Camilla Owora is a woman of many talents. The regional manager of Ziiki Media East Africa is also an aspiring chef, a former Kenyan Olympic swimmer, a PR executive and owner of a communications company.
She’s just 5”3’ but she’s larger than life. She has recently returned from Tanzania, from giving a talk in the National Assembly at the invitation of Dr Pindi Chana, the Minister of Culture, Arts and Sports.
She honoured the invitation on behalf of Ziiki Media, where a Rolodex of popular regional musicians more or less call her boss. “I am a big deal, ” she says.
That she is. But she does not want the meaning of her life to rest on her reputation as a celebrity whisperer, a term she pronounces with some disdain. I needn’t belabour the point here that our society worships celebrities.
They are our compass. They set trends, exemplify vogue, live in luxury, eat delicious food, wear haute couture and travel to exotic places and do whatever the hell they want. We study them, debate them and give tribute to them.
We make pilgrimages to their shrines: Kondegang, Wasafi, Rong Rende. Celebrities give us faith that there’s something more to life than mere existence, something more than work, hustle and grind.
But for Camilla, it’s all the same. She knew from early on that her work was not to hog the spotlight but to know where it shines.
“I always had a passion for music. I could cram an album, an EP (extended play recording) and singles. Back in the day, I was a die-hard fan of E-Sir, Longombas, Nameless. I’d cut out those lyrics and put them in a book. I knew I would either end up in music or sports.”
The gods had ears on the ground and set her on her path at an agency doing PR and handling the “other side of business”.
Heineken, she says, was one of her biggest clients in East Africa before she defected to Boomplay, an Africa-focused media streaming and download service first launched in Nigeria by TECNO Mobile in 2015. “That’s when I got into the actualities of the music industry.”
Ziiki Media played her tune and she danced gracefully to it, joining as head of marketing for East Africa before being bumped up to her current position as regional manager.
It must be said that when you meet in her in person, Camilla is bubblier than what the traditional manager’s role would require of her.
She’s straight-shooting, she’s coherent, she’s sharp, she’s structured, she’s determined, she’s well-mannered and has a cool head on her shoulders. She seems not just sane but disappointingly sane, judging by reports of how crazy it can get working for, or with, celebrities. But that’s not all she is.
“I run two companies as well. One is catering company, MumsSoulFood, which I co-own with my mother; we started out making frozen samosas and ring rolls. I also have a communications company, Graphene Global, but now I am trying to fine-tune it into artist management, brand building and talent management. We have big artists who do not have steady management teams behind them.” She wants to change the face of the East African music industry.
Camilla would know something about that. In her younger years, she represented Kenya in swimming competitions, all the way up to university. Recently, she completed a triathlon (endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling and running over various distances), which she describes as one of her biggest achievements this year.
Ziiki Media Regional Manager, East Africa Camilla Owora
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
“Business-wise,” she adds, “my career apex was representing a whole industry in front of the Tanzanian parliament and other dignitaries. Plus, since I joined [Ziiki] we have onboarded 25 new artists to the company.”
And she has worked with the Who’s Who of the Who’s Who in East Africa: Diamond, Mbosso, Zuchu, Lava Lava, Ali Kiba, Rayvanny, Harmonize, Nandy (whom she’s recently signed), Otile Brown, Nyashinski, Cedo, Khaligraph Jones as well as Lexy, Fina, Louis, Ssaru and Tommy Flavour.
What makes her good at what she does? “Well, I am a go-getter. I have this drive and resilience that has burned in me since I was young. My parents instilled in me discipline, hard work and he importance of treating people well.
I am meticulous: I plan something from the front coming backwards, so to speak. I could have no money but I am planning for a holiday in the Maldives.” So just blind luck? “Not quite. No is just not an answer for me. I feel like there’s always a way. Another way.”
Plus, she loves what she does. “I love connecting with artists, producers and talent. This is something that I truly enjoy.” But the point is, she’s the kind of girl who enjoys being a regular, or a habitué, or streetwise. The loci of her charm, she feels, is knowing who you are and who you represent. “First, we don’t see them as celebrities. We are all human beings. When you first understand the person and their personality, whatever they do after that is just an extension of themselves. When you consider what it has taken them to build their careers, you learn how to manage them. When I am dealing with ego, I am the middle ground that calms down the whole situation. But look, we are also friends with the artists. It’s just not business all day, every day.” That does not mean they don’t rub each other up the wrong way. “We fight, but we fight fair.” Straddling both employment and entrepreneurship, what has her experience been? “It’s like a baby. You have to take care of it. For employment, sometimes you can get comfortable because you have a cushion. Balancing the two is a task, but nothing comes easy.”
“Once I self-actualise,” she says, “I will go into my long-term calling and become a fully-fledged entrepreneur.” Was this all she ever wanted to be? “I knew it would be something in the business field because I always liked money. What I just didn’t know was which industry, but it was always either sports or entertainment. Even when I worked at the agency, any brief on sports or entertainment would light my eyes up.” She also had dreams of being a chef. “I learned a lot of my cooking from my mother and with time I started experimenting a lot. That homely feel of food is what I would like to bring to other people. But this all ties back to business.”
What is she learning? “Patience. I’d say I am patient to an extent but a little humility does not hurt. This industry will test you all the way to the top. You can have some very high highs and very low lows. When you are in a role such as mine, you tend to take on everything, trying to keep everyone happy. It’s taught me a lot of patience and humility.” Has her definition of success changed? “Success is when you wake up and do what you love and love what you do. I don’t think there is a definite vision of ‘if I get to this point then I am very successful’. It’s different for everyone. I want to leave the industry better than I found it, and have an impact on people’s lives. When I win, other people win. The reverse is true: when others win, so do I.” Is there a piece of advice women should ignore? “That we should be competing with our male counterparts. If it’s your time it’s your time. Don’t make it feel that you have to be in competition with somebody else. We all have our role in society, and women will do what women need to do. Ditto men.” She feels that that is a controversial statement, but she says it anyway. Her rope is long because her patience is not. She doesn’t always care if others understand.
As a high-achieving woman, is there anything she struggles with? “Emotions. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I am very soft so when people come at me hard, I could cry. I struggle with tough love; even if they mean well, sometimes the approach can be quite problematic. Teach me calmly. I will learn. Don’t talk down at me. If you do, I shut down.” Deep down, she is just the girl next door who was willing to offer a sacrifice to the gods of ambition for her ensuing success. She doesn’t shy away from talking about it either. “I haven’t been to the gym lately, or been able to shoot breeze with my family and do things that we love together. They understand, but it is not lost on me that this is a time I will never get back. In my defence, I have consecrated Sundays as my family time. That is sacred.”
She starkly reveals herself to be the kind of girl you had no idea she could be, except maybe you should have imagined as much. What song then, best summarises the season of life she is in right now? “Live Your Life by Rihanna and T.I.” Is she living the life she prayed for? “Definitely.”
