A Determined Black Woman

  If there is one Nelson Mandela did not lie about, its education, especially higher education. I advocate for traditional avenues of acquiring knowledge and I passionately believe in academia. It is an amazing learning experience which prompts us to question, challenge and reconstruct knowledge. In today’s age of social media, Institutionalized Education is made to seem completely ‘overrated’ and not lucrative enough. Which is totally up for debate and subjective. In this blog post, I will provide my top 5 benefits of being in a Higher Education Institution and acquiring a degree. Yes, we live in a country that has a 46.3% Youth Unemployment rate which makes Higher Education even more undesirable because graduates are standing in intersections with placards stating their qualifications to be seen by a potential employer and secure a job. However, we cannot all be entrepreneurs, content creators, youtubers and all other ‘nontraditional’ careers. The magic of education is that even ...

  Mid-year check-in blog post. I haven’t done this in a while, mainly because life was happening for me and I needed to prioritize. Between school, work and the blog my plate was life and I couldn’t commit to everything at once. Getting my degree is my number one priority and I had to put all my energy towards that. It is the semester break and I couldn’t wait to get back into blogging. I missed this part of my life.   Today’s blog post is a mid-year check in. Like most people, I sat down and worked on my vision board at the beginning of the year. I had short, medium and long term goals on there. Creating a vision board is all fun but that’s not where the work stops. We actually need to have systems in place to help us achieve these goals. Right before I sat down to pen this blog post, I went through my vision board to see how far I have come regarding my goals in the first 6 months of the year and to be honest, I am happy with my overall progress. I broke down my vi...

  Annually in South Africa Freedom Day is commemorated on the 27 th of April. It is a celebration of the first democratic elections held in South Africa on 27 April 1994. They were the first post-apartheid national elections held where everyone could vote regardless of their race. It was a day of hope and gratitude for many South Africans who had never voted before. It was a day of transformation for the country at large, democracy was on the horizon. But the question remains, how far have we really come and have we really run with the baton those who fought tirelessly to overcome the brutal apartheid system gave to us?          Apartheid was legalised in South Africa in 1948, however oppression was not new because colonialism had already plagued the country. Under the National Parties racist apartheid rule, indigenous South Africans were legally denied the right to vote and did not have a say in the political governing of the country. I am sure man...

  The title of this blog post is a double entendre and we are going to explore both meanings. Firstly, it means embracing the actual colour of your skin. Secondly, it means embracing the fact that you are a black woman, no matter your skin colour.   For years, being black was shunned upon. Being black and dark in skin colour was even worse. Our ancestors walked through hell for us. They endured endless humiliation about their race, skin colour, hair, how they spoke & body features. The sad part is that all of this is still very much prevalent in present day South Africa. It might not be at the same extent, but it still does exist. 27 years later and we’re still subject to such discrimination.   We cannot control how and what other races think about us, but we can control how and what we think about ourselves. What we’re not going to do in 2021 is inflict self-hate because of other people’s opinions. We are BOLD. We are BEAUTIFUL. We are BRILLIANT. We are BLACK...

I am not sure if we’re still allowed to say ‘Happy New Year’ in February. Growing up in a black community means saying Happy New Year till about mid- February. So, Happy New Year my fellow Determinists. I hope you are all well, rested, vision boards are up and ready to take on the year. Living in a pandemic is something none of us had ever experienced before. It was and still is foreign. Trying to achieve the goals we had set for ourselves at the beginning of “20plenty” was an extreme sport. Some succeeded, some didn’t and that is perfectly fine. Being here, today & having survived 2020 is THE GOAL. My deepest condolences to everyone that lost a loved one last year, COVID-19 related or not. May your hearts be at ease.   Apart from losing so many I knew and loved last year, it is safe to say I had a good year. It was difficult, but good. I only had one goal at the beginning of last year and that was to pass my 2 nd year at University and I did just that. Adjusting to Onli...

If you know anything about the “A Determined Black Woman” brand, you know that we are pro-black and pro-woman. Today we have a very “On Brand” instalment for you guys. Today’s blog post is in collaboration with four of my favourite local black and woman owned businesses. If you weren’t aware, this is the last blog post of 2020 and I thought I should give you guys something light hearted, inspirational and influential. The aim of this blog post is to prompt you to make intentional decisions to buy and support black and woman owned business .Help them grow and cement themselves into entrepreneurship. Sihle Mboniswa @make-upbysihle_m Sihle Mboniswa is a self-taught make-up artist based in Khayelitsha, Phakamisa. Like most self-taught MUA’s as they are abbreviated, she learnt her impeccable skills on YouTube. Sihle’s artistry does not focus on extreme transformation that make make-up seem like a scam. Her artistry focuses on enhancing her client’s beauty so they don’t feel completely...