This critical dialogue, led by educator and cultural theorist Sanele kaNtshingana, explores the deep and lasting impact of Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement on creative expression across South Africa. The session will examine how Biko’s political philosophy and radical cultural insights continue to shape music, theatre, literature, and visual art—especially in the hands of a new generation of African creatives.
Framed within a contemporary context of decolonisation and self-reclamation, this lecture seeks to unpack how Biko’s influence has transcended the political into the creative sphere—becoming a foundation for bold, revolutionary artistic practice. It is a call to remember, resist, and reimagine through the lens of cultural activism.
Followed by a dynamic Q&A session, this talk offers insight, provocation, and inspiration to artists, educators, and cultural workers alike.
About the Artists
Sanele KaNtshingana
BA (Hons) MA Rhodes
Sanele KaNtshingana holds a position as a lecturer in the School of Languages and Literatures (African languages section) at the University of Cape Town, bringing over five years of experience in the Higher Education sector.
His current PhD research project, titled “The Political Thought and African Intellectual History of Political Authority in the Southeast African Region (c. 1838–c. 1918),” investigates how amaXhosa political life and concepts of authority from the distant past were shaped and expressed by amaThwasa ooNcwadi, or “African intellectuals,” in the vernacular press and other Black registrars during the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Sanele is actively engaged in various research endeavors and currently serves as a co-investigator in a British Academy-funded project titled “Imagining the Ordinary City: Arts, Placemaking, and Everyday Urban Lives.” This initiative emphasises literary, visual, and performance works that explore the often-overlooked or ‘ordinary’ cities of South Africa, such as Pretoria/Tshwane and Makhanda, fostering dialogues that compare their representational strategies and engagement with local, national, and international audiences.
Outside of academia, Sanele participates in various collectives dedicated to cultivating a (Black) conscious, confident, bold, self-assertive, and introspective generation of youth. In Makhanda, he leads the Makhanda Black Kollective (MBK), which implements numerous programs aimed at re-educating young individuals about the rich traditions of African intellectual thought and activism through creative expressions that prioritize the agency and voices of the youth. Sanele identifies as an ‘undisciplined’ young scholar, bridging the fields of History, Language, and Education, both within and beyond the university setting.
Selected Publications:
Ntshingana, S. (forthcoming)
- Theorizing ubulungisa and umthetho at the precipices of crisis and change: A thickly layered reading of justice and law in iTyala Lamawele
South African Journal on Human Rights.
Masola, A. and kaNtshingana, S. (2024).
- Exploring paratextual framings of the isiXhosa volumes in the African Treasury Series. In:
S. Nuttall and I. Hofmeyr (eds.), Publishing from the South: A Century of Wits University Press.
Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Thurman, C., Foot, L., Marx, G., Van Graan, M., Kessi, S., and kaNtshingana, S. (2024).
Othello in Cape Town 2024.
- Journal of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa, 37, pp. 63–82.
Brydon, L., kaNtshingana, S., and Schupp, J. (2024).
- Introduction: Screen media and ‘middling cities’—questioning hierarchies, dominant narratives, and negative associations.
Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture, 9(3).
kaNtshingana, S. (2023).
- Changing theory is a necessary humanizing act.
Acta Academica, 55(1), pp. 146–150. Book Review: Changing Theory: Concepts from the Global South, edited by Dilip M. Menon.
kaNtshingana, S. (2022).
- S.E.K. Mqhayi: The destruction of the archive and restoration through digital affordances.
Imbiza Journal for African Writing.
kaNtshingana, S. (2022).
- The potency of vernacular sources in illuminating the narrative of southern Africa’s deep past. In:
The New History of South Africa.
Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers.
Public Humanities
kaNtshingana, S. (2023).
- AC Jordan: A continental jewel whose legacy echoes across Africa and the diaspora.
City Press.
[Online]. Available at: City Press Article
kaNtshingana, S. (2023).
- S.E.K. Mqhayi’s presentation.
[Online]. Available at: Presentation Link
kaNtshingana, S. (2021).
- Bheki Peterson: Pursuing radical epistemological thought with an understated erudition.
Mail & Guardian.
[Online]. Available at: Mail & Guardian Article
- Venue: The Black Power Station
- Location: The Old Power Station
- Programme type: The Fringe
- Genre: ArtTalk
- Duration: 120 minutes
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Ages:
PG (PARENTAL GUIDANCE)
