Nokwanda Sihlali is a South African poet and researcher whose work examines how the world is shaped by gender, memory, inequality and land. Drawing on sociological and legal perspectives, she explores how power operates through everyday life, paying particular attention to the experiences of Black women. Her work interrogates how histories of dispossession continue to shape belonging, identity and access to justice. Through poetry, she extends these inquiries into the emotional and intimate dimensions of social life, viewing storytelling as a means of resisting erasure and imagining more equitable futures. Her writing is grounded in the belief that personal narratives are inseparable from broader struggles for social transformation.
