You don’t decide as much as you think you do.
A colour, a headline, a smell, a slogan, the order of options on a screen are all tiny cues that quietly shape what you do, buy, and believe. This is priming: the invisible force that steers attention, triggers emotion, and nudges behaviour – often before you feel you’ve chosen anything at all.
In PRIMED: The Hidden Power That Shapes What We Do, Buy and Believe, Joshua Chimakula Ngoma takes you inside the hidden architecture of influence – from shopping and social media to leadership, religion, politics, and the systems that surround us. With real-world examples and practical tools, he shows how influence is built, how it spreads, and why even intelligent people can be pulled by it.
But this is not a handbook for manipulation. It’s a book about agency.
You’ll learn how to spot the cues shaping your decisions, protect yourself from harmful influence, and design better environments – at home, at work, and in society – where the right choices become easier.
Because once you can see the prime, you can change the outcome.
About Joshua Ngoma
Joshua Chimakula Ngoma is a celebrated author, serial social entrepreneur, and a veteran of Joshua Chimakula Ngoma is a published author, serial social entrepreneur and veteran of the African mining industry. He has spent his lifetime digging for value, first in the earth and now in people. He is the author of Primed: The Hidden Power That Shapes What We Do, Buy, and Believe and It’s Time for Africa: Embracing Our Ancient Roots and Charting a Prosperous Tomorrow.
Born in Zambia in 1960, he earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Mining Engineering from the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall, United Kingdom, and a Master of Engineering in Project Management from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. In 2025, he was conferred a Professional Doctorate in Global Leadership and Management by the European International University, Paris.
With almost three decades in mining, he held senior positions in Zambia and South Africa. In the late 1990s, he was invited to join a group of emerging mining entrepreneurs who formed Eyesizwe Mining, which went on to play a pivotal role in creating Exxaro Resources. He later became founding CEO of Tranter Holdings, growing it to four subsidiaries, three countries and more than 300 employees between 2007 and 2012.
In 2012, he left mining not to retire, but to ‘refire’. In 2013, he founded the Enterprising Africa Regional Network Proprietary Limited (EARN), which became operational in September, 2014 and focuses on developing young African entrepreneurs across agriculture, food and energy. In PRIMED, he writes about influence, identity and leadership as a practitioner, convinced that our environments shape outcomes at least as much as our talents do – and that leaders, teachers and parents can learn to design better ones.
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