Cover Story

MEETING MICHELLE OBAMA TOOK AN UNEXPECTED TWIST

BY KUPAKWASHE KAMBASHA I PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED BY AMONGE SINXOTO

At only 15 years old, Amonge Sinxoto co-founded a non-profit organisation for social impact with her then 21-year-old cousin Zingisa Socikwa - to change how being black was perceived among the youth. I had the privilege of meeting this precocious young lady and we sat in the Wits Art Museum café. “We wanted to have a platform where all these things - our identity and blackness can be discussed,” she begins. The idea Blackboard Africa sprung from her high schooling days. “The private schools were cool in terms of teaching me what I needed to do. But I think there was a major problem in that, okay we’re getting accepted in these schools finally but there is a denial of blackness and African-ess, like everything that makes our identity,” says this St Stithians and Kingsmead College alumni student. Coming from a black Xhosa background, she admits how some of these high school experiences fuelled her defiance. “So, we come in here (her former high school) and they’re like no no no… you don’t talk your language here, you can’t wear your hair like that. It was problematic for me and my peers and we were like that’s just unacceptable!” she says.