Esinako Ndabeni is a writer, an undergraduate student of International Relations and Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her 2018 debut book, Born to Kwaito: Reflections on the Kwaito Generation with Sihle Mthembu has recently been announced as part of the longlist for the Sunday Times Literary Awards’ Alan Paton Non-Fiction Prize. The book focuses on the Post-Apartheid kwaito music and culture; interrogating its everchanging meaning and locating it in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Esi is interested in the ways in which popular culture encourages and normalises certain raced, classed and gendered ideas and behaviours. She is currently working on her children’s book that will be released under Blackbird Books in 2020. She hopes to empower little black girls to see themselves beyond the limitations that western media places on them.
