When Thebe Ikalafeng released his first book, The Traveller: Crossing Borders and Connecting Africa, readers were introduced to a restless Pan-African mind in motion — a man mapping his journey and a continent through experiences, encounters, conversations and reflections that blurred the lines between business, identity, and belonging. It was part memoir, part manifesto: a record of a life spent building a business, building a brand and discovering oneself by crossing borders both literal and metaphorical.
With his new work, Rooted & Rising: Reclaiming Our Culture and Redefining Our Global Influence, Ikalafeng has written not a continuation but a culmination — a call to come home. If The Traveller was about movement, Rooted & Rising is about grounding. It urges Africans to reclaim cultural confidence, to re-anchor leadership and creativity in the wisdom of their ancestors, and to rise in the world not as imitators, but as originators.
A Manifesto for Cultural Confidence
As is often the case with Ikalafeng, the messaging matters. And as with the launch of his first book, this launch was another spectacle before a full house at Constitution Hill, a site that once confined freedom fighters and now celebrates liberty. This book is very much a philosophy, an attitude, a movement. Each chapter draws from his developed 7-P Framework: Pause, Purpose, Proof, Presentation, Presence, Protection, and People. The key denominators that should drive all African businesses
The book is accompanied by a specially created Apple Music playlist with legendary composer Lebo M, transforming the reading experience into something immersive and emotional. Proverbs, Adinkra symbols, and African philosophies such as Ubuntu and Sankofa are woven through its pages, grounding modern branding and leadership.
From Identity to Impact
Where many books on African identity end with aspiration, Rooted & Rising is a call for action. Ikalafeng has pledged proceeds from both The Traveller and Rooted & Rising to the Africa Brand Leadership Education (ABLE) Fellowship and Trust, a multi-million-rand endowment supporting doctoral research in brand leadership at UNISA, the University of Johannesburg, and IIE–Emeritus/Vega.
It’s what he calls a natural extension of his life’s work through Brand Africa and Brand Leadership, turning two decades of advocacy into investment. The Fellowship seeks to address a persistent paradox: that while 80% of the most admired brands in Africa are non-African, belief in Africa’s potential remains overwhelming. “We cannot keep talking about Africa’s potential without building the intellectual and institutional capacity to realise it,” Ikalafeng writes. “Through the ABLE Fellowship, I’m putting action to words.”
A Pan-African Chorus
The book has drawn early praise from a diverse chorus of African voices from Queen Nozizwe Mulela, who calls it “a powerful reminder that our greatest strength is our culture,” to Jessica Nabongo, the first Black woman to travel to every country, who says it “lays the groundwork for Africans to reclaim our power as arbiters of our culture and intellect.”
“Africa no longer needs validation,” Ikalafeng declares. “We need vision, rooted in who we are, rising to who we can become.” For readers fatigued by the language of deficit and dependency, Rooted & Rising is a refreshing tonic, a work of conviction, rhythm, and reverence that captures the essence of an Africa that knows its worth.
