In this week’s episode of the Listen To Your Footsteps podcast, host Kojo Baffoe sits down with visual artist and storyteller Tsoku Maela, whose deeply introspective work bridges the seen and unseen, the spiritual and the intellectual, the personal and the collective.

Raised in Limpopo, South Africa, Tsoku’s life and creative journey have always lived in the margins, and it is in those liminal spaces that he’s found the deepest truths. In this conversation, he reflects on the complexity of identity, grief,mental health, and what it means to return to yourself as both creator and creation. “You’re not just making the work,” Tsoku says. “The work is also making you.”

From his early struggles with self-worth and depression, to walking away from a promising film career to pursue art, Tsoku shares how he learned to listen to silence and honour the things that live beyond words. He and Kojo explore the intersectionsof cultural memory, masculinity, healing, and how Tsoku came to see his work not as a performance, but as a communion.

Whether you're an artist, seeker, or simply curious about the deeper rhythms of life, this conversation invites you to pause, reflect, and ask better questions of yourself. Tsoku’s voice is gentle but unwavering, reminding us that there is no blueprint for becoming, only the courage to sit in your truth and allow what isn’t seen to speak.

FeaturedTopics:
• The power of visual language
• Navigating mental health & spiritual alignment
• Identity, masculinity & self-permission
• Art as ritual and personal archive
• Creating from authenticity, not approval

Explore more of Tsoku’s work: https://www.iamtsoku.com

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Recorded at Spotify Africa Joburg Studio

Show Music by Kweku 'Taygo' Baffoe

Produced by Ayob Vania