this debate? Do humanities graduates have a place in society? Are we facing a problem of educational and social reform at the hands of research that is not funded? Why is it that we are needed but not valued as humanities students? Would you advise skill-based qualifications over qualifications that implore theoretical frameworks in research?
I’ve never been a fan of theoretical education, being the practical person I am, but attending institutions that offer practical courses obviously comes with a price, and the second-best option becomes going to University. For example, I went to UKZN (University of KwaZulu-Natal). I studied Media and Drama okay fine, drama is practical; you are forced to be practical, but for the mere aspect that I don’t remember taking a camera and having to shoot or taking a mic and learning how to be a presenter or a radio personality because I’m highly interested in radio broadcasting I think we need to focus on skills. I’m seeing many of the NQF requirements are starting to pop up, and it is common when there are job posts.
The thing is with unemployment, there are tons of jobs, I check LinkedIn religiously, and I am part of WhatsApp job groups; there are jobs, but they are reserved for certain people. I recently applied for a radio internship and was rejected, and that didn’t make sense because I believe I meet the requirements even ahead because4 of podcasting. so going back to podcasting, I think we form a huge part of society, but it’s unfortunate that we are not seen as important you know that arts industry is what keeps the country alive without the arts, life would be very very dull, so I think its high time the government prioritized the arts. I wouldn’t say people must do away with studying courses in the humanities faculty, but we need to do more research in terms of what we get ourselves es into for example when you look at a philosophy class it has a lot of people and when you ask them what they intended to do with this Politics Philosophy and ethics degree there’s no answer the only thing you can be is a researcher which I personally find boring and a degree should avail options and not just the choice of being a researcher
Sometimes I feel that we also make the wrong decisions when deciding on qualifications because sometimes we don’t know what we want exactly. in that respect how practical is aptitude tests and full disclosure of emerging careers or careers you can access in your dream career field? What can we do to improve our career planning culture from high school to University?
It’s quite personal for me because when I finished matric, nobody advised me, but what I did know I was very interested in the media I still am today. But I think the drama aspect of my degree, there was no need for it. I could have done something like marketing that’s aligned to my brand. My interests are in media, marketing, and advertising. Hence, I think more career expos, for example, I went to a school in Phoenix, Durban, an Indian school, and I don’t recall people coming to the school in grade 11 or grade 12 and telling us this is what’s there eGreenbury Secondary School they did not even offer drama so there was nothing in the arts the only thing that was there was arts and culture and after that nothing was availed in the arts. Hence, I think the curriculum itself needs to be looked at, and having an open day at schools irrespective of geographics is essential because a lot of people enter varsity without knowing what they want to do. It’s a great place to find yourself but it’s even better when you are sure of what you want to do because there’s no time-wasting.
A somewhat reliable source (insert inside joke here) says that you are featured in an American podcast! Congratulations, are there any details you can share about how you got your foot in American doors?
So what I did was I joined a podcast group on Facebook, and it has people from across the world, and I had been wanting into the international scene because I am not one to box myself and say, okay I am strictly for the south African listeners, or strictly for the African listeners. I also want my brand to be global, so you can post what you are doing in the group, and people were interested in what I am doing. I got this keen Trinidadian guy based in Chicago; we exchanged contact, had a zoom chat, and did the interview for his podcast. So its just things like that, you know me putting myself out there because that’s another thing that came with the new normal. After all, I am usually a person who loves networking in the form of going to expos, exhibitions, conferences, so now what we have is social media to the best of my ability.
You are a lady of many talents. What is the future of the Nokuthula Khwela brand? Is the sky to your limit success in the podcast space, or is there more, going as far as a media network that houses multiple media platforms? In the same vein of your business’s future, I must ask, what has been the most challenging factor of being an entrepreneur and realizing your business visions?
There is a lot in the pipeline, there is a lot that I intend to do as Nokuthula Khwela; I think podcasting is a start to many things that I want to do. I want to penetrate the broadcasting industry in this country, and outside I’m highly interested in converting my podcast into documentary work, so I want to travel the world, telling stories. I am also interested in radio. I also want to penetrate radio as well I am a businesswoman. It is not something that I put out there that much, but I have a business that will operate at UKZN in the form of a vending machine. It’s pharmaceutical, essential services and that’s all I can mention at this moment there’s a lot that goes on in my head there is a lot I intend to achieve in terms of business., I am extremely passionate about providing a solution; that’s what I am about.
In terms of challenges, one of my biggest challenges since since has always been capital. There’s a lot of concepts I jot down, but what delays the process is access to money. At UKZN, I pitched my vending machine idea. I won a certain amount of money at UKZN incubate. I’d consider myself a lucky person, but obviously, you need a certain amount of money to keep certain things afloat, and that has been my issue, but nothing is impossible in my world.
When we speak of modern dominance in the corporate and employment culture, we are entering into a realm where the future is female. Historically there has been an era where Matriarchy was the construct of the land. Given the extensive social decay that has resulted from patriarchy, what are some of the important social issues you feel need female leadership to be addressed holistically, especially with the social conditioning that leads to these social ills?
I definitely think Gender-Based Violence. I know women have started addressing it, but It can’t go out of style because it’s an everyday thing, and it affects women every day though it does affect men as well. Right now, we are talking about women specifically. The importance of mentoring a girl child, I feel like foundation is so important. It saddens me when I see a child that is 14 or 15 and is pregnant, mentally, physically, or even financially that person is not equipped to be a mother. You should be at school prioritizing education, so I think mentoring children in primary schools is something that we can do quite religiously.
I’m also passionate about providing sanitary pads, sanitary towels, and feeding schemes. I think foundations should also do that because, coming from Phoenix, I know that some children cannot afford to have lunch or lunch at school and cannot afford to buy sanitary towels in the varsity space. Varsity iyakholisana (it’s deceiving); it makes it as seem though impilo (life) igrand, and there’s nothing after that. So I’d like women in the corporate space to join the initiative to empower these young women. You know how there are activations in universities from time to time, for example, let’s say Unilever comes to an institution and they are just there to address women empowerment and that kind of stuff because at most these activations are just there to entertain people and they didn’t get anything out of it but just prices.
What would you say to Future Nokuthula Khwela? If you could write a letter to your future self, what message would you share with yourself? What do you want to manifest? What is the legacy you are building yourself? What are the dreams of your dream life as an artist and Media Mogul?
You are a warrior. I am proud of you, you’ve done some impeccable things, you adulted throughout most of your life, but you prevailed. I love you. I’m in awe of your spirit that’s constantly fighting how you have handled things. At some point, you were just a naïve girl, and you still conquered, you didn’t always know what you were doing, but you conquered, you kept the promises that you made to yourself, and for that, I am proud of you. You made mistakes, but that is part of growing. You are beautiful.
My manifestation wishes for you is a life of abundance, angifuni ukushoda ngalutho (I should not want for anything) cause I feel as though we have been provided for quite some time for quite some time I want a life where things are provided holistically for you. Remember that for our legacy, we want people to say, “Nokuthula made a difference in my life, Nokuthula made a positive contribution in my life.” We love people, and currently what we are doing with our platform is building communities and being a stellar philanthropist. We will be known as a person who changed lives ours it to follow through with said legacy.
Chile, we are quite lavish; remember when we looked at umuzi waBasetsana Kkhumalo (Basetsana Khumalo’s house) house as Mini Dlamini was walking into it and she was delivering a Range Rover? Apparently, she’s the ambassador. When she was walking in, it was like a castle, the gate is far from the house, the house is humongous that is our dream life that we will live. We have our own headquarters with our company, we travel the world anytime whenever we feel like it. We are contributing to our family and their lives. We are taking certain girls to school, or we are providing bursaries and just have money guurl. Our dream life in abundance, and we will be living that by the time you read this in 20 years.
I am looking forward to meeting you there.
As for me, Nokuthula is in a long line of friends I have met over social media that I hope to meet in person soon as well. Daring to dream where being a woman and being black makes you carry a multitude of burdens and places a plethora of hurdles to cross. Madam Khwela is a shining example of what happens when you get out of your own way and show up for your dreams. It is never too late to have a dream, a vision, and purpose and have something to build, a legacy for your children. The future is female, the future is black, the future is Innovation, the future is Unravelling with Nokuthula Khwela.
Follow Nokuthula Khwela on Social Media
Twitter: @madamkhwela
Instagram: @ unravelwithnokuthulakhwela
Facebook: Unravel with Nokuthula Khwela
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