https://www.montsem.com/ Season 4 of Conscious Conversations unfolds as a living, transdisciplinary curriculum, weaving Africana Womanist eco-metaphysics, mythological studies, Black feminist geographies, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Futures Literacy. Each dialogue is a portal into learning as becoming—an initiation into memory, healing, and self-knowledge. We begin with Prof. Monica Mody, whose work in decolonial and Indigenous epistemologies reframes education as initiation, where myth, dreams, and cycles of birth–death–rebirth act as sacred technologies of transformation. With Atava Garcia Swiecicki, we deepen this arc through Earth-rooted teachings, honouring plants, ancestral medicine, and ecological consciousness as archives of cultural and cellular repair. In conversation with Malikeya Khantrece, we confront law, coloniality, and historical amnesia, reimagining reparations as spiritual and ancestral reckoning. Dr. Christy Garrison-Harrison traces how violence is inscribed onto the Black body and how ancestral work becomes resistance and reconstitution. With Mthuthu Ndebele, we turn to music as ancestral offering, and with Chad Zibelman, to frameworks of co-learning and relational accountability. The season closes with Riel Miller on Futures Literacy, resonant with ponelopele—the Sotho-Tswana ethic of ethical foresight. Rather than prediction, it is a forward gaze rooted in ancestral wisdom, guiding us to live into uncertainty with clarity and presence. Society & Culture en Fri, 15 Jul 2022 09:11:05 +0200 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 13:42:59 +0200 30 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss iono.fm 2.5.2.0 Solid Gold Podcasts #BeHeard no Mmabatho Montse Weekly feeds@iono.fm (Feed Manager) https://cdn.iono.fm/files/p1036/logo_7406_20250912_073140_1400.jpeg https://www.montsem.com/ Season 4 of Conscious Conversations unfolds as a living, transdisciplinary curriculum, weaving Africana Womanist eco-metaphysics, mythological studies, Black feminist geographies, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Futures Literacy. Solid Gold Podcasts #BeHeard episodic Solid Gold Podcasts #BeHeard info@solidgold.co.za false ZA https://iono.fm/e/1623334 https://iono.fm/e/1623334 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 28 Nov 2025 13:40:00 +0200 0 0 Future's Literacy 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:16:00 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1618281 https://iono.fm/e/1618281 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 14 Nov 2025 10:14:00 +0200 0 0 The Educated Self as Action-Oriented Praxis 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:25:00 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1613342 https://iono.fm/e/1613342
Mafole reflects on figures such as Morena Moshoeshoe I and the healer Morena Mohlomi, whose stories illuminate a pathway for personal and collective transformation grounded in humility, listening, and ancestral wisdom. The conversation is both critical and hopeful, inviting listeners to move from discourse to practice, from despair to reclamation, and from disconnection to Ubuntu. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 31 Oct 2025 10:49:00 +0200 0 0 Self Knowledge as Life's Teacher 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:02:00 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1609276 https://iono.fm/e/1609276 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Mon, 20 Oct 2025 12:50:00 +0200 0 0 Community Empowerment, a tool for social education 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:06:00 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1606796 https://iono.fm/e/1606796 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:13:00 +0200 0 0 Celebrating Culture through Music and Art 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:15:00 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1604289 https://iono.fm/e/1604289 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Mon, 06 Oct 2025 08:47:00 +0200 0 0 Histories that Touch the Body 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:08:00 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1601112 https://iono.fm/e/1601112 The conversation reflects on the role of education in transforming not just minds, but systems, and considers how personal lineage, ancestral memory, and metaphysical violence intersect in the pursuit of justice. Mali and Mmabatho interrogate the mythologies of democracy and capitalism, calling for pedagogies that center cultural re-memory, critical reflection, and collective care.

This episode affirms that justice work begins with storytelling, where reclaiming voice becomes an act of survival, resistance, and communal restoration.
www.narrativesforjustice.com Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 26 Sep 2025 07:49:00 +0200 0 0 Law, Liberation, and Lived Experience 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:16:53 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1599327 https://iono.fm/e/1599327 https://www.ancestralapothecary.com/ Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Sat, 20 Sep 2025 09:11:00 +0200 0 0 Earth as Teacher, Medicines as Memory 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:15:00 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1596630 https://iono.fm/e/1596630 Rather than the transmission of information, education becomes an unfolding of dreams, stories, and birth–death–rebirth cycles—sacred technologies for spiritual and intellectual transformation. Together we trace how myth carries ancestral presence, unsettles linear notions of knowledge, and makes space for complexity, rupture, and return.
This dialogue embodies the theme of Conscious Conversations: that education, when grounded in relational and ancestral ways of knowing, becomes a sacred practice of remembering ourselves and remembering the worlds we inhabit. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 12 Sep 2025 14:00:00 +0200 0 0 Myth, Dream, and Radical Remembering 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 56:56 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1447897 https://iono.fm/e/1447897 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Tue, 04 Jun 2024 13:32:00 +0200 0 0 Navigating Identity through Spirituality 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:10:10 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1445853 https://iono.fm/e/1445853 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Tue, 28 May 2024 11:55:00 +0200 0 0 Imagining a New Earth 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:05:14 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1444026 https://iono.fm/e/1444026
In this conversation, Rev. Diane Ford-Dessables and I reflect on hopes for collective recovery and restoration for Black communities. I continue to ask: what do freedom and liberation mean to you? What are you willing to do to ensure your sovereignty and that of future generations? What does revolution in the 21st century look like? Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Wed, 22 May 2024 12:18:00 +0200 0 0 Recovery, Healing & Restoration in Black Communities 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 59:02 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1440923 https://iono.fm/e/1440923
In this conversation, we’ll reflect on our past and our hopes for a decolonised future, imagining future urban and rural places and spaces that are resilient, anticipatory, inclusive, autonomous and technologically disruptive. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Tue, 14 May 2024 14:56:00 +0200 0 0 Settler Coloniality, Decolonising Space, Imagining New Futures 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:25:38 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1436449 https://iono.fm/e/1436449 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:29:00 +0200 0 0 The Path of Fearlessness, Healing and Liberation 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:38:14 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1432146 https://iono.fm/e/1432146
While indigeneity in Africa and the Americas may be contested in different ways, the historical patterns of settler colonialism, cultural assimilation, identification of ancestral homelands and intensifying globalisation add to the complexity of one’s indigenous status.

In this third episode of season 3 of the Conscious Conversations podcast with me, Mmabatho Montse, we speak to Greg McNeil about African Indigeneity and Sovereignty. We share our experiences and reflections about what being Black in Africa and America has meant, what we don’t know about our history and how we can capacitate ourselves to deal with the deception of colonisation and its handlers. Greg McNeil, a Ph.D. candidate at Southwestern College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a business owner (Coaches Korner & Empowerment Center of New Mexico, LLC), regenerative leader, healer, visionary, transdisciplinary scholar, Life Coach, Co-Podcast Creator – Art of Self Change, Performance Fitness Coach, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (with diagnostic privileges), United States Air Force veteran, hunter, and adventurer. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Tue, 16 Apr 2024 11:00:00 +0200 0 0 Afro/ Black Indigeneity & Sovereignty 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:19:49 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1427899 https://iono.fm/e/1427899
These times we find ourselves in are no different to the times of the Bible, when men were downtrodden, with many consumed by despair – a time of moral collapse and social unrest. It’s a time when attempts are being made, in every facet of our lives, to debase God in man, and to set a limit on human beings, particularly those in bodies of colour, striving to serve their Creator to the best of their ability. It’s a time in which we perhaps should look more closely at the beauty and the sweetness of the Great Invitation and the Gift that lies within that invitation.

In this conversation, I hope we can revive, restore and strengthen hope, faith and trust in the hearts and minds of our listeners. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Tue, 09 Apr 2024 17:15:00 +0200 0 0 The Great Invitation and the Gift 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:00:22 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1421314 https://iono.fm/e/1421314
In this season’s Conscious Conversations, we hope to give listeners tools to increase their self-awareness, shift the beliefs they hold about themselves, shift their values to reflect a philosophy of Ubuntu, and find out how to use their resources to recover, transform and restore themselves, their families and their communities in a regenerative way that will nourish their whole being and strengthen their connection with our Source.

This conversation is hosted by Thebe Montse. Thebe is a communication, media and marketing consultant with a depth of experience across public relations, brand communications, marketing, and advertising. Thebe’s worked with clients across the public and private sectors to deliver results for their businesses, brands, and communities. Thebe leads his own consultancy Endurance Africa and holds a BCom PPE degree from the University of Cape Town. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Tue, 02 Apr 2024 13:46:00 +0200 0 0 Unlearning, Learning, New Pathways 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 49:51 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1305003 https://iono.fm/e/1305003 Over decades, we have seen the deliberate alienation and marginalization of African cultural values and traditions by the designs of colonialism and apartheid, which have resulted in the misrepresentation and disorientation of some of the most fundamental aspects of our African culture. In an era of rapidly changing technologies digital solutions become critical for the application of holistic and knowledge-based approaches to societal problems.

In this conversation, we speak to Russel Hlongwane in an effort to identify the key touchpoints we can engage with in reclaiming and restoring our history and cultural heritage; finding pathways to expand our reach and digital presence, and preserving Africa's rich cultural heritage.

Russel Hlongwane is a cultural producer based between Cape Town and Durban, South Africa. His work is located at the intersection of Heritage/Modernity and Culture/Tradition as they apply to black life on the continent and the diaspora. His said practice includes cultural research, film, creative producing, design theory, curatorship, writing and performance – often taking the form of installation.
He has curated exhibitions and art platforms locally and abroad, and his artistic work has been shown extensively across Europe and Africa. His experimental film, Ifu Elimnyama: The Dark Cloud’ received the Jury Prize (2019) at the Sharjah Film Platform. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 28 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0200 0 0 African cultural heritage and digitisation 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:03:50 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1302285 https://iono.fm/e/1302285
In this conversation with Dr Pama, we aim to gather insight into how the abandonment of African traditional religious practices among Africans has negatively impacted our abilities to connect with the earth, nurturing a symbiosis between communities, nature, and God. Dr Bonile Pama, known to many as Baba Songindaba, is an agricultural economist and a business strategist by training with an MSc Agric, MBL and PhD degrees. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 21 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0200 0 0 An African view: Agriculture & Spirituality 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:17:43 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1300328 https://iono.fm/e/1300328 Astrology has for many centuries been considered an important form of intelligence, helping humanity know the truth, explaining cosmological alignments around the time of birth of people, and foretelling events, at times preventing negative foreseen events from taking place. Due to the marginalisation of peoples, and ancestral and societal trauma, much of this intelligence has been suppressed. As a result, many people suffer from low self-worth, esteem and disempowerment.
In this conversation, we speak to Makhosi Maïlé Moon about how understanding astrology and one's personal astrological DNA can help individuals and communities heal, shifting their energies from powerlessness to self-empowerment.
Maïlé Moon (Makhosi Ngonakame) is an Evolutionary Astrologer, Healer, and Musician. She has been working with cacao and sound as well as rose medicine for the past 8 years, living in between the Mayan lands of Guatemala and the mountains of Europe. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 14 Apr 2023 09:00:00 +0200 0 0 Finding alignment through Astrology 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:15:21 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1298234 https://iono.fm/e/1298234 There exist deep connections between Black South Africans and Americans because of our shared long history of racial segregation and white supremacy. Where entire societies were structured against the Black community, which meant no economic, social, or cultural power. The cultural legacies of this history have influenced how the stories of black people have been portrayed in the media, which has often meant "being inferior" and unacceptable. While institutionalised racial segregation ended in 1964 in the United States of America, and in 1994 in South Africa - we see how media, ideology, and popular culture continue to portray Black people as inferior, with certain stereotypes that propagate controversial and misconstrued images of what it means to be Black.

In this conversation, we speak to Joy Donnell about how we, as black people, can reframe the narrative around what it means to be black by telling our stories in an authentic way, ultimately redefining what it means to be black. Joy is a producer and writer dedicated to creating media that builds cultural legacy. She believes in owning your power and for Joy, power is owning your voice, image, narrative, influence and intentions. Joy’s work actively combines publicity, content strategy, and media to build legacy and expand awareness. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 07 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0200 0 0 Reframing and reclaiming black narratives in the media 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:31:15 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1295822 https://iono.fm/e/1295822 Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 31 Mar 2023 06:00:00 +0200 0 0 Healing through family constellations 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 56:56 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1293237 https://iono.fm/e/1293237 Dr Buntu’s areas of expertise include research, training facilitation, counselling/therapeutic processes, and curriculum development. In 2010 he initiated the SHABAKA - MEN OF AFRICA; a platform for activity-based mentoring of Black Men in a process of self-knowledge, restoration and empowering their role within the African family and community. He mentors young, emerging leaders and has designed train-the-trainer programs for entrepreneurs and community organizations. Based in South Africa and working across the different provinces of the country Baba Buntu has had several international working engagements in parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas.
His articles have appeared in academic journals and anthologies published in South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, Norway, the UK, and the USA. He holds a Doctoral and a Masters Degree in Philosophy of Education from UNISA. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 24 Mar 2023 06:00:00 +0200 0 0 The nexus between African family structures & spirituality 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:09:59 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1291356 https://iono.fm/e/1291356 For decades, education in Africa has been disseminated through different colonial entities, such as missionaries, merchants, and governments - each with their own purpose. While African countries have been liberated from colonial rule for many years, the legacies and biases of colonialism on the education systems and its sub-components such as the curriculum and research fields continue to influence local knowledge systems, philosophies and perspectives.

In this conversation, we speak to Yandiswa Xhakaza about the relevance of local knowledge, culture and spirituality in reframing and implementing educational change in Africa to build a continent that is more representative of itself. Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 17 Mar 2023 08:30:00 +0200 0 0 Reframing Education for the African Context 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:07:14 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1287711 https://iono.fm/e/1287711 In this conversation, we speak to Thebe Ikalafeng about the ties that continue to bind us as Africans and the ways in which we can be more deliberate in uniting the continent and its people, reimagining solutions that steer us into collective action, rebuilding an Africa alive with possibilities for all who live on it. Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 10 Mar 2023 06:00:00 +0200 0 0 Africa - the ties that bind us 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 41:59 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1216679 https://iono.fm/e/1216679
In this conversation, we talk about embracing motherhood, singlehood and love. How we can be happy in our individuality rather than be stuffed into a predefined mould?

Gomo Manche shares her experiences around staying grounded and authentic and honouring herself as a woman. Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 07 Oct 2022 05:00:00 +0200 0 0 Motherhood, singlehood and love 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:50:17 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1216677 https://iono.fm/e/1216677
In this conversation we speak about healing the inner child, and how this work can be used to address the roots of internal conflict and struggle, unmet needs from childhood and the attachment wounds developed over time, and how these can be transformed into positive and productive behaviours helping us to thrive in our lives. Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 30 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0200 0 0 Healing Your Inner Child 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:11:42 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1216672 https://iono.fm/e/1216672
In this conversation, we speak to Matthew Rademan, founder of Kahe Hands Massage Studios.

Kahe Hands apply a Hawaiian healing approach to touch therapy which distinctively focuses on and recognises the inherent integrity of the whole person, facilitating healing for the mind, body, and spirit. Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 23 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0200 0 0 Touch therapy, a healing tool 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 59:42 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1216663 https://iono.fm/e/1216663
Bokka has spent decades of his life in film production, doing design work and building sacred temples in Africa. Through his spiritual journey, he has learned about African indigenous knowledge and spirituality, which is enriched by his long mentoring relationship with Baba Credo Mutwa. Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 16 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0200 0 0 The Heart of Africa 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:25:26 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1216660 https://iono.fm/e/1216660
In this conversation, we speak to QuingRa, founder of Eanna Temple of Light and Wisdom.

We chat about the power of Oneness to gain insight into collective consciousness and how understanding principles of oneness can help us to live more profoundly in good health. Helping us see that everything in life is connected - our creativity and our challenges. Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 09 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0200 0 0 Oneness 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 56:13 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1216654 https://iono.fm/e/1216654
In this conversation, we speak to Neo Mavuso Magabane, a strategy management consultant and Ngaka.

We speak to Neo about Umsamo, a sacred place within a home where families and individuals communicate with their ancestors, an anchor for the bloodline, a place where everyone within the family has a place, a place of belonging. Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 02 Sep 2022 05:15:00 +0200 0 0 Umsamo - the family tree 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 1:00:53 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1216646 https://iono.fm/e/1216646
In this conversation, we speak to Channelie van Staden, a spiritual guide and entrepreneur, about mindfulness.

She speaks to us about the opportunity mindfulness provides us with, an opportunity to be aware, to be present, to pay attention, and that paying attention intentionally influences the nature of our life experiences... Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Fri, 19 Aug 2022 05:00:00 +0200 0 0 Mindfulness 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 51:29 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse https://iono.fm/e/1215436?v=1 https://iono.fm/e/1215436?v=1
In this conversation, we speak to Lerato Gunguluza, a published author, life coach and entrepreneur about the importance of knowing and understanding our personal values in our pursuit for authentic and happier lives. Visit our website · Visit our website · Follow on Instagram · YouTube Channel]]> Society & Culture Mon, 15 Aug 2022 12:12:00 +0200 0 0 Values 0 0 Mmabatho Montse full 59:51 Conscious Conversations with Mmabatho Montse