There's an African proverb: until lions learn to write, hunters will tell their stories for them. It’s ironic one of the continent’s own age-old proverbs depicts one of Africa’s current – and in a way, biggest – shortcomings: the inability to provide the stage for its people to tell their stories and enjoy a piece of the limelight they deserve.
By permitting foreign media to be the voice of Africa it has to a large extent become known as a place of disease, famine, war and corruption. Although they allow for a hint of talented artists, musicians and athletes, they rarely mention the many innovators, entrepreneurs and business people who have fuelled the continent’s development and growth.
Moky Makura, whose goal in life is to help re-engineer the world’s thinking about who and what Africa really is through the images on television and the written word, has been and still is involved in many projects to achieve just that.
Makura, who regards herself as Nigerian, has a pan-African approach to life: she was born in Nigeria, has lived in South Africa for close to 13 years and is married to a Zimbabwean. She obtained an honours degree in politics, economics and law from Buckingham University in Britain and worked in the public relations industry in Britain for many years.
“Although Britain gave me the tools to excel at my career, I felt I’d reached the ceiling. As a black African in a European country there’s only so far you can go,” she says. “It was very important for me to return to my roots; but I always say Nigeria wasn’t ready for me at the time. It wasn’t the thriving dynamic place it is today,” Makura explains her move to SA. After reading a magazine article in Britain about four black South African women – all in the PR and marketing sector – Makura decided SA was where she needed to go. In 1998 she arrived to work for the IT PR firm Text 100, where she was later appointed GM. From there she left to become PR manager at the now failed telecoms company Iridium Africa. She then launched her own company, RED PR, in July 1999, which she later sold to FCB. The company was renamed FCB Redline and Makura stayed on for three years to help build the business.
“When I started my own company in SA, I wanted a footprint into Africa,” she says. “I didn’t want to compete for local business because I didn’t – and still don’t – consider myself to be South African. I had a bigger vision, a bigger agenda, and FCB – now DraftFCB – was a pan-African firm, which had a huge African footprint. And I needed that exposure.” CB absorbed Makura’s company and she sold her stake in 2001. She left the corporate world in 2003 to pursue other passions.
She went on to cover the African portion of current affairs series Carte Blanche until 2006 and left the show to play the female lead in the local drama series Jacob’s Cross, a story centring on a Nigerian family dynasty and the battles within it for power and control.
She’s also an accomplished businesswoman and writer. She’s contributed to publications such as
Business Day,
Maverick,
O Magazine and
Tribute about African issues and last year she completed a book called
Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs, which was in the Exclusive Books’ top 10 best selling business books in its year of launch. She also presented and co-produced the M-Net show Living it – her brainchild. “The show was about go-getter Africans whose stories of success are both inspiring and entertaining,” she says.
“The businessmen mentioned in my book aren’t hidden in the countries they do business in: the locals know them quite well. It’s just that their stories have never been formally told and certainly never in a book.”
Makura hopes Africans who read her will be inspired. “As Africans we don’t celebrate our heroes enough. We don’t always have to look to the West for our heroes. Also, we have a great oral tradition but have to put words to paper to document our history. There’s a perception Africa is all about poverty, famine and conflict. It’s not. There are very successful people living unbelievable lifestyles on the continent. We need to counteract all the bad press by presenting more positive stories.”
Another of her PR endeavours is the website
Africaourafrica.com. “We’re looking for contributors to the website to help build up a repository of positive facts about Africa that will make people proud about what this continent and its people have achieved.” She reiterates the importance of the fact we need to tell our stories. “Africaourafrica.com will only live if Africans help create its content. I started the website to channel positive energy, of which the continent is in desperate need.”
One of Makura’s biggest challenges is to create a base of readers so Africans can read African stories. But it seems she already has that well covered. That’s led to her latest publishing venture: producing mass fiction at mass prices, kicking off with African romantic novels. “It’s the best-selling genre in the world and our initial purpose is just to get people reading,” she says.
“I want to get people reading for fun.”
VITAL STATISTICS Age: 42.
Marital status: Married.
Born: Lagos, Nigeria.
Grew up: London and Lagos.
Currently resides: Morningside, Johannesburg, with husband Stewart and their two children.
FUN STATISTICS What are you reading at the moment?
Chapters from
South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs, which we’re now editing, and
Home Away, an anthology of South African writers edited by Louis Greenberg.
Whom do you admire? All the entrepreneurs in my last book.
What do you do to relax? Write.
What do you like the most about what you do?
It’s very creative and the end product is very achievable.
What do you like the least about what you do? Reading manuscripts that need a lot of work.