Vuyokazi Ngemntu

Vuyokazi Ngemntu is a writer-performer based in Cape Town, South Africa, whose praxis uses poetry, song, physical theatre, storytelling and ritual to navigate ancestral trauma, confront inequality and inspire healing. Recent highlights include having her short story “Binnegoed” selected as the overall winner of Ibua journal’s 2022 “Bold: Food” regional selection. Another milestone includes having her short story “The serpent’s handmaiden” shortlisted for the Share Africa Climate Change Fiction Award. She says of her story “Mirror, Mirror”: “In my story, I was trying to unpack the normalised colourism and ‘light skin privilege’ that were a part of my childhood, grappling with the complexities of hair and its negotiations as an aspect of black identity. The idea of the heteronormative nuclear family is also challenged; so are the nuanced experiences of love, kinship and motherhood, which all allow room for fluidity even in the face of tension and tragedy.”

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, Power: interview with Antoinette Ntuli, author of "The scent of pap and skop"

Vuyokazi Ngemntu, Antoinette Ntuli Books and writers 2025-09-23

"I would describe my story as magical realism, because I am integrating fantastical elements into a realistic setting to help me reflect upon economic and cultural power."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, Power: interview with Janine Milne, author of "There are gods worse than us"

Vuyokazi Ngemntu, Janine Milne Books and writers 2025-08-26

"In a way, power exposes us, the worst of us. Part of us is kept in check by our evolutionary social hardwiring."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, Power: interview with Kamva Majo, author of "We cannot afford to be silent"

Vuyokazi Ngemntu, Kamva Majo Books and writers 2025-08-19

"With 'We cannot afford to be silent', I hope to annihilate the word missing in front of middle class. I do not believe that, as the middle class, we are missing at all. I hope to call out to other middle-class citizens that their complacency is not serving them, but rather hurting them and rendering them “missing”."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Power: interview with Vuyokazi Ngemntu, author of "The cost of freedom"

Lynn Joffe, Vuyokazi Ngemntu Books and writers 2025-07-01

"In a world where 1% of the population have a monopoly on economic and, by extension, political power, the general masses suffer under the weight of inequality. What we do have are our voices."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Vuyokazi Ngemntu, author of “Mirror, Mirror"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Vuyokazi Ngemntu Books and writers 2023-07-19

"The ability to see ourselves in our myths allows us to be critical of ourselves and the world as we know it. This encourages us to envision a better world, in which we too are better versions of ourselves in our interactions with one another. At the root of it all are empathy and transference."