Episode 13 – Zandile Mqathi: Rethinking Activism Through Rest, Theatre and Love
What if changing the world doesn’t always mean fighting harder, shouting louder or working longer? In the first of our special Rethinking Activism in Africa conversations, activist and author Mark Heywood talks to Zandile Mqathi about a radically different approach to social change. Drawing on her own journey from a young mother diagnosed with HIV to an activist and drama therapist, Zandile challenges the idea that commitment must come at the cost of exhaustion. She explores how rest can be an act of resistance, how theatre and storytelling can help us imagine a different future, and why kindness, joy and love belong at the heart of activism. It’s a warm, thought-provoking conversation that asks us to reconsider not only what we’re fighting for, but how we go about it.
Listen to the conversation
Behind the Conversation
by Babette Gallard
I grew up with the idea that hard work was a virtue and that doing nothing was, well, doing nothing. So listening to Zandile Mqathi argue that rest can be a form of resistance challenged some deeply ingrained beliefs. What I particularly loved was that she wasn’t suggesting we turn our backs on the world’s problems, but that we might be better equipped to tackle them if we occasionally stopped to notice the world around us, and each other. At one point she persuaded Mark, a man who has spent more than forty years fighting injustice, to put his feet on the floor, relax his shoulders and simply be present. I smiled at that. But it also made me think about how easily we measure our worth by how much we achieve, and how little attention we pay to what all that striving costs us. Zandile’s belief that theatre, music, storytelling and even laughter have a place in activism was equally refreshing. And perhaps the most challenging idea of all was that kindness isn’t just something we offer when we have time, but something we should build into the way we work for change. I suspect I’ll still feel guilty the next time I sit down with a book in the middle of the day. But perhaps a little less so.