"On behalf of my mother, Lindiwe Mabuza we thank Rhodes University for this prestigious award. As a family, we are both humbled and honoured at the recognition of her contribution and commitment to the struggle and her beloved country, South Africa. It is most heartening that she was aware of this accolade as she received the letter from Rhodes shortly before her death. Indeed, I am convinced she is smiling down from the heavens"

"Our nation owes her an enormous debt of gratitude and appreciation for all the sacrifices she has made throughout her life as a committed freedom fighter, a determined cultural and literary activist and a champion for women’s emancipation. She was a phenomenal woman; a woman of grace; a woman of elegance; an embodiment of humility; and courage and dedication personified. Her use of poetry and other writings as a weapon against the brutal and iniquitous system of apartheid created hope for many who could not return to the place of their birth"

"Poetry is part of the struggle. You use the armed struggle; you use political methods… You recite a poem. It’s better than a three-hour speech. It gets to the heart of the matter. It moves people"

"It’s very important for poor people and people of color to go to these protests and marches because they are feeling the wrath of climate change the most. It’s important for them to have a say, for their voice and their demands to be heard"

"Since our leaders are failing us, we really should try to be active citizens and participate in these spaces as much as we can, so we can hold them to account, because no one is coming to save us"

"We understand the risks,” she says, “but we are willing to work regardless of them"

"It's important that everyone plays their part in making sure that our future and the future of the next generation is safe and sustainable"

"It is our duty to make sure that our future and that of future generations is safe"

"We do not know if we might get robbed or not, but that does not stop us from continuing our work"

"I saw a problem, and decided to act by advocating for urgent climate justice in my country to make sure no African child is left behind in the just transition to 100% renewable energy."

"Sometimes I feel like I am being used as a token."

"I will never surrender activism because I have seen how much of a difference the work I do has made"

"I was being forced to assimilate to whiteness and being forced to assimilate to an image that I did not fit into"

"I believe young people are not as engaged in various aspects of activism, primarily because of being excluded"

"You can't separate any expression of Black hair from Black identity, especially because for Black people it's more than just hair"

"Representation plays a huge role in prompting acceptance and inclusivity, as well as decolonising what is already represented out there, Whether It Be In Books, media outlets, or television"

"I hope that when children pick up my book it empowers them to feel proud of their existence and their identity and it ultimately empowers their existence and enables them to proudly be themselves"

"As long as we have not won the war on racism in this country, we have not won the war on hair policies"

"I’ve always kept that close to my heart, understanding that everything I do is not just for me but for those who came before me who walked so I could fly, who did not have the means to do what I do but ensured that I would"

"I believe that books play a big role, especially books by Africans, in seeing representation, seeing yourself being written up in a positive light, seeing your existence reflected in the pages of literature"

"Laws can change, but people still have to change"

"One of the things that the apartheid regime was very successful at was making all schools in rural areas and townships environments in which it's difficult to come out and be a leader in society"

"So, in my journey of finding my voice to speak up against racism I began to decolonise my mind, unlocking the shackles, and unlearning the belief of looking at Eurocentric beauty as the standard for beauty"

"asking me to change my hair is like asking me to erase my blackness and you cannot separate the two"

"Your greatest power lies in proudly being yourself and that awakens a new level of consciousness"

"Societal beauty standards largely impact children’s self-esteem especially in a world where children are exposed to social media without any boundaries or limitations"

"The hair policy is a symptom of a greater diagnosis of institutionalised racism and systemic racism"

"Too many young people are over-mentored and underfunded"

"I hope that my activism leaves a trail of impact by Empowering more people to feel empowered to see the power in their voices and use their voices to effect change around them"

"There was a pencil test [during the apartheid in South Africa],” she said. “If a pencil was put into your hair and when you shook your head, it did not slide out, you would pass for coloured, if it stayed inside you would be considered Black"

"I believe that if we can work on empowering those schools, we'll definitely be doing a huge job in society"

"You are capable of being great regardless of anything anyone says."

"The most important message is that bravery doesn't have a size or age"

"You don't have to be a famous person person to bring about change in the world or in a community"

"I chose to be an activist because I don't want a generation of young South Africans to still be having the same kind of conversations about systemic and institutional racism 30 years from now"

"I chose to speak up because I felt it was an injustice of its own for me to see the reality of the institution and still choose to be silent."

"I was 13, 14 years old, a child basically, [and] I was receiving death threats from old white adults"

"One of the things that made me unable to escape activism was that growing up, I experienced a huge amount of anti-Blackness, which I became very aware of just being in a family with both my parents of colour"

"As much as the apartheid regime has no longer been constitutionalised, racism hasn't disappeared"

"You don’t need to justify your place, you are valid and so is your place here"

"The minute we lose the ability to see the humanity in the next person that looks different from you—that's when racism is planted into the fibre of society, and that's when we desensitize ourselves to the importance of existing in a just and equitable world with people that look different from us"

"I believe in anti-racism so much because I believe it's at the core of us solving so many other social issues 12 May, 2025"

"I first-hand got to see racism from my identity not being welcomed or understood"

"The generation of Nelson Mandela brought political emancipation. But political emancipation doesn't exist without economic and mental emancipation"

"I've realised that a big part of fighting racism deals with the mind — and the only way to unlock and liberate the mind is through access to knowledge"

"the oppressed — Black people, people of colour — need to get to a point where they take themselves out of their own mental prison and liberate their minds"

"The most urgent thing that needs to happen to ensure that education is used as a tool to change the world is firstly, it needs to be accessible"

"We need to ensure that previously poorly funded schools aren't continuing to be disadvantaged now"

"I then began to see my hair as not just hair but a central core element of identity"

"I still lived in a world where every last bit of your life was determined by your race: what kind of opportunities you're going to be exposed to, the kind of school you'll go to, the environment you’ll live in. My entire world still was determined on the basis of race."