Solidarity Summer School Contributors

Zakithi Sibandze is a feminist from a family of 5 siblings, was raised by my mother while my father spent years in South African mines. I attended my primary education at Sinceni mission school in the rural areas walking a long distance at a young age. My secondary and high school was at Lavundlamanti High School and also a 5kilometers distance from home. I then enroled at the University of Swaziland in Bachelor of Adult Education measuring in Community  Development. I joined the Rural Women’s Assembly in 2016 as a peer educator after volunteering in community health organisations, but I wanted more and to bring change to women's lives. Later in 2018, I was hired as a Project Coordinator for Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly, an organisation working on women and girls' rights and also climate justice. I am currently the National Coordinator, The organisation has 23000 members. I lead programs of the organisation and mentor the young women.  I am also the founding member for Young Volunteers of the environment, an organisation that seeks to empower young people using ecological ways.

Cebile Delisile Dlamini is a feminist and activist dedicated to advancing women’s rights, girls’ empowerment, and climate justice. She is a founding member of the Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly (SRWA), a grassroots organisation that is part of the Southern African Rural Women’s Assembly. Cebile has served SRWA in various leadership roles, including two terms as Secretary General on a voluntary basis. She currently holds the position of Treasurer General. Professionally, she is an accountant with experience working in different organisations and the trade union movement. Beyond her activism and professional work, she is also a farmer, cultivating crops, vegetables, and livestock. She is a self-motivated, reliable, and hard-working individual, adaptable to challenges and committed to teamwork. SRWA brings together women from various community-based groups, boasting a membership of approximately 23,000 women. Cebile is deeply passionate about women’s empowerment, advocating for education, self-improvement, and women’s active participation in decision-making spaces. She envisions a society where women stand up for their rights unapologetically, free from oppression, and fully engaged in shaping their own futures.

Mamalefetsane Phakoe is a Mosotho farmer and the National Chairperson of Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (Lesotho) consisting of 35 farmer associations and serves on the boards of Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum across 15 countries and Africa Climate Justice Movement. She is the General Secretary of Hope for Rural Women Assembly of some 4500 rural small-scale farmers. Mamalefetsane is a proudly Mosotho woman. A mother of two girls and a boy, grandmother of four boys. She has an educational background in Adult Education from the National University of Lesotho, leadership for Change as well a business Management.

I am Khahliso Namane ,aged 21, living in Lesotho. I was raised by both parents from childhood. I studied at Masite Primary and St Barnabas High School where I completed and passed my LGCSE very well. I was a class monitress both Primary and High School. During my high school level I was chosen by one of the non governmental organization to engage in a variety of activities with children. I also started a business of making women cultural attire which we were taught at school. In the years 2023 to 2024 I applied to a nursing program but failed to be admitted due to high competition and I had to supplement Mathematics. I got married towards the end of 2024 and continued with my studies.

Alice Kachere is a renowned Malawian farmer, activist and leader who has dedicated her life to empowering rural women. Born on September 25, 1970, in Kalumbu village, Lilongwe district, Malawi, Alice grew up in a family farming background, which instilled in her a strong connection with the land and community. Alice’s education includes a Junior Certificate and she has received training as an advocate for women from FARNRPAN. Her leadership and advocacy skills have been evident throughout her career, with notable achievements including: Board member, NASFAM (2009-2010): selected as a board member for the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi; Women Committee Member, World Farms Organization (2011-2014): dedicated to empowering rural women, Alice was selected as a member of Women’s Committee; Acting Coordinator, Rural Women’s Assembly: Currently serving as an acting coordinator for the Rural Women Assembly; Women Representative, District Council: Elected as a Women Representative, Alice continues to advocate for women’s rights; Farmer and Seed Saver with 25 years of experience in farming, Alice promotes indigenous seeds and agroecology; Activist: A vocal advocate against gender-based violence. Alice fights for women’s rights and social justice. She is a Female Brand Ambassador for Women Climate Justice campaign, Alice has travelled extensively, advocating for women farmers’ rights. Notably, she met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to negotiate global efforts for women’s participation in agriculture. Alice’s life’s work is a testament to her passion for empowering rural women, promoting economic empowerment and improving livelihoods. Her leadership and advocacy continue to inspire and uplift countless individuals, leaving a lasting impact on her community and beyond.

My name is Emily Mphazi, 46years of age, born in a family of 5 from the central region of Malawi Ntchisi District. I went to high school never to college. Am married to Potipher, blessed with two kids (son and daughter). I was involved in farming way back and worked with different organisations such as NASFAM and ACTION AID. I was the chairperson for Coalition For Women Farmers (COWFA) and now working with RWA Malawi as a chairperson. I have managed to acquire my own land for farming which is a major achievement. This year am registered as one of MEGA farmers in Malawi taking part in fighting hunger in Malawi and am also involved livestock farming. My vision is to see more women empowered and become financially stable in next five years. I like reading books, watching TV, cooking, and cooperate with family and friends.

Flaida José Macheze, was born on 26 November 1974 in Mozambique in a small town in Inhambane Province called The City of Good People, where the waters of the Indian Ocean are the great illusion of beauty and life. I was born to a labourer father and an assimilated family where the mother took care of the family and the father worked outside the home. During the time I was in my family, we lived on local food produced in our fields and local fruit from our orchard. When I finished 10th grade, I entered the convent, and as a nun I went to the mission in San José, California. In 2004 I left the convent and went to look after my sick and elderly mother and got to know the Social Movements where I worked from 2005 until today 2025. I worked with peasants from 16 January 2006 to 30 March 2024 and I currently work at ADRA as a gender adviser. I am married and the mother of 2 girls and 1 boy. I have a master's degree in gender and development, I love doing good wherever there is good to be done.

Silvia Dywili, is a 30-year-old activist and feminist, daughter, older sister of 2 brothers, friend of some young and older women. Silvia was born in Maputo on July 13, 1994, the daughter of a young woman who was an artisan. She found herself enjoying school at an early age because she was told that studying was the way to avoid becoming marginalised. Silvia has a degree in Human Resources Management. She never pursued her degree because she never saw any purpose in it and decided to focus her young career on Human Rights, with an emphasis on youth, agroecology and Sexual and Reproductive Rights. She was a mentor for the Roll Model Initiative (an initiative that aims to inspire girls and young women to pursue careers in the exact sciences and technologies by supporting women who are dedicated to these areas).

I am Elizabeth Amutenya, born 1970, in Ompundja village, Oshana Region, Namibia. I was raised by my parents who were farmers and I am a farmer myself. I spent my early years of school at Ompundja Junior Primary School, then I went on to middle school at Kapolo Senior Primary School, and then I spent my grade 8 to 10 at Oshakati Secondary School. Due to financial reasons I did not do grade 11 but I did Distance Learning for my 12th grade. During my time doing Distance Learning I was recruited to teach people how to read and write, through an adult education program. During my college years I again did Distance Learning at the University of Namibia, and I majored a diploma in adult education and community development, then I later on earned a Honours degree in education (lifelong learning). Currently I train young people on business management and I also aid them with loans as a startup capital for their enterprises. I am also a leader of the Namibian Rural Women Assembly which operates in all 14 regions and it has 9000 members and I also serve in a number of different boards and committees that target community development mainly the farming sector such as Land Resettlement Committee in Oshana Region, Executive Committee member of Oshana Regional Farmers Union, Board member of Namibia National Farmers Union.

Rolina Apolonia Amunjera - I have been a committed feminist ever since my upbringing as a girl, which shaped me into the woman I am today. Growing up as one of three siblings, we faced the tragic loss of our mother when we were very young and were raised by our guardian mother. Despite these challenging circumstances, I successfully completed my primary and secondary education. I further pursued my studies and have become a highly organised and efficient secretary with over fifteen years of experience providing administrative support to executives in a fast-paced office environment. In addition, I play a leadership role in the Namibian Rural Women’s Assembly and in various positions of that I am entrusted in such as regional leader, school board chairperson and youth group.

Norah Mlondobozi is a small scale farmer for over 20 years, a member of Rural Women Assembly from Limpopo Province of South Africa. She is a former secondary school teacher who holds an honors degree in school counselling from the University of Pretoria. She resigned from her teaching position after 15 years and became a full-time farmer after realising a lot of children come to school hungry and went back not sure if they will have something to eat. Five years after becoming a farmer she was crowned District female farmer of the year. In 2017 she qualified as an Agroecology trainer after a six months course at 17 Shaft in Johannesburg. Norah is now a Rural Women Assembly coordinator for both Limpopo and South Africa and a traditional seed saver. On weekends she frequently attends church services.

Denia Jansen - I am a dedicated feminist, and activist for farmworkers' rights, land justice, and gender equality. Coming from a family of farmworkers many of whom still work the land today my commitment to farmworker rights is deeply personal. This lived experience drives my work as a land rights activist, advocating for the landless, including rural women and farmworkers, who are often marginalised and voiceless. My fight to end gender-based violence (GBV) focusses on empowering victims who have lost trust in the justice system, offering them support and a path to reclaiming their power. I believe in equality for all who suffer under the brutal systems of capitalism and patriarchy, and my activism is rooted in a vision of justice, dignity, and freedom for the most vulnerable. My extensive experience in grassroots organising over the years has deepened my political understand of the devastating effect of unemployment and poverty amongst young black woman and youth. “We must continue to see that the struggles of women, the struggles of people of colour and the struggles of land are all intertwined”- Winona LaDuke.

Lungisa Huna is a South African Social Justice Activist a Co-coordinator and member of Rural Women Assembly. She is Co- Director of the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE). Huna has wealth of knowledge, experience especially in the NGO sector for more 20 years in strategic leadership positions and as a director. She has vast experience in community and institutional development processes and has established initiatives and programmes for the development of emerging women leaders and provides mentorship support to the young aspiring leaders. Key to her work is building women’s voice and agency in societies were inequality is dominant. Lungisa supports the building of migrant women movement. Huna has a Master’s Degree in Social Reflective Practice and Development – London metropolitan University

Mercia Andrews - I have worked in several NGOs in South Africa and served as the national director of the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) until recently. This work focuses on food sovereignty, climate justice, agrarian transition and movement building. We advocated for a human -rights and community centred to our work. I am an active member of the Rural Women’s Assembly, and act as the regional convener of the Rural Women’s Assembly. The RWA is a movement of rural women in Southern Africa. Our focus is on the defence of the commons, seed and food sovereignty and against encroachment of MNC on our land for resource grabs and extractivism. I am also an active Pan-Africanist, internationalist and participate in a number of regional, Africa –wide and global forums that deal with food sovereignty and issues of rights of nature. I play a leadership role in, the People’s Dialogue and the Thematic Social Forum (TSF) which are South-South platforms. Throughout my adult life I have participated actively in local, popular organisations especially the women’s movement and describe myself as a feminist

Erica-Catherine Walter Mulaga is from Tanzania. She is the RWA chapter Team Leader as well as the Executive Director of MIICO an NGO based in Mbeya- Tanzania. She is experienced professional Development practitioner with experience of more than 30 years on development activities both working with public and NGO sectors. Her experience includes Community Organising, Facilitation, Programme and Organisation Management.

Judith Patrick Singibala, a Tanzanian community development activist. A special needs practitioner utilizing Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) tools, she supports children with autism and other special needs. Judith also empowers women in business and agriculture, addressing issues like land advocacy and gender-based violence through her work with the Rural Women Assembly - Tanzania chapter. She mentors young girls in leadership, inspiring the next generation of changemakers. A trained NLP practitioner, she uses counselling and therapy, incorporating principles of "order, balance, and connection" into her problem-solving approach. Her work demonstrates a commitment to holistic support for vulnerable individuals and communities

Mary Sakala is female small-scale farmer but also an activist in rural women’s rights seed, water land and food, Mary resides in a district called Mumbwa in central part of Zambia. She is the current Zambian rural women’s assembly chairperson leading 9000 women across Zambia and has been in RWA for more than ten years now. Mary shares knowledge on agroecology practises and farmer saved seeds management and encourages fellow women to feed families with nutritious tasty seeds as part of food sovereignty. She is also a seed saver in her own capacity. Her education level is secondary at Kabulonga school for girls. She is a mother of four boys and three girls and married. Solidarity, feminism and shared knowledge is her moto.

My name is Docus Kapwaya. l live in Zambia Lusaka Province Rufunsa District Mukonka village. I am a farmer and a member of RWA. I grow different indigenous seeds for example locai maize Gankata kafwamba, red maize, sorghum, groundnuts, beans, pigeon peas, sunhemp, red and black velvet beans, pumpkins etc. I also keep raise and sell chickens to the entire village. I also share seeds with the under privileged.

Thandiwe Chidavarume is a women’s right defender who is holder of a Master’s of Science degree in Strategic Management and an honours degree in Politics and Administration. She has over 15 years’ experience in Managerial position. Currently she is the National Coordinator for Women and Land in Zimbabwe which has a current membership of 45 004 members [since July 2011], leading the Rural Women’s Chapter of Zimbabwe, a Reference group Leader for Southern Africa Rural Women’s Assembly (SRWA) which is a regional network with a membership of over 200 000 women from the SADC region, She is also a chairperson of the Africa Wide Climate Change Justice Movement (ACJM) with membership comprising organisations, networks and movements in Africa, she is also Grant making Community Member with Mama Cash [Community member com]. She has conducted several researches which include Southern Africa Traditional Seed Audit Research which was conducted in seven SADC countries. Above all she is also Thandiwe a passionate farmer and she has a strong conviction that if rural women have access, control and ownership of land and related resources they will end hunger, poverty in their communities and they will be able to challenge the status quo and fight for their rights. Her vision is to see just distribution of land, other natural resources, full recognition of women’s land rights and climate justice

Emilia Hatendi is a Social Development Specialist with vast experience in community development, she holds a BSc Honours Degree in Political Science and Administration. She is Gender and Human Rights Activist who is passionate about Social, Economic and Climate Justice. With more than ten years’ experience in the Civil Society Sector working with marginalised rural women and girls, she makes significant contributions to their socio-economic and political advancements. She played a significant role in building and sustaining Women for Water and Rural Women’s Assembly Movements in Zimbabwe, pushing for women’s land and water rights, socio-economic and climate justice whilst advancing the right of women to participate in political leadership and decision-making processes. Prior to joining the Civil Society I worked for the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare where I gained vast experience in Policy work which has helped me to mobilise for policy influence and engagements with key stakeholders particularly traditional leaders and policy makers. Currently she is the National Coordinator for Centre for the Development of Women and Children (CDWC) which is a member of Rural Women’s Assembly Zimbabwe and by extension Southern Africa Rural Women’s Assembly, part of the RWA Zimbabwe leadership and represents the country chapter in the Regional RWA Reference Group Meetings. Her role demands a high level of Movement Building, Capacity Enhancement, Policy Advocacy and engagement with both governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. Over the years she has helped design and administer data collection and analysis tools which helps inform RWAs strategic focus, advocacy efforts and policy development.

 

Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge is perhaps the only Quaker and pacifist to have found themselves second-in-command of their country’s defence forces. Madlala-Routledge was born in KwaZulu-Natal and began to study medicine at the University of Natal. Her grades suffered after she was drawn into student politics by Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, and she switched to a science degree at the University of Fort Hare (where Nelson Mandela took his degree). She was jailed three times for her political activism – finally serving a year in solitary confinement. In 2004, she was appointed Deputy Minister of Health. In that role, she pushed for a more forceful approach to South Africa's HIV crisis - which was then killing 800 people a day and infecting 1,000 more - and was met by growing resistance from the health minister, Tshabalala-Msimang, who at the time was promoting so-called ‘African’ cures for AIDS, based primarily on diet. She is a campaigner to end sex-trafficking of women in South Africa. Currently she serves as the director of the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva.

 

Suzall Timm is a scholar-activist and a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg. Over the past years, she has been actively engaged in solidarity work with the Rural Women’s Assembly. Her research interests include environmental governance, regulation, feminism, waste work, green criminology, and waste management. Suzall co-designed (with Dr Donna Andrews) and taught a course on Radical Activism: Epistemology, Agency, and Positionality. She was also part of the research team, alongside Drs Donna Andrews and Daniel Chavez, that produced the photo-documentary The Guardians of Seed, Land, and Life: The Seed Research Journey of the Southern African Rural Women’s Assembly

 

Jaamia Galant has been involved in Palestine solidarity campaigns for more than twenty years and is the current chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in Cape Town. She is also the secretary of the Board of the Claremont Main Road Mosque where she co-leads the mosque's solidarity efforts through their Jihad Against Poverty and other social justice campaigns. She is a trustee of AIDC. In her day job, she is an Institutional researcher at UCT, with a special interest in the teaching and learning of school mathematics.

 

Caesar Alimsinya Atuire - I am a philosopher who works on the dialogue and overlaps between African and Euro-American philosophy. My research draws on various traditions of African philosophy to address global ethical issues. I have worked on the frameworks informing the understanding of mental health in the African context, the principles surrounding research and healthcare ethics in a communitarian context, and how African conceptions of solidarity can contribute to conversations around the right to health and global health. I have also worked on models of decolonization in global health and contributed to the conversation around Black Lives Matter and the removal of statues of racists from the public space. In short, I am a philosopher who is concerned about ethics and frameworks of equity in the generation, dissemination, and sharing of knowledge and resources in the health and healthcare spaces. I lead currently leading a team of highly qualified colleagues from across the globe on a Wellcome Discovery Award titled “Moving Beyond Solidarity Rhetoric in Global Health”. Outside academic life, I lead an NGO, Amicus Onlus, that operates in healthcare, basic education, vocational skills training, and re-integration of returned illegal migrants to Europe in Ghana (https://www.amicusonlus.org/). Our work is mainly among rural communities and the underprivileged. This dimension informs and compliments my philosophical commitment to a more ethical world.

 

Jantina de Vries is the Director of the EthicsLab and Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town. Her early scholarship focused on the ethics of genomics research in Africa; she now explores the notion that ethics is political and preserves power and dominance in the world in particular ways. She is a member of the Ethics Committee of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders and the LMIC (low- and middle-income countries) Advisory Board of the Wellcome Trust.

 

Lauren Paremoer is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Studies, University of Cape Town. Informed by a feminist political economy approach, her research focuses on health activism, conceptions and enactments of solidarity in global governance for health, and political mobilisation aimed at realising social citizenship in the Global South. She is a member of the People’s Health Movement and is active in leading its Democratising Global Health Governance programme. She serves as an Editor in Chief for Globalization and Health and Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies, is a member of the editorial collective of Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, and an editor of PLOS Global Public Health.

 

Barbara Prainsack is a Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna, where she also directs the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Solidarity (CeSCoS), and the Research Platform “Governance of Digital Practices". Her work explores the social, regulatory and ethical dimensions of biomedicine and bioscience, with current research projects focusing on personalised and “precision” medicine, on citizen participation in science and medicine, and the role of solidarity in medicine and healthcare. Her latest books are: The Pandemic Within: Policy Making for a Better World (with H. Wagenaar, Policy Press, 2021); and Personalised Medicine: Empowered Patients in the 21st Century? (New York University Press, 2017). Barbara is also Chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies advising the European Commission. She holds an Honorary Professorship at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney, is an affiliate at the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine at King’s College London, and of the Centre for Health, Law, and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX) at the University of Oxford. She is also a member of the British Royal Society of Arts, an elected foreign member of the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters, an elected member of the Academia Europaea (AE), an elected member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), and an Elected Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

 

Heidi Matisonn trained as a moral and political philosopher. She is employed as a Senior Lecturer in Bioethics in the EthicsLab based in the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is also an honorary research associate at the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The central theme of Heidi’s work is to think and enact care in the context of the academy. As a philosopher, this means conceptualising and understanding ‘care’ as an essential component of what makes us human. As an academic teacher, this means thinking deeply about how to structure a bioethics curriculum so that students have optimal opportunities for learning and development whilst also being supported to make sense of the ethics of our world. As a bioethicist, it means advocating for the integration of perspectives from care ethics into how we think about and address ethical challenges. It also means working alongside healthcare providers to understand the importance of care in building ethical resilience

 

Ashish Giri holds an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine from the University of Oxford and a Master of Health Administration in Public Health from the TATA Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. With over 5 years of dedicated experience, he has been deeply engaged with disadvantaged communities, grassroots organizations, and governmental bodies in India. In his previous role, Ashish was involved in strategizing the Tribal Health Collaborative - a multi-stakeholder initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (India), BMGF, USAID and the Piramal Foundation that aims to end all preventable deaths among the 104 million indigenous people of India. Ashish is a Research Manager on the Solidarity in Global Health and manages the research in India and Nepal. Together with the larger team, Ashish will be responsible for the conceptualization of solidarity, particularly within the Indigenous and Himalayan communities of India, Nepal, and the Tibetan population residing in India.

 

Donna Andrews is a senior research at the EthicsLab at the University of Cape Town. She is part of a diverse team from over seven regions in the world working on pluriversal understandings of solidarity. The project titled Moving Beyond Solidarity Rhetoric in Global Health is committed to ensuring that voices that are often silenced, are centred. She is a critically engaged scholar-activist and trained political economist committed to south-south work. Her recent work examines the philosophical and political economy implications of food in the context of social subjects’ relations to nature, the ecological crisis, planetary solidarities, feminist agency, just transitions and the commons. She is associated with the Rural Women’s Assembly and the Transnational Institute (TNI), and serves as a juror for the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT). She is part of an editorial collective for Transformation: Critical Perspectives for Southern Africa as well as an editor of FIAN Right to Food and Nutrition Watch