Dionne Mankazana is an alternative Afrocentric educator, graphic designer and producer. Her passion for education was sparked by the realization that education can be used as a tool for positive psycho-social change and deep healing of the wounds of Apartheid. Her roots in education emerged in an alternative education space in the inner city of Johannesburg, South Africa, as a founding teacher at StreetLight Schools, where she was engaged in deep research exploring the needs of the community she served and explored various educational approaches from across the globe, that would be implemented in the school she built with her team.
Dionne is working with Sisonke Papu, a.k.a. KHNYSA to establish NgoMA technologies, a project selected to be part of the inaugural OneBeat Institute. NgoMa Technologies is an initiative dedicated to the preservation, innovation and application of indigenous sound technologies as sites of healing, education, and creative economy development in Southern Africa and beyond. As an ecosystem of musicians, healers, and indigenous technologists we aim to share the vast knowledge of the elders, through workshops, public lectures, and the making of indigenous instruments as modalities for creative expression and sound therapy.
