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In this episode of the Ronu Spirit Podcast, host Hameed sits down with Tsitsi Tsoposta, Zimbabwean author, PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Middlesex University, and founder of The Writer's Lounge Online, for a wide-ranging conversation about decolonisation, identity, and the power of storytelling.

Tsitsi traces her journey from writing articles as a teenager to publishing her first novel *Zebra Crossings*, and ultimately pursuing a PhD to deepen her understanding of how colonialism reshaped African societies. She introduces listeners to Africana Womanism, a framework coined by academic Clenora Hudson-Weems with 18 guiding tenets — and explains why it offers a more culturally grounded alternative to Western feminism for Black women across the diaspora. The conversation explores how colonialism systematically undermined African women's traditional roles as custodians of food production, spirituality, and knowledge transmission, and how the introduction of cash economies and patriarchal systems fractured communal structures.

Tsitsi also discusses her two novels: *Zwi*, her PhD work set in 1870s Southern Africa on the cusp of colonialism, and *Babel*, inspired by the Grenfell Tower fire, which follows six diverse characters living in West London and examines the lives behind the headlines. The episode closes with practical reflections on how the diaspora can help reclaim African narratives, from creative projects documenting African soldiers in World War II to simply asking elders about family history.