Speaking Through My World with Rosie Motene

Rosie Motene
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Speaking Through My World with Rosie Motene. Speaking truth through an African feminist lens. using the microphone as a tool for justice. Amplifying our voices through artivism rooted in ancestral wisdom, healing, and collective liberation. Speaking Through My World with Rosie Motene is part of the Feminist Frontlines initiative. Driven by her three greatest passions  Womxn, Africa, and the arts. Rosie Motene is a Pan-African queer feminist, writer, broadcaster, producer, speaker, activist, counsellor, life coach, and founder of Letsatsi Healing Space. With more than 30 years in media and over two decades of feminist and LGBTQI+ advocacy, she creates courageous conversations that challenge injustice, preserve HERstory, and inspire change. Each episode explores the issues shaping our continent and our communities through an intersectional African feminist lens. From gender justice and queer rights to creativity, culture, leadership, mental health, and collective liberation, the podcast centres voices that deserve to be heard and stories that deserve to be remembered. Justice is not only about confronting harm, it is also about healing from it. Drawing on her work as a counsellor, life coach, and reflective and breathwork practitioner, Rosie believes that healing is part of the journey towards personal and collective liberation. Through honest dialogue, storytelling, and reflection, this podcast creates space not only for truth-telling, but also for restoration, connection, and hope. Join Rosie as she uses the microphone as a tool for justice  one conversation at a time. Available on Buzzsprout, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.. For sponsorships, partnerships, or collaborations: rosie@rosiemotene.biz

  1. 1d ago

    Weavers Forum Day 2: Building Feminist Economies and Futures Rooted in Care, Not Extraction

    Day 2 of the Weavers Forum invited us to imagine economies and futures rooted not in extraction, but in care, reciprocity, sovereignty and the sustaining of life. We were welcomed and held in the protective care and guidance of Nyamal  Biel Tutdeal, a space grounded in ancestral wisdom, power and remembrance. This grounding set the tone for a day of deep reflection, questioning and collective imagination. We also came together around the Tunisian documentary 'Standing in the Shadows' by Kadija Zammouli, which opened further questions about whose stories are made visible, whose labour is remembered, and whose lives and contributions are pushed into the shadows. From there, the day unfolded through a series of breakaway sessions, each offering a different entry point into feminist economics, care, sovereignty, creativity and power. Together, these conversations asked us to look beyond the economic systems we have inherited and to imagine what becomes possible when we place life, dignity and collective wellbeing at the centre. At the heart of the day was one guiding question: What could our economies look like if they were designed around life rather than extraction? We explored this question through conversations on Holding the Land: Indigenous Women’s Reparative Economies of Care, Memory & Sovereignty, examining the relationships between land, memory, repair and collective care. Other sessions unpacked the economics of erasur to the blueprints for life beyond GDP. The conversations also turned towards feminist culture and creativity, exploring how art, imagination and cultural practice can become tools for building care economies and rethinking social reproduction. Across these different sessions, the threads kept returning to one another: care, land, memory, creativity, sovereignty, power and the possibility of building economies that sustain rather than extract. Day 2 was ultimately an invitation to weave differently, to recognise the economies that already exist within communities, to honour the knowledge carried across generations, and to imagine feminist futures where care is not treated as an afterthought, but as the foundation of how we organise our lives, our communities and our economies. This episode takes us through those conversations, questions and moments of collective imagination from Day 2 of the Weavers Forum.

    Weavers Forum Day 2: Building Feminist Economies and Futures Rooted in Care, Not Extraction

  2. Aug 17

    Damn Etu: When Words Become Resistance

    There are some voices you hear, and there are others you feel. During my time in Windhoek, Namibia, for the 2026 Weavers Forum, I encountered one of those voices: Damn Etu — Frieda Etuhole A Namibian spoken-word poet, writer, editor and performance artist, Damn Etu brings a rawness to her work that refuses to allow words to simply sit on a page. Her poetry carries memory, vulnerability, politics, womanhood, identity and the complicated realities of being seen, heard and silenced. I first experienced her powerful presence at the opening of the Weavers Forum, a Pan-African feminist convening held in Windhoek from 5–8 August 2026 and co-convened by FEMNET, Nawi Afrifem Collective and Akina Mama wa Afrika. The Forum created a space for feminist thinkers, organisers and creatives to imagine economies rooted in care, justice and collective sovereignty and poetry and creative practice were deliberately recognised as part of that political work. As I watched Damn Etu perform, I was reminded of something I deeply believe: Art is not separate from our politics. Sometimes a poem can say what a policy paper cannot. Sometimes a voice on a stage can reach the places that theory struggles to enter. Sometimes storytelling gives us the language to name what we have inherited, what we have survived, and the futures we are still trying to imagine. Damn Etu's creative journey reflects this power. Her work has appeared in Doek! Literary Magazine, and she has built an independent creative practice that brings poetry and performance into living, breathing spaces. In this episode, I sit down with Damn Etu to explore the woman behind the words. We talk about poetry, performance, vulnerability, memory, womanhood, identity and the courage it takes to reclaim your voice. We explore what happens when the things that once silenced us become the very material through which we create, speak and resist. This is a conversation about what it means to take up space through art. To turn pain into language. To turn memory into story. To turn a voice into resistance and to understand that our creative work can be both deeply personal and profoundly political. This conversation stayed with me long after the Weavers Forum ended, because sometimes the first act of resistance is simply refusing to remain silent. When a woman speaks, the world has no choice but to listen. Follow Damn Etu and explore her work: Instagram: @damn_etu Website: Damn Etu

    Damn Etu: When Words Become Resistance

  3. Aug 14

    Episode 3 Weavers Forum. Intergenerational Roundtable & Collective Harvest

    Day 1 Part 2 In this episode, I reflect on an intergenerational conversation at the Weavers Forum 2026 exploring African feminist memory, political economy and our collective futures.  We gathered the threads of wisdom from generations before us while asking what we need to carry forward, what we need to challenge, and what new pathways we can create. The conversation explored feminist memory, agency, inclusion, accountability, the politics of silence, the professionalisation of gender politics and the importance of documenting our movements and histories. We also turned the feminist gaze inward, asking how we sometimes reproduce the very patriarchal behaviours we seek to dismantle.  through silence, exclusion, harmful narratives and the ways we treat one another. At the heart of the conversation was a reminder that the personal is political, but so is how we hold one another's stories, how we critique each other's work and how we build collective knowledge. We also explored economic sovereignty and why it must be central to feminist organising and our vision for the future. This episode is ultimately a reflection on memory, accountability, intergenerational knowledge and the responsibility to weave differently. We inherit the threads. We add our own and then we pass the weaving on.

    Episode 3 Weavers Forum. Intergenerational Roundtable & Collective Harvest

  4. Aug 6

    Philiswa Lila- When Art Becomes Part of the Political Conversation

    Philiswa Lila- When Art Becomes Part of the Political Conversation-  In Day 1 | Part 1 of my Weavers' Forum 2026 reflections, I explore how art became part of the political conversation through the work of South African multidisciplinary artist, curator and scholar Philiswa Lila. Drawing on her powerful presentation, Behind the Needle, this episode reflects on the politics of making, the value of process over productivity, and how beadwork becomes a language for memory, identity, trauma and collective resistance. It also considers why the metaphor of weaving is central to the Weavers' Forum and what it teaches us about feminist organising, care and transformation. Sometimes the most radical work is not in the finished piece, but in the patient, deliberate act of weaving something new, together.

    Philiswa Lila- When Art Becomes Part of the Political Conversation

  5. Aug 5

    Introduction to The Weavers’ Forum 2026

    The Weavers’ Forum 2026 is a space bringing together African feminists, activists, economists, artists, thinkers, movement-builders and practitioners from across the continent and the African diaspora. I’ve created a pop-up studio for Speaking Through My World to document this important feminist space. Through dedicated episodes, I’ll be sharing some of the conversations, reflections and knowledge emerging from the Forum, bringing the voices and ideas from this room beyond these walls. This is the Introduction to The Weavers’ Forum 2026. Let’s weave...

    Introduction to The Weavers’ Forum 2026

  6. Jul 31

    Episode 4: Choosing Yourself Without An Apology

    THE FINAL EPISODE IS HERE Episode 4: Choosing Yourself Without An Apology What happens when you stop apologising for choosing yourself? After four deeply personal conversations, I close this series not with the pain of what happened, but with the possibility of what comes next. I've spoken about leaving. I've spoken about what my body carried. I've spoken about the cost of staying too long. Now, I want to speak about reclaiming yourself. Choosing your peace. Choosing your joy. Choosing your boundaries. Choosing your voice. Choosing rest. Choosing a life that doesn't require you to abandon yourself to belong. This final episode is about clearing space for the next season, forgiving yourself for staying, releasing what no longer serves you, and allowing yourself to dream again. Choosing yourself isn't selfish and you don't need to apologise for protecting your wellbeing. You can take the wisdom without taking the wound. As we close this chapter, I leave you with the question that started it all: Where is your heart today?

  7. Jul 31

    THEY SPOKE UP. THE FINDINGS WERE SUBSTANTIATED. WHO WAS HELD ACCOUNTABLE?- Inside the Investigation into Allegations Against Greg Maloka

    In this episode of Speaking Through My World, I examine the detailed findings of the independent investigation commissioned by Kaya FM into allegations against former Managing Director Greg Maloka. Drawing directly from the investigation report, I unpack the testimonies of six women who came forward, the workplace culture they described, and the investigator's conclusions that allegations of sexual harassment involving at least six women, as well as professional discrimination against women who did not reciprocate sexual advances, were substantiated. In the context of this investigation, “substantiated” means that the investigator concluded that the evidence gathered through interviews, witness statements and the investigation supported those allegations. The episode asks a difficult but necessary question: What does accountability look like when an independent investigation substantiates serious allegations, yet the person at the centre of those findings is later given a “homecoming” into the same corporate ecosystem? This conversation is not only about one individual. It is about power, workplace culture, institutional accountability, and what believing women requires of us when the evidence has already been examined. Special Note: This episode examines the findings of an independent investigation commissioned by Kaya FM into allegations of sexual harassment, abuse of power and related workplace misconduct. The discussion is based on the investigation report and publicly available information. It does not disclose confidential information shared with me privately by victims or survivors. Those conversations remain confidential and are not relied upon in this analysis.

  8. Jul 24

    Episode 3: The Cost of Staying Too Long

    Episode 3: The Cost of Staying Too Long What has staying cost you? We often celebrate the courage it takes to leave toxic environments, but we rarely talk about the cost of staying. In this deeply personal episode Rosie reflects on the quiet ways prolonged exposure to unhealthy spaces can erode our sense of self. She explores how identity, confidence, creativity, health, financial opportunities, relationships, and even joy can slowly diminish when we remain in environments that no longer honour our humanity. Drawing on her own experiences as a Black feminist activist, Rosie unpacks the pressures many women, particularly Black womxn face to endure rather than establish boundaries. She examines how resilience is often misunderstood as endless sacrifice, and why choosing yourself is not abandoning the cause but reclaiming your agency. This episode is an invitation to pause and ask an important question: What parts of yourself are you sacrificing simply to stay? If you've ever found yourself questioning your instincts, shrinking your voice, or carrying the weight of expectations that no longer serve you, this conversation is for you. True strength isn't measured by how much suffering we can survive. It's measured by how courageously we choose to honour ourselves. Trigger warning: This episode contains discussions of workplace toxicity, emotional harm, gaslighting, discrimination, and the long-term impact of remaining in unhealthy environments.

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About

Speaking Through My World with Rosie Motene. Speaking truth through an African feminist lens. using the microphone as a tool for justice. Amplifying our voices through artivism rooted in ancestral wisdom, healing, and collective liberation. Speaking Through My World with Rosie Motene is part of the Feminist Frontlines initiative. Driven by her three greatest passions  Womxn, Africa, and the arts. Rosie Motene is a Pan-African queer feminist, writer, broadcaster, producer, speaker, activist, counsellor, life coach, and founder of Letsatsi Healing Space. With more than 30 years in media and over two decades of feminist and LGBTQI+ advocacy, she creates courageous conversations that challenge injustice, preserve HERstory, and inspire change. Each episode explores the issues shaping our continent and our communities through an intersectional African feminist lens. From gender justice and queer rights to creativity, culture, leadership, mental health, and collective liberation, the podcast centres voices that deserve to be heard and stories that deserve to be remembered. Justice is not only about confronting harm, it is also about healing from it. Drawing on her work as a counsellor, life coach, and reflective and breathwork practitioner, Rosie believes that healing is part of the journey towards personal and collective liberation. Through honest dialogue, storytelling, and reflection, this podcast creates space not only for truth-telling, but also for restoration, connection, and hope. Join Rosie as she uses the microphone as a tool for justice  one conversation at a time. Available on Buzzsprout, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.. For sponsorships, partnerships, or collaborations: rosie@rosiemotene.biz

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