About Me:
I am a British-passport holding Canadian who has spent my life travelling the globe, working in schools and working on myself. I have lived in 14 countries to date in Africa, Europe, North America, and the Middle East.
I have a PhD in English Literature from the University of Birmingham and I have most recently been working as an English and Philosophy teacher in Southern Africa. I am also a cartoonist, an artist, an activist, and a mother.
In 2019 I founded Asinakekelane, a community based organization committed to ending discrimination in our school community and beyond. Since its inception, Asinakekelane has partnered with local NGOs and the UN to combat all forms of discrimination on campus from an intersectional, feminist approach.
More information about Asinakekelane can be found on the website: http://asinakekelane.mozello.
I stand on the shoulders of incredible women. My mother, who was born in 1943, had me, her last born, in 1987 in a small hospital in Lesotho, a tiny country in Southern Africa. I grew up in the tutelage of her intellect and spirit, and then, when she divorced my father and moved to Canada, under her struggle to make ends meet and provide for me, my brother and sister. She was my first feminist icon and through her I discovered the works of eminent feminist scholars. A tablespoon of Gertrude Stein was given at breakfast, a side of Audre Lorde at lunch. For dinner, however, us kids were on our own as my mother had to work nights to keep the lights on.
My interest in female empowerment has always been intersectional. My mother is now considered elderly, although she is very irate about the label. I have seen how her age has affected her status in Canada, and how it has made her, in her own words, “invisible”. In a recent course I took with Stanford University, I investigated how public health has made elderly women particularly disenfranchised, and how ageing is a gendered issue.
My sister Aine has Downs Syndrome, and I have seen how disability and gender intersect and disempower. When I was 13, I wrote a short story for the YMCA Vancouver’s essay contest, “She Inspires Me” about my sister. I won 2nd place and promptly bought a sewing machine with the prize money. Aine has been the greatest teacher in my life, as she has drilled compassion and patience into me. I credit her with the calling to teach that I have been following for the last ten years.
Throughout high school and university, the feminist cause stayed with me. In my high school art classes I created a series of “Feminist Barbies” which depicted horrifying statistics I had read - a murdered “sex worker barbie”, a pregnant barbie who had been abused at the hands of her husband, and an indomitable “disability barbie”. My mother helped me source the accessories at Value Village and I sewed the tiny clothing on my prized sewing machine. In university, I took as many courses as I could that began with “Women’s…” in philosophy, art history and literature. Both of my post-graduate theses focuses on women, gender, and sexuality, and now the courses I teach are rooted in intersectional feminism. I also run an instagram account (@drawafeminist) which features my drawings of important feminists - including my mom.
As an international teacher, I have worked in four unique countries. In Canada, I taught Korean women at the Canadian as a Second Language Institute in Vancouver. In Saudi Arabia, I taught literature and philosophy to a group of young, Saudi women. In Qatar, I taught a whole host of wealthy expatriate youth, some Qatari, some Spanish, some Thai. But only when I came to Waterford Kamhlaba, in tiny landlocked eSwatini, did I really understand what an inclusive approach to education and policy meant. At Waterford, my students are diverse not only in passport, but in economic status, culture, religious beliefs and ability. I have one student, who at 22, is just finishing her high school education; conflicts, poverty and famine have interrupted her education. Her holiday residence is a refugee camp. In my literature class she sits next to a Maldivian heiress and the two discuss the intersections of race in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Thing Around Your Neck” and Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”. Both are feminists.
In the two years I have worked Waterford Kamhlaba, I have felt uncomfortable stirrings as I discover my own privilege and wilful ignorance about global feminism. I am learning, growing, and trying to sow good. When Uyinene Mrywetyana was murdered by a postal worker in South Africa in 2019, I founded Asinakekelane (siSwati for “Let’s Care About Each Other), a community-based organisation which strives to dismantle all forms of discrimination and inequality, with a particular focus on gender. I have learned from my students - vivacious and indomitable young African women clamouring to create a world where they feel safe and heard. In Southern Africa, the rights of trans women and other members of the LGBTQ+ community are often neglected. I have been busy over the last year writing more inclusive, gender neutral policy and leading professional development activities on gender mainstreaming, intersectional inclusion and microagressions. Asinakekelane has worked with the United Nations in Swaziland to assist survivors of gender-based violence and help to provide a solution to period poverty.
Another reason that women’s empowerment is so close to my heart is through my own experiences as a queer woman growing up in Canada. I am a survivor of gender-based violence and sexual abuse, and it is only recently, through my work with Asinakekelane and through therapy, that I am beginning to heal. I am also a pro-choice activist, having had two abortions as a young woman. These experiences have made me acutely aware of gender and power in the Canadian sense. They have also, for lack of a better expression, lit a fire under my butt. I have made it my mandate to work towards equity and social justice.