I came across something recently that stopped me mid-scroll.
Quinta Brunson – creator and star of Abbott Elementary – was speaking on Scott Evans’ House Guest series about the ecosystem of Black television and how her show came to exist. What she said was simple, but it landed like something I’d been trying to articulate for a long time.
“I don’t think I would have been able to make Abbott [Elementary] if Insecure and Atlanta didn’t exist,” she said. “I know so.”
And then: “When I made Abbott [Elementary], that opened doors for other things to be made. Other shows have opened the doors for this to be made. Your show will open the door for other things to be made.”
And finally: “That’s why I stress the importance of good art. Because it opens the doors for better art.”
I’ve been thinking about that ever since. Not just in the context of television, but in the context of everything Ronoh Media is trying to do here in Pretoria, and what it means to tell the stories of Black South African businesses properly.
The Puzzle Piece Theory of Good Art
What Quinta Brunson is describing is something like a compounding effect. Each piece of good art – each honest, well-made piece of work – doesn’t just exist in isolation. It expands what’s imaginable for the next person. It gives decision-makers a reference point they didn’t have before. It makes the audience more prepared to receive something even better.
Insecure didn’t set out to make Abbott Elementary possible. Atlanta wasn’t trying to write Quinta Brunson’s pitch into existence. But those shows existed, they were good, they were honest – and that goodness created conditions. It opened a door.
Every piece of good work is a puzzle piece. And the more puzzle pieces exist, the larger the picture can become.
Why This Matters in South Africa Right Now
When I think about the landscape of how Black South African businesses are represented – online, in media, in brand content – I see a puzzle with enormous gaps in it.
There are extraordinary businesses operating in Pretoria, in Gauteng, across the country. People who have built real things with real craft over years and decades. And so much of that story is either untold or told badly – rushed, generic, stripped of the specificity that makes it real.
Every time one of those businesses gets a piece of content that truly represents them – something made with care, with proper production, with honesty – it does something beyond just serving that business. It raises the bar. It shows other business owners what’s possible for their own story. It shows audiences – potential clients, potential partners – what South African entrepreneurship actually looks like.
It becomes a puzzle piece.
What Ronoh Media Is Really Building
I started Ronoh Media to do documentary-style video production, brand photography, and web design for businesses in Pretoria and Gauteng. That’s the practical description. But the reason I’m doing it – the reason that actually gets me out of bed – is something more like what Quinta Brunson is describing.
Every brand film we produce for a Black-owned business in Tshwane is a puzzle piece. Every honest, well-lit, properly considered portrait of a South African entrepreneur is a puzzle piece. Every short-form clip that goes out on Instagram or TikTok and shows what a real, excellent business looks like – another puzzle piece.
None of these pieces is trying to be the whole picture. But together, over time, they add up to something. They create conditions. They expand what’s imaginable for the next business owner who asks: can my story be told like that?
And the answer Ronoh Media is working to make obvious, one project at a time, is yes.
Good Art Gets Good Art
Quinta Brunson acknowledged the awkward side of this too. She knows Abbott Elementary will now get name-dropped in pitch meetings as the reference point for the next show. She laughed about it. But she’s not bothered – because that’s exactly how it’s supposed to work.
The work you make with care and honesty becomes the reference point that makes the next piece of honest work more possible. It raises the expectation. It builds the ecosystem.
That’s what I want Ronoh Media to be part of building – a South African visual storytelling ecosystem where the standard is high, where Black businesses are shown with the dignity and specificity they deserve, and where each well-made piece of work creates a little more room for the next one.
We’re early. The puzzle has a lot of gaps still. But every piece matters.
Ronoh Media is a Pretoria-based creative studio producing documentary-style brand video, photography, and web design for Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs across Gauteng and South Africa. Let’s add a piece to the puzzle.