In collaboration with The Forge, UNcwadi nobuGcisa has curated an activation to draw attention to the Lovedale Press crisis and to revitalise the readership of books written in isiNtu languages.
This gathering celebrates the rich knowledge preserved in the Lovedale Press archive. The programme will feature readings and reflections on selected works from the archive, presented by Thiyane Duda and Mthunzikazi Mbungwana.
Through these readings and discussions, the event will explore themes that remain deeply relevant today, including:
- The struggle for land and freedom
- The wealth of our land
- Women’s contributions to isiNtu literature
- Decolonial education
- Same-sex desire and queerness
- Patriarchy within Eurocentric education systems
- The erosion of isiNtu sexual education through colonial influence
- The enduring conditions of oppression faced by Black people
Date
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Saturday 21 March 2026
Time
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2pm
Facilitator
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Thiyane Duda is a researcher on ubukhosi (“traditional leadership”), umthetho wesiNtu (“customary law”), ingoma as a healing methodology in agitating for redress, isiNtu epistemologies and ontologies. He also co-hosts UNcwadi nobuGcisa, an Instagram Live reading platform focusing on revitalising the readership of literature written in isiNtu languages, claiming space for this literature in the digital space and supporting the revitalisation of Lovedale Press.
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Facilitator
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Mthunzikazi Mbungwana is a poet, writer, translator, editor and isiNtu languages activist. Mthunzi is interested in illuminating the multidisciplinary ways of growing isiXhosa language and literature using popular culture, creative works, and “women who know other women” languages of nurture, love and pleasure. She is the author of two poetry collections, Umnikelo (2015) and Unam Wena (2021). She is part of the five-member team of isiXhosa language practitioners and cultural workers who are translating Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Decolonising the Mind to isiXhosa. Mthunzikazi and Thiyane Duda are founders of UNcwadi nobuGcisa, a social media platform focusing on revitalising the readership of literature in isiNtu languages.
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