07 Dec 2022

Women need to break barriers and claim their space in the front seats of the creative vehicle. 

The message stemmed from stories and insights that various speakers from Botswana and internationally recently shared at the women in music business workshop. 

The workshop, which was facilitated by Botswana Music and Entertainment Week (BMEW) and Women in Music South Africa, focused on breaking barriers in the male-dominated creative industry.  

The workshop was held to create networking platforms between emerging and established women in the industry, advance awareness, equality and opportunities as well as educate, support, empower and recognise them. 

Common among the speakers was encouragement to women in music to have audacity, courage and willingness to step up in order to claim their space. 

Kelly Ramputswa-Tlale, a former and first female Yarona FM station manager said her journey was tough as she had to put in double the effort to be recognised. 

“Female representation in the media and/or entertainment space is not visible enough compared to males. 

Therefore, when the opportunity to lead lands, women need to be forth in their strategy,” she said. 

Currently with University of Botswana Campus radio, Ramputswa-Tlale said as a woman manager one needed to define clearly her vision, goals and the type of management they wanted for the organisation. 

She said there were politics around her appointment as a female station manager.

Also a Dj, Ramputswa-Tlale encouraged women to always be open to explore new opportunities and leave when they were at their peak. 

“Leaving for new opportunities is great while still relevant rather than leaving when you are pushed,” she said. 

She added that her tenacity to empower capable women resulted in 50 per cent of women at Yarona FM in management and such was the legacy she was most proud of. 

Trace Southern Africa managing director, Valentine Gaudin-Muteba implored women, not only in the entertainment space, to boldly take a seat at the table and flip it to what they envisioned. 

She said currently, Trace was on par with global trends regarding female representation. 

Gaudin-Muteba said before she joined Trace, she was living in a small village in France and after networking at some event she landed a job with Trace setting up an office for Southern Africa. 

She therefore encouraged women to never hold back and always network at events for greater opportunities. 

Other speakers included Charlotte Bwana who is director of Audiomack, Warner Africa chief executive officer, Temi Adenji, Jam-N-I a local Dj as well as Obonye Malope, who is executive director of Eynobo Consultancy. 

Women were also encouraged to always raise their hands for leadership roles, especially if they had passion for the job. 

They were told that passion revealed opportunities and therefore they should grab such opportunities as it was never late to switch and follow one’s heart. 

They were urged to find their passion and have global thinking, network more and travel as they strove to break barriers and claim their space in leadership as change makers.  BOPA