“We need to document our stories, especially the stories of African feminists. Whether it's putting them into essays, whether it's putting them in blogs or writing books, our stories need to be told our way. For too long, our histories have been dictated through white lenses and that needs to be challenged.” - Rosie Motene

Rosie Motene’s blend of Pan-Africanism, feminism, activism, and artmaking know no boundaries. Over the span of two decades, she has balanced her career as an award-winning actor, producer, speaker, and media proprietor with her work as a gender-based violence intervention and prevention advocate, trainer, and trauma counselor. Whether on set or in the community, Motene has always used her platform to engage, educate, and advocate in service of womxn, children, and the LGBTQIA+ community—and she has no intentions of stopping anytime soon.

Born in Phokeng, South Africa to the Royal Bafokeng Nation during the apartheid era, Motene was adopted by her mother’s white, Jewish employers shortly after her birth, and relocated to Johannesburg where she recalls grappling with feelings of alienation, frustration, and shame throughout her childhood and adolescence. The tension and dissonance that arose from Motene’s interracial adoption and upbringing have since taken her on a journey of healing and reclamation of her identity as a queer, Black, Tswana, Jewish woman. 

A graduate of University of Witwatersrand’s School of Dramatic Arts, Motene is well-known for her role as Tsego in the popular South African soap opera Generations, as well as her role as Mandisa in John Kani’s Nothing But the Truth. She also worked as a field reporter and studio host for Studio 53. Her experience at Studio 53 would motivate her to found Waka Talent Agency, the first of its kind in representing television and radio presenters and personalities, emcees, and voice over actors across Africa. To date, Waka has its footprint in 14 countries across Southern, Eastern, and Western Africa.

Her activist work is motivated by her passion for and commitment to womxn, Africa, and the arts, Motene’s journey as an activist began with People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) in 2003, where she began counseling survivors and raising public awareness on gender-based violence. She’s also used her platform to advocate in the interest of womxn in the film, television, and entertainment industry. A certified sexual abuse and PTSD counselor, whose care work is trauma-informed, Motene resigned from the POWA board in 2019, after volunteering her services for 17 years. She recently started Lestatsi Healing Space, where she offers counselling and life coaching. Motene continues to collaborate with several organizations and institutions to create awareness about domestic, family, intimate and sexual violence, and abuse. 

In 2018, Motene released her award-winning memoir, Reclaiming the Soil: A Black Girl's Struggle to Find Her African Self, which resonates with readers across Africa and the Diaspora, as it showcases a radical honesty, vulnerability, and transparency meant for individual and collective healing. The book has opened up a number of difficult, complex conversations on racial identity, interracial adoption, familal healing and reunification, and the pervasiveness of violence and abuse across relationship types.

Nevertheless, Motene shares that “it has been an incredibly emotional, overwhelming process, bearing yourself out there for people to know and understand everything about your life…but also one of learning and of intentional, boundary setting. And that for me was incredibly powerful in every space that I go into, that you need to and will see me for who I am. From that aspect, it's been amazing.” 

In addition to her work heading Waka Talent Agency, Motene is host of the podcast, Speaking Through My World with Rosie Motene, where she continues to push uncomfortable, necessary conversations on race, gender, and sexuality, centering the perspectives and analysis of guests from/working with marginalized communities. She’s also in talks and finalizing details for a major documentary project, keeping true to her passion for capturing and sharing the stories of African womxn. 

When asked what she is looking forward to, Motene replies, “happiness...and that has come with me setting my own boundaries, me sharing and telling stories.” With her sights set on expanding her advocacy and activism through collaboration with organizations across Africa in the near future, Motene shares that she hopes to continue to use her privilege “to open up pathways for people to be seen, for people to share their stories, for people to collaborate and learn–because there's still a lot of learning that we need to do.”

Rosie Motene will be appearing in AMAKA Books on Instagram Live on Friday, 23rd April, 6pm GMT. Don't miss it!