Group photo with the social media team at the Enterprise Africa Summit in Accra 2017

My friend Amina Maikori is a Nigerian author, who published her debut novel The Demystification of Stephen last year. She recently interviewed me about work and creativity. We spoke about my career, making music, writing and DJing. Here’s an extract:

Amina: What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the process of handling teams across 19 countries?

Rossouw: I’ve learned that it’s important to have a sense of the larger purpose of the work you’re doing as a team. Often you’ll find two people disagree about the way to do something and after an open conversation you’ll realise it’s because they have very different ideas of the bigger goal. I’m learning about the methodology called Agile at the moment. One of the principles I’ve gotten from it, is that you don’t start by saying “We’re gonna build a car”. You start by saying “we want to transport people”. And then you figure out as a team what form that solution should take. It could be a bicycle, a bridge, a hoverboard or a camel. It depends on the needs of the people you’re trying to serve.

Amina: Describe a day in your life. What do you love most about your job.

Rossouw: My day always starts with coffee! I use a little Bialetti kettle to make espresso on the stove in the morning. At work I like that everyday is different and that I get to talk to colleagues from across the African continent everyday. They describe what they’d like to do for their project or business and we figure out what part digital can play to achieve that.

Amina: Are there any two African countries that you’ve found are similar and what makes you say that?

Rossouw: I think it’s tricky, because I wouldn’t want to simplify. When I went to hill towns north of Accra this year it reminded me a bit of parts of Kigali. I haven’t had a chance to visit your country, but I’d like to. I’m reading Stars of the New Curfew by Ben Okri and I’m sure I’ve developed an idea of what its like driving on a road in the Delta region( in Nigeria) that is different from what it would be like if I one day visited it. It’s something I think about often, how we can imagine the space around landmark and when you get there in real life, the imagined place doesn’t disappear in your head, it sort-of exists in parallel to it.

Amina: In terms of communications strategies , which countries have you found have similar requirements?

Rossouw: I was speaking to colleagues in Sierra Leone a month ago, and I said the key in doing non-profit communications is to make the thing you’re offering the public clear and accessible. So instead of telling the public what you’ve done in the past, show them what there is right now that they can benefit from. I think that is true whether you’re working in East, South or West Africa. Although I have seen that online audiences in some countries are more cynical, while others are more willing to embrace a cause sincerely.

Read the full interview on Amina Maikori’s blog.