In this interview, trailblazing South African-Nigerian activist Lovelyn Nwadeyi answers questions about what it means to live out social justice through her work and ethos. Touching on themes of reconciliation, feminism, and what we can do in small ways to make significant changes.
Lovelyn Nwadeyi is a young, vibrant Nigerian-South African woman from Queenstown in the Eastern Cape. She is an established socio-economic and political voice in South Africa and is particularly outspoken regarding matters of social justice. She was named among the Mzansi 100 Influencers in 2017 and named by lauded Elle Magazine as one of the foremost Women to Watch in 2016. She is also the founder of L&N Advisory, a consulting practice whose sole purpose is to see social justice normalised and embedded in corporate, academic and religious spaces.
- What led you to study international relations and become passionate about pursuing social justice in your work?
Initially, I thought I wanted to be a diplomat who specialised in conflict mediation and peacebuilding. I thought I could be instrumental in ending wars and truly work towards actual world peace (as cheesy as that sounds). But when I did my BA in International Studies at Stellenbosch and my MSc in Peace and Conflict Studies at Uppsala University, I realised that the work of actual peacebuilding and mediation was a) super traumatising and dangerous and b) there can be no real peace without systemic and structural justice. After a few meanders in my career, I decided to focus my energy on areas where I knew I could have an impact and for the last few years, that has been through my social justice consulting firm L&N Advisors, where we have been supporting schools, faith communities and corporates to transform their organisational culture, by looking at the systemic practices and narratives that shape behaviour and outcomes. Recently, that work has also extended into my role in the Film & TV space, where I support senior leaders in a streaming company with telling more inclusive, nuanced and wholesome stories about people who come from marginalised and minoritised communities.
- How would you define reconciliation in South Africa today?
Yho. Reconciliation in South Africa is tricky and tense. I think it looks within reach, but it keeps falling beyond our grasp. So much in this question makes it complicated to answer in a few lines. Reconciliation is the dream we haven’t managed to achieve yet; it’s the story we tell ourselves to keep an abusive relationship with each other, and with the state going, it’s the dessert we’re holding out for at the end of an underwhelming main course, it’s the healing balm we try to rub on our wounds when the pain gets too much. We have so much work to do to achieve reconciliation, and I think reparations will be a massive part of getting us there.
- What is your hope for Africa?
Honestly, my hope for Africa is my hope for myself. I want Africa to be a place of ease, a soft landing for her children, a functional parent and partner, a place of safety and creativity and most importantly, a place of economic, spiritual, ecological and mental wellness and wholeness. To get there, we need to stop internalising narratives of what others have to say about us. We must go back into history and seek out who we were before the colonial interruption. What did love look like in Africa before we bought into European ideas of gender norms? How did we think of family before we became such individualised and isolated people? How did Africans think of purpose, spirituality, and our relationship to nature before profit became our primary goal for everything? What did wealth and health mean to us? To really know who we are, we have to go back to the stories we knew of ourselves before others came and wrote them.
- What advice would you give to a young person wanting to make a social change but not knowing where to start?
Start with yourself. It sounds so cheesy and basic, but we must start with ourselves first. The importance of self-work when it comes to being an activist for social change is really underestimated. You cannot change the world through bitterness; you cannot change the world through fear. You can only change the world through self-awareness and love. Sometimes love looks like righteous anger; other times, love looks like taking accountability for our mistakes; other times, love looks like speaking up when we see something wrong is happening. Love often looks like saying, “I’m sorry,” or “I don’t know, but I am willing to learn”.
Also, if you really want to make social change, you can’t be afraid of getting into what the late US American Senator John Lewis called “good trouble”. If everyone loves you, and no one is criticising you, challenging you, giving you feedback, or slandering you, you’re probably not doing the work of meaningful social change.
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