Feminine Africa Voices – Nonzwakazi

Feminine Africa Voices: Nonzwakazi Noluntu Sgwentu | Mother Activist Educator | International Motivational Speaker

My name is Nonzwakazi Nolunto Sgwentu. Both my names have got a meaning because in my tradition, children don’t just get given names, there always has to have meaning into it. Nonzwakazi means the deepest beauty, and that beauty has followed me all my years and that has grounded me into my tradition in everywhere that I have been. I’m a motivational speaker or a public speaker. I just returned from America now. Whenever I’m in these countries, Europe, wherever I am, far away from home, I go and throwback from my traditions. When I gave birth to my daughter in 1986, this child came at a time that was really tough in South Africa. 86, even prior 86 there were riots in South Africa. We were just fighting fighting and the war was visible. Today, the war is not visible, it is invisible, but it is still there. This child, I gave birth to her in Groote Schuur and I had to get out of Groote Schuur and I was discharged four days after I gave birth to her. And I had an operation. I lived in Crossroad at the time. When we got back, half of crossed road had been burned. There was shooting all around in everything that was happening, and so we had to stay outside of the municipality building, which is in Nyanga, which is very close to Groote Schuur. There was a lot of us. We were fed by Red Cross. My sister had a baby that was four months older than my baby, and she had her little ones, 2 girls who weren’t that much old. But then she had to be the one who was nurturing me, and we were in the field…