The BruinOu Podcast

Episode 2 — Code and Character: Breaking Barriers in Early Computing with Allan Klein

What did it mean to enter the world of computers when the machines filled entire rooms — and access to those rooms was shaped by apartheid?

In this episode of The Bruin-ou Podcast, Allan Klein takes us back to growing up in Benoni and coming of age in a South Africa where race, work and opportunity were tightly prescribed.

He reflects on family, identity, ambition and the early days of computing — a world of mainframes, punch cards and careers that were not easily open to Coloured people. Allan’s journey into programming became part of a much bigger story about possibility, resilience and refusing to be defined by the limits placed around you.

But as with all our conversations, the story is not only about achievement. There are quieter truths here too — about confidence, struggle, choices, and what it takes to keep moving forward.

This is also one of our most personal conversations yet.

Ja, there were moments where we had to sit with what was being said.

A story of history, identity, survival and the things families carry across generations.

🎧 Listen to The Bruin-ou Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and watch on YouTube.

Because your story is part of our history.

Music by @namaxammusic

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“The Coloured story is the full story.”

This is a conversation about owning the complexity of who we are, without shrinking ourselves to fit somebody else’s version of the story.

It’s also about creating space for voices that have too often been left out. Because, jy weet mos (you know how it is), if we don’t tell these stories ourselves, somebody else will tell them for us — or they may disappear altogether.

This episode asks what happens when a community begins telling its own stories, in its own voices, on its own terms — and what we risk losing when those stories are never recorded.

Because our stories don’t only belong in memory.

Your story is part of our history.

🎧 Listen to The BruinOu Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.


▶️ Watch on YouTube.
📱

Follow us on Instagram: @thebruinoupodcast

Music by @namaxammusic

#TheBruinOuPodcast #BruinOu #ColouredSouthAfrican #ColouredIdentity #SouthAfricanHistory #SouthAfricanStories #Heritage #Identity #Storytelling #Bruinou

Welcome to The BruinOu Podcast.

Our stories. Our voices. Our memories. Our experiences.

Hosted by sisters Robyn and Candice, The BruinOu Podcast is a living archive of Coloured South African stories, told by the people who lived them.

In the South African context, Coloured is a distinct and complex cultural and racial identity, shaped by generations of mixed ancestry, community, culture and history — including the lasting impact of colonialism and apartheid.

Through honest conversations about identity, family, culture, belonging, triumphs and tears, we explore what it means to be Coloured through the experiences of the people who carry that identity.

We ask questions about the labels we've inherited, uncover the stories behind them, and create space for our guests to leave something behind for the generations still to come.

Because our stories deserve to be heard.
They deserve to be remembered.

This is The BruinOu Podcast, in association with Bruinou.com.

Because your story is part of our history.