Posted:
by QW+ staff writer
The company we keep: Zukiswa White
Zukiswa White is a queer-feminist and pan-African activist-organiser, popular educator, and projects specialist. Her work is at the intersections of gender equity, racial justice, and sustainable development. Her specific skills lie in building systems and amplifying women’s leadership.
Rooted in the belief that culture is another terrain of struggle, she founded Umanyano Lwe Jazz, a festival that centres jazz as a site of resistance, community gathering, and feminist cultural organising.
She is the Operations and Finance Lead at Quote This Woman+.
Pronouns? She/Her
Born? 8 January
School? Krugersdorp Highschool
University? University of the Witwatersrand
First job? Junior Business Analyst at Absa Bank
Home? Soweto, Johannesburg
Transport? My first car was a cute blue Toyota Ayga which I named Nala after my favorite childhood animated character (The Lion King)
Book on your bedside table? I was given Lihle Ngcobozi’s “Mothers of the Nation: Manyano Women in South Africa” and I am looking forward to finally getting into the book – the year has been a whirlwind so far!
Music in your playlist? Always some world-class South African jazz!
Describe your job in no more than seven words: Building the base so African media reflects us.
What keeps you awake at night? Honestly, the state of this nation.
Who is your biggest hero? Undoubtedly, my mother. My first model of possibility in every sense of the term.
Remote or office? Remote
What’s the most exciting part of your job? I am learning so much about the media landscape as a terrain of struggle beyond representation – narrative, power, and the arena of ideas. Which, in the current political climate, is a field that is absolutely so vital as part of our arsenal against the anti-gender and anti-rights movements worldwide. Which is to say, feminist communications and feminist media are weapons.
Career highlight? I’ve been privileged throughout my career to work at the intersections of feminist movement building and transformative social justice agendas. This has meant that I have gotten to connect with incredibly sharp feminist organisers around the world, pursuing work I believe in with my entire heart. This means so much to me.
What is your superpower? I am multi-faceted and fueled by stubborn optimism – very rarely can anything get in the way of me and what I set out to do and/or achieve. In the words of Sanza Stark from Game of Thrones: “I am a slow learner, but I do learn.”
What is the least known fact about you? I am a big-time bisexual woman.
If you could get the ear of one person to convince them your work is important, who would it be? My mom – she really has no idea what it is exactly that I do to survive capitalism. To be honest, sometimes I don’t know either. If you have worked in nonprofits long enough, you will know that often, job titles are suggestive (haha!). We are movement workers who wear many hats – sometimes too many! But alas, the work to deliver an alternative racially just, gender-transformative, equitable world continues! Aluta!
If you had the power to pass a presidential decree, what would it be? No prison time for economic crimes. We should be ending poverty with comprehensive policies that deliver for all, not criminalising survival. A mother who steals bread and milk to feed her children belongs with her children, not in a cage.
Your best piece of advice? When you fail forward, failure becomes information. And like any source of information, when used correctly, it becomes a useful tool. Any good tool knows how to build. And a builder with experience (i.e. a builder who has failed previously) knows how to use their tool better.
What’s your next big thing? I want to get so good at my job that I can one day talk about and advocate for it with authority. Essentially, my next big thing is making feminist operations and feminist finance my entire personality. Our movements and organisations need it!
What do you do to relax? Live music, concerts, festivals – give it to me all!