Slesh and Bionic Karate take a deep dive into the mind of Bullsheep’ s Founder & Creative Director, Botlhe Masego Makgekgenene.
As we settle down for our chat with Mr. Botlhe Makgekgenene, he begins the interview by playing Big Sean’s ‘Why Would I Stop’. A perfect precursor to the conversation that would follow.
Speaking with a strong sense of confidence, he began by telling us, “I come from the land between two rivers – the land of manyonyomane. Take Not Time, Tonota AKA TNT”. He goes on to explain how his formative years were spent in Gaborone, before joining a cohort of young Batswana sent to study in South Africa, at the start of the new millennium. All roads eventually led him back home in 2010 & that is when the story of Bullsheep would start to unfold.
“There was a lot of energy in the air at the time. I had just gotten married, the World Cup was popping off… and I thought to myself that if I am ever going to do something big in life, then this was the right time and energy,” Botlhe muses on as he reminisces on the events that lead him towards opening the studio.
Starting out as co-founder of the photography studio, Image Lounge, with partner Igor Barandovski, Bullsheep was eventually birthed & ran from their shared office space a year later. “With only a single desk to work from at the time and ready for the challenge ahead,” he explains.
“I was starting a business and had to make an impact. I was a one-man operation, having risen up the ranks from being a junior designer. I wanted to build my own team.” The first key to unlocking this goal would turn out to be his now close friend and business partner, Filip Nemet.
The two had met when Filip came to Botswana from Serbia through an exchange program. As fate would have it, they had both resigned from their jobs around same time. After numerous conversations, the two decided to partner in opening Bullsheep. Filip would run his studio based in Serbia, while Botlhe would go on to run his operation from his home base of Botswana.
With such an audacious and bold name, often mistaken for the word bull***t by many, we had to ask about its origins. “We were from an agency life, which is notorious for talking a lot of… ummm… for upselling a lot of stuff and we thought to ourselves that we wanted a name that is funny, quirky and would perfectly encapsulate the spirit of this ‘brand new animal’ that we were trying to create. On one hand you have the strength of the bull, and on the other the humble nature of the sheep, an all-new species that is both strong and kind”. A brilliant play on words, no?
A decade later, Botlhe’s resilience and vision has remained consistent despite facing challenges. He boldly expressed that he had never reached the point of wanting to give up, “Yes, it would get frustrating but I had so much hope. The potential was so high and frustrations are a part of life. But the aspirations and hope were the drive… the everyday motivation to wake up.”
He goes on to say, “Bullsheep today, is so much like a family. It feels like something that started with a lot of love and has grown in love, quiet substantially”. Over the last decade the Kraal has grown into a collective of artists, strategists, designers, storytellers, architects & filmmakers, each contributing towards the growth of the brand.
Soon enough our time with Mr. Makgekgenene had to come to end but before we could close, we had to ask what the commonly used expression ‘The Piff’ meant? He laughed, explaining that, “… it is the continuous drive towards being great. It is the ‘more’ in the seemingly mundane stuff we do on a daily… it is wanting to achieve that ‘more’ on a constant and consistent basis.”
From our sit-down, it was clear that his goals and intentions for the studio have remained constant. Even before its inception, Botlhe knew where he was headed. Not many people are able to stick to vision when life takes its many turns, yet he did & that’s why we’ve coined him a ‘Supreme Being’.
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