Circle Around Lusanda & Mahlatse Mashua

"There are incidents of racial injustice that make the news headlines. But these just touch the surface, they bear the obvious symptoms of what's happening all the time, systemically in our society. Our history is still very present with us. We cannot merely name apartheid and colonialism as historical stories without admitting that we still effectively live in a current state of colonialised apartheid - we just have to look at the segregated and unequal state of our cities and towns to see that this is true." - Caroline Powell

In this last episode of Season 1 of Circle Around, Lusanda Mashua interviews Caroline Powell. They discuss their journey of spatial awareness, in view of faith, economic positionality and living with courageous curiosity to see and serve the city better. We hope you enjoy this last episode of Season 1.

Space holds people's stories and lived experiences. But this isn’t the only way to think about belonging, identity and home. What are the things that make us feel like we belong or don’t belong? How do relationships form us and give us a sense of belonging?

Part of experiencing freedom in Jesus means that we know that every part of who we are matters to Him. Join Mahlatse and Lusanda Mashua in this next episode of Circle Around as they discuss how belonging is negotiated and what it means to navigate belonging between two worlds. They talk about how names matter because they tell us who we are. They share their personal experiences of code-switching between white and black spaces, between school and home. They share the pain of what it means to be a black person who at times is striving for a sense of belonging in their own country. By making room to remember these stories, we can be better neighbours. We can begin to intentionally affirm that which brings out the beauty of God in other people and resist the things that erase the image of God in ourselves and others. Tune in for all of this and more.

Many stories of place are in fact stories of pain. In this episode, Mahlatse and Lusanda Mashua explore a question that is important for all of us: "Where is home, where do I belong?” What does it mean to belong or to no longer belong, to come ‘home’ to a place we don’t recognize – or a place that doesn’t recognize us? When the teacher of the law asks "Who is my neighbour", Jesus responds by showing us how to be a neighbour – to those for whom the neighbourhood is a place of pain. Join Mahlatse and Lusanda as they explore home, belonging, displacement and how we might become better neighbours. All this and more in this episode of #CircleAround.

In this episode, Mahlatse and Lusanda Mashua talk about the importance of seeing place and the stories that places carry. In conversations about our world, what had gone wrong and how things can be made right, we often don't see the importance of spatial awareness as a spiritual practice and as cultural literacy. Why do we need to know about the history of places, and how does it help us to respond better and more compassionately to the questions therein? Join Mahlatse and Lusanda as they talk about this and much more in this episode.

A few weeks ago, Mahlatse and Lusanda Mashua spent time in studio reflecting on the legacy of Chadwick Boseman, and the conversation stirred by his work, life and his legacy. This episode of Circle Around touches on the epic memory Black Panther holds on our collective imagination as well as how pivotal cultural conversations invite us to see our stories, our agency and to live purposefully.

In this episode, Mahlatse Mashua reflects on the urgency and responsibility of men to do more in response to the lived experience of women in South Africa.