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Shining a Light: Mzilikazi Koné '01
Somewhere in the newspaper archives there’s a photo of two-year-old Mzilikazi Koné ’01 holding a sign promoting freedom at an anti-apartheid rally. That photo represents the beginning of a lifelong interest in political and social movements for Mzilikazi, who has devoted her academic career to shining a light on the stories and lives of marginalized people. Today, she is an associate professor of political science and global studies at College of the Desert, a community college in Palm Desert, California, where she is also helping develop ethnic studies and social justice programs.
During the summer of 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, California passed a law that makes ethnic studies a graduation requirement for all California State University students. Because community colleges feed into that system, it’s only reasonable that they follow suit, says Mzilikazi. Although the requirement may seem like a response to the historic protests, teachers and organizers have been lobbying for change at the state level for years. This result “didn’t just come out of nowhere,” she says.
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Mzilikazi has developed Latinx and Chicano studies classes at College of the Desert, which serves primarily Hispanic students, and she is proud to be part of the ethnic studies team. “Think about the ways in which actually seeing yourself reflected in these studies is potentially foundational, life-shifting, life-altering—knowing that not only are you a part of the story, in some cases you have made and created the story,” she says. In addition to recognizing the impact it will have on students, she is mindful of the lasting impact it will have on the college itself, noting, “In building an ethnic studies department, I’m not just building something because it’s a fad right now. I want it to be here in 25 years. I want it to be here in 50 years.”
Mzilikazi previously taught at UCLA, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, and Pomona College, teaching classes with topics from gender and sexuality to African-American politics to the Black experience in Latin America and the Caribbean. But she’s really found a home at College of the Desert, where she feels she can tap into her desire to serve. To Mzilikazi, community colleges are akin to the social movements she holds so dear, addressing questions of equal access and opportunity. “It’s really about examining the purpose of education and who it’s supposed to help,” she says.
Similar questions were asked of her as a student at Santa Catalina, especially in her religious studies classes. As she reflects on her experience and what the classes meant to her, tears unexpectedly come to her eyes. “The classes were really grounded in questions of justice, especially when we were simultaneously learning about religious teachings that were so often rooted and grounded in love. It seemed that if you were addressing love as foundational for faith, justice is the logical next step when you see injustice happening,” she says. “[The classes] really nurtured these questions of what is the purpose of life and who are we supposed to be helping and engaging.”
Mzilikazi focused on community organizers throughout her undergraduate and graduate years, with a particular interest in Latin America. Her studies took her to the Dominican Republic, where she explored the collaboration between women community organizers and academic researchers, the role of community work in HIV prevention among Haitian women, and Black intersectional organizing in the time of AIDS. While earning her doctorate at UCLA, she shifted her attention to Costa Rica and a group of women who organize around politics, sexuality, and labor.
Her interest in Latin America began during her childhood. She set out to emulate her older sister by learning Spanish, and her parents, who were DJs, filled the house with world music. Mzilikazi says the music in particular gave her “a sense of the black diaspora outside of the United States.” She read hip-hop magazines Vibe and The Source and cut out articles about the music in Cuba. Later, as an undergraduate, she studied in Cuba. Mzilikazi recalls, “Within two days I was at these famous places where I was just connecting with the musical scene. That was so fulfilling because I got to explore music, culture, history. Once I had those experiences, it opened up a whole new world for me of research and studying.”
Music plays heavily into her style of teaching, and she uses it as a natural entry point for exploring politics. “Some music is so directly linked with politics, whether it be music that has been developed in protest movements or music that’s responding to some sort of political occurrence or issue,” she says. “We can go from the song to talking about the implications of what they’re saying in the song to some political lesson.” Art in general is a central component of her classes. One of her favorite projects is to have students make zines out of work they’ve done throughout the term. As she tells her students, “Being creative is central to the whole process. It takes creativity to solve the world’s problems, it takes different kinds of thinkers.”
The past year has been a momentous one for Mzilikazi as a political science professor. The deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the massive protests that followed, have prompted a national reckoning about race and racism in America, and she has carried the discussions into her classes, making sure to ground the underlying issues in historical context. “When I talk about what it means to be an American, and we get all the canned responses—freedom, democracy, liberty, justice—we have to unpack those things and see who has access to [them],” she says.
Mzilikazi hopes the public awakening lasts. She sees the work she is doing to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at the college as an important part of the cause. During the uprising in summer 2020, a group of students reached out to her about how to organize a protest, so she formed a study group and helped them think about their goals. “No one just wakes up knowing how to make social change or how to get their local community to pay attention. For most of us, someone’s got to teach you how to do that,” she says. “I was glad to have a space in that.”
Called to Serve
Mzilikazi Koné says she loves giving back to Santa Catalina, including by serving the school in the following positions:
- Los Angeles Chapter Chair
- Member of Alumnae Council, 2006-2014, including a term as vice president
- Class agent, 2006-2008
