Nyiko Shikwambane-Student, activist, communicator

My guest this week is Nyiko Shikwambane. Nyiko is currently busy with her master thesis in African Literature at Wits University. Nyiko was intimately involved in the Fees Must Fall movement at Wits and we do spend some time getting her perspective on where the movement stands today.

She was also, along with three fellow activists, involved in one of the most dramatic political protests of recent times when the four young women stood in silence in front of former President Zuma as he spoke, evoking the memory of his rape accuser Fezekile Khuzwayo. She tells me how that moment came about.

We had a wide-ranging discussion about, among other things, gender identity and the phenomenon of corrective rape, the changing nature of work and the potential of the fourth industrial revolution to create new leadership models, new industries and new ways of work.

Nyiko and her fellow activist  Naledi Chirwa have launched a YouTube channel called #UnpolicedExpressions  where they talk about issues of feminism and gender politics. I have included a poem from a recent episode at the end of this podcast so please listen to that.