Her Throne Africa

Mosima Mpho Ngoasheng comes to the interview in a fetching red dress. She runs Sheeqliving Interiors, a name that derives from "chic".  It is not exactly rocket science that she is passionate about fashion, a fact she readily owns up to. "It hasn't always been interior design," she says of her business.   "We started many years ago importing shoes from Thailand, Türkiye and all those places." She still had a corporate job then.   "Shoes were a side hustle. And from there we felt the market wasn't responding very well. We quickly evolved into interior design. At some point we even did events," she says. In 2003, they boldly launched into interior design, which allowed her the creativity she enjoys, and in 2018 she started working full-time in the business. "It was very easy for me to transform spaces," she says in response. She did not study interior design: "My background is in commerce.   "And I th...

Dr Keitumetse Masisi is a Research Scientist and Lecturer in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Botswana (UB), teaching BSC Cytotechnology and Histotechnology and mentoring masters degree students. The affable Bokaa-born academic began her illustrious career in 2007 in the Ministry of Health, Tsabong Primary Hospital, as a Medical laboratory Scientist, handling specimen such as human blood and urine for the purposes of diagnosis and monitoring of diseases.  Driven by a desire to make a difference, five years later, Dr KT, as she is fondly known at the institution, embarked on a 1-year Bachelor of Sciences programme in MLS at the UB in 2010 before she joined the institution as Staff Development Fellow and pursued an MSC in Cellular Pathology and Molecular Biology from 2014 to 2015 at the University of the West of England (UWE), United Kingdom. In this interview, the married mother-of-two, who was recently awarded the highest level of academic achievement, a Doct...

Moments before an orchestra performs, when silence falls over the audience and the baton is raised, the conductor expects every fibre of each musician to be channelled towards playing their instrument as impeccably as possible.  During the performance, the conductor is a channel, drawing out the best from the musicians, funnelling their collective effort into presenting a unified sound to the audience. Ofentse Pitse — the first black female conductor to own an orchestra — has a complex task. She frequently conducts Western classical instrument players performing contemporary South African musical repertoires, but has other plans.  "I want to be a conductor rooted in Africa that highlights African orchestrations and music," Pitse says between rehearsals for her latest orchestral project. On stage, Pitse uses a combination of conventional conducting techniques which she's learnt from various mentors, including Dutch conductor Gerben Grooten. The signs and gestures s...