Sihle-isipho Nontshokweni-Bikitsha burst onto the literary scene with her loved debut children’s book, Wanda (2019), co-authored with Mathabo Tlali. Her works have been translated into more than eleven languages, including sign language. She is the recipient of several prestigious academic and leadership accolades, and her essays and performances have featured in several notable platforms, including the City Press, SABC, Abantu Book Festival, This Girl Wins, Ethnic Kids, and Cheeky Natives. A unifying theme in Nontshokweni’s creative and academic work has been the motivations for- and barriers to- youth aspirational goals and the effects of race-based stereotypes on educational and career expectations in the post-Apartheid schooling landscape.
Sihle-Isipho Nontshokweni is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pretoria. Her area of research is identity and racial desegregation in the post-apartheid school setup. Her interest in schools stems from lived experience, which extends across 12 schooling institutions, including Kingsridge High School For Girls in King William’s Town (South Africa), University of Cape Town in Cape Town (South Africa), Peking University in Beijing (China), KU Leuven in Belgium, and it is from this vast world experience that Sihle tells stories.
