South African TV producer born to tell stories

Paulinah Somo is a South African Tv and Radio producer, host and many other titles that make her a multifaceted storyteller. In this exclusive interview with AWiM News, she shares her unique upbringing and how it shaped the storyteller she is today.

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Sometimes the moments of silence and solitude can bring out the most creativity…

Standing in a bedroom alone, a young girl stood with her eyes closed ready to imagine her future and who she was to be in her world.

From a black empty canvas, she envisioned the voices of a crowd, an audience cheering and listening intently to the words she was about to speak.

She pictured a world where she was courageous to speak in front of hundreds of people, telling them stories and maybe even her own one day.

That young girl was no other than Paulinah Somo.

Growing up in Hammanskraal, a region of South Africa in the north of Pretoria, at a time in the early 1980s, when racial issues were prominent for people of colour, Paulinah’s childhood was vastly different to the South Africans of today.

“I used to go to a school that was only for black children,” the Tv presenter tells us “White children and Black children were separated, it was only until I was in my second year of school that things started to open up and we could go to multicultural schools.”

Whilst she attended school, her mother worked as a domestic worker for a Jewish family in Johannesburg to provide for her family.

“When I was born, my mother was worried that after having me, she wouldn’t be able to work for them anymore,” Paulinah explains “but the family insisted that she should bring me to work and said, they would help look after me.”

As her mother agreed to stay, many years of Paulinah’s childhood and school years become intertwined with Jewish traditions: “We would eat together, go out together and it felt as if I was their family and they were part of mine too,” she expresses.

To make sure she didn’t lose her own culture and traditions as a black South African, her mum always took her to family functions and cultural events. Her father also encouraged her to learn her mother tongue which was Setswana also known as Tswana – a Southern African Bantu language.

Because of the two worlds she lived in and the different experiences both gave her, she felt a deep passion stir inside of her – a calling for storytelling.

“I remember when I was in high school and we had career counselling day,” Paulinah recalls, “I had no idea what I wanted to do at that point, all I knew is that I wanted to speak.”

At the University of South Africa, the radio host studied communications science to see if she could make her early dreams come true: “I chose to study communications because it felt like the closest thing to what I was feeling inside of me,” she continues: “When I saw there was a module with public speaking in the course, I went for it.”

During her studies, Paulinah worked a few odd jobs that were temporary before managing to secure a  job at a PR company. Although she was grateful to be working there, it still wasn’t where her heart wanted her to be.

“My boss at the time would speak to me about what my interests were and one day I told her that I really do want to get into broadcasting one day,” the South African shares, “It turned out that she actually knew someone who was friends with a news editor from Primedia Broadcasting.”

Just like that, her boss gave her the number and an introduction to the news editor was made.  Within three months, the South African radio station got back to Paulinah and offered her the opportunity to train as a traffic reporter for them.

Finally, the adult who had a dream since she was a little girl, got her entrance into the broadcasting world.

After a couple of months working as a traffic reporter, she also started working as an overnight talk host for Talk Radio 702, sharing the local stories of South Africa. From there, her career continued to blossom as she climbed up the ladder of broadcast titles and landed the producer role she has today.

While her journey into the broadcasting industry may have been seamless and a series of good fortune for onlookers, the industry comes with its own set of challenges.

“Broadcasting isn’t smooth sailing at all, shows come and go which means it’s very difficult to find permanent work,” the TV producer explains.

One of the first Television shows she worked on as a Production Manager was Big Brother Africa. The opportunity was huge but short-lived as the contract only lasted for four months long. This meant after wrapping up a season, Paulinah was back on the hunt for new work.

Similar to freelancing gigs where the pay is inconsistent, broadcast media professionals face the same instability within their jobs. This also, in spite of how the TV and Radio market revenue In South Africa is said to rise to 40.55 billion South African rands by 2023.

“Sometimes when we go through those periods of having no work, we actually start looking for work outside of the industry and try to escape the industry a lot,” Paulinah admits.

Fortunately, she has never had to stray away from her dream job despite its challenging moments.

In 2019 whilst working on a reality television show in South Africa, a colleague of hers, referred her to a channel called Zambezi Magic. The entertainment channel is based in Lusaka, Zambia and caters to audiences in Southern Africa. That year, the production team desperately needed a producer to help them with their TV series ‘Mpali’.

“Initially they told me that I would go to Zambia for 11 months to help film the second season of the show,” The South African producer shares, “After those 11 months, the show was a hit and the channel asked me to stay for another season.”

Mpali is now on its fifth season which Paulinah is helping to produce.

“It has been such an incredible journey so far, I think it’s because it took me out of a space where in Johannesburg, I was on so many shows that I was starting to feel like I was going round and round in circles,” she tells us.

Taking the risk to move to Zambia brought her stability and renewal in her craft as she believes through her role as a producer she can instil positive change: “On the show, we tell the story of different characters authentically as Zambian stories relating to the realities many face in the country,” the producer expresses, “Many people respond to our episodes saying that they resonate with them and that they have even helped them out of a situation they were going through.”

For Paulinah, this is the main reward she gets from her job and the one that encourages her to keep going.

“Sometimes when you are filming and you get lost in the production you can even forget what type of impact you are creating,” she points out, “but when you receive positive feedback from your viewers you feel as though you are doing something right.”

Working in Zambia has also opened the storyteller’s eyes to the differences between South Africa’s broadcast industry and Zambia’s with the difference in pace of work, technology and opportunities.

“Coming on the set of ‘Mpali’ showed me that in South Africa, we are way ahead and yet, we take so much for granted,” she expresses, “It has humbled me and taught me how to be patient, that it is okay to slow down and go at everyone’s pace to help bring them up to speed.”

One of the advances South Africa has is the number of film schools and opportunities for women to work as producers. In Zambia, there are not any film schools yet.

“There is a programme that has started running called Talent Factory where students from different countries who come here to Zambia can be taught about film,” Paulinah tells AWiM, “It is only for a select few but it is helping to introduce young adults who want to get into the TV industry one day.”

Currently, in South Africa, there are numerous film schools and universities that have film and media studies for students to pick from according to EduRank which has ranked ten of the best in its report.

“Because the film industry is quite developed in South Africa you do see a lot of female film producers but the more technical areas of production are still male-dominated, ” Paulinah explains, “In Zambia, it is a little bit different,”

She adds: “When younger females who want to go into production see me as the producer, they are surprised at first to see men working under me as it is foreign to them, but in the end, it inspires them and gives them a vision for their own futures.”

Paulinah is glad to be an inspiration to the next leading women in TV and Radio to come.

“I think when people want to get into the industry they focus a lot on being a presenter, an actor, and an internet personality but they forget you have to go through the smaller jobs and build yourself up before you make it to the top,” the experienced storyteller states.

Paulinah’s journey from dreaming as a young girl to becoming a producer has taught her the power of having dreams and also the importance of letting the process to get there,  take its course naturally.

“I truly believe every step in my journey has led me to where I am today and I hope to share my own story one day to inspire the dreamers out there, that they too can make it and find themselves,” the South African producer says with full confidence.

This article is part of the African Women in Media (AWIM) Graduate Trainee Programme in collaboration with Fojo Media Institute