Kuselwa Gongo
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Why We Miss CDs: The Lost Art of Music Rituals
A reflection on CDs, liner notes, mixtapes, music shops, and the rituals we lost when music stopped being something we held. From Mariah and Janet to Boyz II Men fan clubs and Look & Listen listening stations, this is about music as memory, effort, and devotion.
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Walking Toward the Thing: Burden and the Work of Surviving
In the days before cochlear implant surgery, Kuselwa reflects on chronic illness, disability, grief, and the invisible labour of survival. Walking Toward the Thing explores the emotional and administrative burden of illness, the impact on family, the politics of accommodation, and what it means to move toward something life-altering when certainty is unavailable.
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My Body Glitches. My Mind Does Not.
What is FND? Or rather, what does my FND look like? Honestly, it can look like I am well until you work with me closely over time. Then the cracks show. Functional Neurological Disorder is not a personality flaw. It is a neurological condition in which the brain’s signalling does not work reliably. The symptoms…
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The Work of Alignment
At the beginning of this year, I wrote that alignment is one of the things I will be working on. Alignment can mean so many things. Feeling aligned with your work and whether it is in line with your values, your aspirations, your contribution to the big picture, or whatever that may be. In that…
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A Quieter Kind of New Year
I met 2026 without fanfare, and maybe just too true: I woke up when the fireworks started going, reminding me that the year had turned over. A reminder, perhaps, that my body and my calendar are in a long-term contentious relationship I did not consent to. I loathe New Year’s resolutions. Not change. The theatre…
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Code, Constraint, Cost: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek
Anyone who’s known me for more than a few days knows Star Trek is huge in my life. If you understand Star Trek, you understand me. It’s basically my operating system. But it’s also been more than a show. Trek shaped how I think about leadership: how teams work under pressure, how ethics hold when…
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Watching Words Take Root
The moment that gave me away I’m thinking back on this moment, and I’m cringing. I must have been about ten, probably frustrated, as usual, with my sister. She would’ve been around six, wanting attention and wanting to play. And I, as usual, wanted to be left alone. I turned to my father and said,…
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When My Body Forgot Me
The Beginning of Unravelling At the beginning of this year, I faced a kind of horror I never imagined. It started with tingling, then numbness, on the right side of my body. This had happened once or twice over Christmas, and as someone with Functional Neurological Disorder, I told myself, Maybe this is just a…
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Indigenous Representations of Disability
What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. When it comes to disability and the languages we speak, names carry the weight of history. They tell us who we think we are and how we see others. For many Africans, our relationship with vernacular languages is complicated. How many…
Where Words Take Root 