You did everything right. The degree. The job. The early mornings and late nights. And somehow, you’re still watching someone else make the decisions.

This episode is not about what you’re doing wrong. It’s about what the structure is doing, deliberately, consistently, and at real cost to a specific group of people.

Tsepo T Matsimane breaks down four mechanisms that keep power concentrated in corporate Africa: seniority culture masquerading as wisdom, mentorship substituting for sponsorship, readiness criteria that shifts every time you get close, and the habit of diagnosing structural problems as personal failures.

The ceiling above you is real. The frustration is valid. And neither of those things is an accident.

The ceiling has architects.

Power is not a mystery. It is a subject — and most people were never taught it.

Notes On Power is a movement for those who want to understand how the world actually works: the architecture of power, the politics of economics, the philosophy beneath policy, and the human nature that drives all of it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tsepotebogomatsimane.substack.com