About This Event
Join us for a conversation with Mzwandile Nkutha, Nkosivumile Gola, and Buyisiwe Putu from Iziko Lamaqabane, an organization working in relational solidarity with urban peace and justice practitioners throughout Africa. Their dialogue centers around a quotation by Frantz Fanon, from his book A Dying Colonialism:
“There is, first of all, the fact that the colonized person, who in this respect is like the human in underdeveloped countries or the disinherited in all parts of the world, perceives life not as a flowering or a development of an essential productiveness, but as a permanent struggle against an omnipresent death. This ever-menacing death is expected as endemic famine, unemployment, a high death rate, an inferiority complex and the absence of any hope for the future. All this gnawing at the existence of the colonized tends to make of life something resembling an incomplete death” (p. 128).
The three will discuss the meaning of peace and justice in a context of histories shaped and formed by coloniality.
MEET THE PANEL
Nkosi Gola
Nkosi Gola is an activist and community organiser fascinated with and closely studying the Black church’s expression of justice. He is particularly interested in how this institution, the church, serves as a hub of black resistance, both covertly and overtly.
Nkosi is working at Iziko Lamaqabane as Director of Urban African Solidarity, Black Church, Black Theology Engagement, and Programs Manager.
Mziwandile Nkutha
Mziwandile (Mzi) Nkutha is Director of Iziko Lamaqabane. Mzi grew up in Soweto and still carries significant Kasi (township) culture with him. Township life is an ongoing hybrid and croele (re)production of the political and cultural expression of creolization. It is a gift that assists him to both understand our world but more so, to contribute to the making and reshaping of the world. His social interests includes learning from different cultural experiences, including the love of (Afro)jazz, good food, and good African coffees. He lives in Alberton, south of Johannesburg, with his spouse, Lydia Nani Nkutha and daughter, Uluthando Nkutha.
Buyisiwe Putu
Buyisiwe Putu is a Black South African accountant by profession and founder of Iziko Lamaqabane, where she serves as Director of Afro Feminist-Womanist Solidarity and Operations Manager. Her work bridges financial expertise, theological reflection, and grassroots organising to advance justice-centred community development. Working at the intersection of faith, land, gender, and economic dignity, she collaborates with women in township and rural contexts to strengthen agriculture-for-liberation initiatives, leadership formation, and sustainable livelihoods. She intentionally connects grassroots women's lived knowledge with academic and theological discourse, ensuring that community wisdom informs institutional practice. Her leadership integrates financial accountability, contextual theology, and African feminist praxis to ensure that development initiatives are economically sound, strategically managed, and socially transformative.
About This Event
Join us for a conversation with Mzwandile Nkutha, Nkosivumile Gola, and Buyisiwe Putu from Iziko Lamaqabane, an organization working in relational solidarity with urban peace and justice practitioners throughout Africa. Their dialogue centers around a quotation by Frantz Fanon, from his book A Dying Colonialism:
“There is, first of all, the fact that the colonized person, who in this respect is like the human in underdeveloped countries or the disinherited in all parts of the world, perceives life not as a flowering or a development of an essential productiveness, but as a permanent struggle against an omnipresent death. This ever-menacing death is expected as endemic famine, unemployment, a high death rate, an inferiority complex and the absence of any hope for the future. All this gnawing at the existence of the colonized tends to make of life something resembling an incomplete death” (p. 128).
The three will discuss the meaning of peace and justice in a context of histories shaped and formed by coloniality.
MEET THE PANEL
Nkosi Gola
Nkosi Gola is an activist and community organiser fascinated with and closely studying the Black church’s expression of justice. He is particularly interested in how this institution, the church, serves as a hub of black resistance, both covertly and overtly.
Nkosi is working at Iziko Lamaqabane as Director of Urban African Solidarity, Black Church, Black Theology Engagement, and Programs Manager.
Mziwandile Nkutha
Mziwandile (Mzi) Nkutha is Director of Iziko Lamaqabane. Mzi grew up in Soweto and still carries significant Kasi (township) culture with him. Township life is an ongoing hybrid and croele (re)production of the political and cultural expression of creolization. It is a gift that assists him to both understand our world but more so, to contribute to the making and reshaping of the world. His social interests includes learning from different cultural experiences, including the love of (Afro)jazz, good food, and good African coffees. He lives in Alberton, south of Johannesburg, with his spouse, Lydia Nani Nkutha and daughter, Uluthando Nkutha.
Buyisiwe Putu
Buyisiwe Putu is a Black South African accountant by profession and founder of Iziko Lamaqabane, where she serves as Director of Afro Feminist-Womanist Solidarity and Operations Manager. Her work bridges financial expertise, theological reflection, and grassroots organising to advance justice-centred community development. Working at the intersection of faith, land, gender, and economic dignity, she collaborates with women in township and rural contexts to strengthen agriculture-for-liberation initiatives, leadership formation, and sustainable livelihoods. She intentionally connects grassroots women's lived knowledge with academic and theological discourse, ensuring that community wisdom informs institutional practice. Her leadership integrates financial accountability, contextual theology, and African feminist praxis to ensure that development initiatives are economically sound, strategically managed, and socially transformative.