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Editor's letter: Emmanuel Tjiya on reverse mentoring and youth power

Emmanuel Tjiya S Mag Editor-in-chief
Editor-in-chief of S Mag Emmanuel Tjiya.
Editor-in-chief of S Mag Emmanuel Tjiya.
Image: Steve Tanchel

Unorthodox as it may be, reverse mentoring is one secret to finding eternal youth. 

At the start of winter in 2019, I escaped for a weekend expedition at the snowy wonderland Afriski Mountain Resort in Lesotho. I badly wanted the sub-zero temperatures to shock me back to life.

There was a numb feeling at my core, having survived an excruciating retrenchment process at the Sowetan. 

The newsroom was the coldest and loneliest I’d experienced it since I’d marched in as a starry-eyed reporter filled with whimsical optimism in 2015. It was a ghost town, after all — half of the staff had vanished overnight. The trauma of untimely parting with co-workers with whom I had formed great bonds and begun seeing as family was ice cold. 

While there was a whiff of anger and frustration inside of me, I was scared stiff that, for the first time in my career, I had lost my passion for my craft. Yes, I’ve always been on the rather cynical side of life, but this was different. I was disillusioned about the creative process, and I needed to rekindle that lost magic. 

So, when I received an exclusive invite to attend the Pop Bottles Ski Festival in Lesotho, I packed my bags, grabbed my passport, and escaped into the wilderness. We embarked on a road trip, playing so much De Mthuda that the catchy amapiano hook “Shesha, geza! Masiyephatini baby ngiyacela” is now permanently engraved onto my medulla oblongata. But what was meant to be an irresponsible weekend of drinking and partying became a turning point in my path of causing digital and pop-culture disruption. 

I met a young lensman, Ray Manzana, and in the years that followed he would become my regular collaborator on many experimental projects. Born and bred in the small town of Parys, he had just turned 23. Ray was clutching his camera and capturing every second of the trip.

He caressed the camera with as much care as one would a lover — picture that iconic pottery scene from the film Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. But his curious lens was not only focused on A-listers like Shimza, DJ Maphorisa, and the late DJ Dimplez. He also diarised the wildlife, food, nature, cars, and vibez.

He was so carefree and in his own world, yet ever-so present. It was as though the lyrics to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit had been written about him. 

Image: Steve Tanchel

The newly minted philistine in me found him terribly annoying, and I made sure that he knew of it. But he would nonchalantly look at me and laugh softly — unbothered by my disdain — and instead take a picture of me. “How incredibly smug,” I thought at first. Yet it soon dawned on me that I was jealous of him. I wanted to see the world through his lens. Once upon a time, I had had such naïveté, childlike innocence, and a passion for my craft. But along the way I’d lost my way.  

I had come into the media to be a cultural disruptor, but I’d gone off course. So, I vowed to myself that I’d get back on track. It wasn’t easy, it required some self-discipline and hard work, but acceptance was the first step in my renewal process. In order to be the best version of myself I needed to block out the noise from the world when I got back to Jozi. I needed to be like Ray when he had his camera, only my weapon was my pen. 

Traditionally, it’s instilled in us that you will only grow from the mentorship of someone more experienced, older, and more successful than you, because they possess pearls of wisdom. While that is true, there are also power and confidence to be gained from learning from young people such as Ray, especially in changing your perception of the world. 

Fast-forward to 2022, and it’s through tapping into my inner child that I’ve created the best work of my life in the past three years — I wasn’t trying to change the world, I was having fun and being myself.

What could be more fun and definitive of youth power in 2022, plus the spirit of individuality, than Sam Levinson’s hit series Euphoria? The show has been a huge inspiration in curating this issue.

Our beauty and fashion pages take their cue from it. We have handpicked five disrupters in their respective fields (Thickleeyonce, Bahumi Mhlongo, Nefisa Mkhabela, Lehlogonolo Machaba, Gaisang K Noge) and transformed them into some of our favourite Euphoria characters. Our beauty editor, Nokubonga Thusi, also has some tips on how you too can unleash your inner Rue, Maddy, Kat, Cassie, or Jules. 

Youthquake is a term coined in the 1960s about challenging the status quo in fashion, music, film, and pop culture. No one fits this term today than Abo Mvelo hit-maker Daliwonga, who is fronting SMan. 

Over the years I’ve witnessed Ray grow and book campaigns with big brands — and every time he still gets as excited as if it’s the first time he’s doing it. I’m not there yet, but I try to remain present and enjoy my youth as much as possible. 

In our recent issues, Ray has captured innovative digital covers for SMag. Late last year, we collaborated on a YouTube docu-series about the making of the S1981 capsule collection. We continue to conceptualise, visualise, create, and repeat. Let the cultural​ disruption continue…