Jo’burg Chapter Meeting

Dear members, colleagues, and friends

Welcome to 2023! May it be a wondrous year for all, and it may it reinvigorate your speaking careers.

A key factor to all successful speakers is the ability to get your audience to see from your perspective. When speaking in Africa, speakers have the ability to share our unique perspectives with millions of people across the continent, and the rest of the world.

In this chapter meeting, two Africa-focused speakers will take you through your approach to speaking in Africa, and learning how language is key to our humanness.

George Mutendadzamera – Taking your business into Africa

Africa’s population is estimated at 1.4-billion people as of November 2022 distributed across 54 countries. This is 16.72% of the world population.

The African population is the youngest in the world: 70% of Africans are under 30 years old. Africa is also urbanising quickly – its population is increasingly crowding the cities. The population statistics of Africa make a compelling case for investment on the continent.

However, before you head for the vast expanse of this rich continent, there are some important things you need to know. What are these? How do they affect your investment prospects? Join us at the PSASA Johannesburg chapter meeting on 19 January to find out from George Mutendadzamera.

Steve Johnson – Storytelling is steeped in the hazy mists of ancient times

Storytelling is steeped in the hazy mists of ancient times – spawned from the womb of Africa, where our ancestors gestured and gesticulated, figured and fumed, muttered and moaned, listened and laughed as their languages emerged – helping them to make sense and meaning of the world they lived in those millennia ago. And deep within that process there emerged the wonderful art of storytelling – the ancient way of passing on lessons learned and sharing knowledge with understanding hidden deep within the analogies and inferences, the metaphors and messages buried within the words spoken. Part acting, part word-smithing – woven with threads of light, into the fabric of life.

Travel with Steve Johnson to another of his wonderful sessions of “Wisdom from the Waterhole”’ as he weaves his storytelling magic as wildlife visit his wild places – relating events there to life’s lessons – bringing meaning and purpose to the smallest of nature’s events, invoking our curiosity and inquisitiveness, with sudden ‘Ah! Ha’ moments of realization. Understand how storytelling has evolved around the fires and furnaces of life as societies emerged and evolved – passing on insights and wisdom, crafting our morals and our values as humans around the world. Learn how language is key to our humanness, and how it must be used prudently to create legacies of great meaning.

Warm regards

Arthur Goldstuck
Johannesburg Chapter President