Tshepiso Mashinini is the co-author of Afrows: Words of Subversion, a UCT student anthology of poetry and prose. Born in Joburg, Tshepiso holds a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Cape Town, with a double major in English Literature and Politics & Public Governance. She is currently pursuing an LLB at Wits. As an eco-feminist, Tshepiso’s poetry is an expression of how nature and womxn’s bodies are governed and violated by the gravitational pull of patriarchy. She also approaches her writing as cartographic, as it utilizes womxn’s bodies and their violent experiences as a compass which reveals where we are as a society, what forces are at play and where we are heading toward. Her work is a map created to lead us to the places we do not want to readily explore with our tongues – through conversation – or our imaginations.
