In the pursuit of a more just world, leaders often discover that their greatest breakthroughs emerge not in isolation but through collaborative learning and reciprocal support. This dialogue—the first installment of Ford Global Fellows’ “Learning Globally, Leading Locally: Conversations With Ford Global Fellows” series—brings together two remarkable fellows whose partnership demonstrates the impact of pan-African solidarity and intellectual curiosity.
Keamogetswe “Kea” Seipato is a feminist social justice advocate committed to deconstructing systems of oppression and building popular education frameworks that enhance agency within communities. Based in South Africa, she creates and shares knowledge with those affected by the political economy of Southern Africa and the world.
Tawanda Mugari, cofounder and chief technology officer of Digital Society of Africa (DSA), works at the intersection of technology and human rights, strengthening digital security and resilience for over 500 advocates and 60 organizations across the region. DSA uses a holistic security approach—including organizational security audits, risk assessment training, sustainable security accompaniment, and tech support—to keep frontline activists, civil rights defenders, and other vulnerable groups safe. Tawanda is based in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Both fellows since 2021, Kea and Tawanda’s shared journey began with a single word: polarization. What started as discovery of the term in a fellowship session evolved into pioneering research and practical tools for addressing “us versus them” dynamics across Southern Africa. Their story illuminates how authentic partnership can transform abstract concepts into practical and impactful solutions.
Through candid reflection, Kea and Tawanda explore the nuanced work of knowledge-sharing across different audiences, the challenges of building trust, and the profound joy of finding intellectual community. Their conversation offers insights into collaborative leadership, the importance of taking up space, and the collective wisdom that emerges when dedicated individuals dream together.
Navigating Polarization
Adria Goodson: “Tawanda, in 2022, you helped to curate a topical session on polarization at the first in-person gathering of the Ford Global Fellowship (FGF) in New York City. I want you to go back in your memory and bring us up to speed on why you thought this topic was interesting and potentially useful for the fellowship.”
Tawanda Mugari: “When we joined the Ford Global Fellowship, we received a list of learning topics. I read the word ‘polarization’ and—I am as vulnerable as possible here— I was like, ‘My English is not English-ing. I don’t understand this word.’ I volunteered to be part of that group because I knew that it was an opportunity to learn. And I still remember that Adria, you had to stop me from asking the same question like 25 times: ‘What’s the working definition of polarization?’ You were like, ‘Hold on that thought.’”
Adria Goodson: “Didn’t I also say that we were trying to define it with you?”
Tawanda Mugari: “Exactly. I was like, ‘Are we going to be challenging the Oxford Dictionary?’ But later on, fast forward, I really grew to understand the concept… Then in New York, the session happened, and that was the defining moment for me. I was like, ‘Okay, already this polarization topic has polarized us in the room.’ And now this is interesting, if leaders can be polarized by a topic… So that’s when the lightbulb moment struck and I decided I’m going to invest my life into this topic.”
Kea Seipato: “The session was a turning point in the establishment of the relationship between me and Tawanda, because that’s when we became real friends. I fell in love with the topic so quickly, and through having to kind of be a shoulder to my friend, I ended up getting even more enthralled in the topic itself. I’m also very grateful to the FGF space because it has introduced us to things that we viscerally know, but we haven’t been able to give a name or a label to. So even though we know the semantics of societal divisions, the FGF space gave me personally, as an activist, the container to start connecting dots and labeling things as they are so that I can then do the work of thinking, ‘How do we come out of the situation?’”
Disrupting Inequality While Recognizing Cultural Nuances
Adria Goodson: “Could you tell us one story that lets us come alongside you and how you work? That helps us understand how you have worked to disrupt inequality over the past six months? Kea, I’m going to start with you.”
Kea Seipato: “In the past six months, I’ve hosted two different workshops around strengthening local government and democracy-building in South Africa. The first workshop happened in Soweto, in Pimville, with a group of Black women. And I had to be quite cognizant, asking myself: ‘How do I disrupt inequality through the information I share with the women, understanding their lived experiences?’ But also understanding, ‘How can I shift and spark agency within them?’
And then, fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I had to do the same thing with a younger, middle-class grouping in Cape Town. Same information but different grouping, and I had to also remind myself that it’s not just about how adults learn, but more about being cognizant of their class position and their gender and the different roles that they play within communities. So it was very exciting and interesting, preparing and juxtaposing the different audiences, even though I have to share the same content.”
Tawanda Mugari: “I think the highlight is the creation of threat labs. There has been an increase of surveillance in the region, and there have been limited resources in terms of how we can actually analyze or detect malware and spyware. So I have been internally building the capacity of our team, and we’re expanding this into the nine countries that we are now in as DSA. So it’s quite interesting to see how the dynamic shifts from country to country, because you find that in one country, some are like, ‘We actually don’t care if we’re being surveilled.’ But for others, their antennas are really high to say, ‘Show me; I know that I’m being surveilled.” At the same time, you find that there has been an increase of implementation of cybersecurity laws which counter some of the implementation of the circumvention tools that we need to employ. So that’s now the work that I’ve been doing: How do we try to make sure that we protect the work of the activists while not contradicting the law, because that will then put them at risk of actually being arrested?
It’s quite interesting because also, some of the technology is not homegrown. So it now means that we are expanding to ask assistance from the West, which comes with its own challenges, because knowledge is not as shareable as we think it is. You know, there’s always a price to pay.”
Building From the Grassroots Up
Adria Goodson: “So you two took up this idea about polarization, and you did something with it. What did you do? Where has it gone? And what is happening now?”
Tawanda Mugari: “After New York, I was invited to another event about polarization in Barcelona. And as I was listening there, I was typing to Kea, like, ‘Dude, I think we can do something better than this, because I think there’s a level that everything here has skipped, which is grassroots, stories from the trenches.’ Then I met for lunch with Kea. We came up with a concept and asked Ford’s Office of Southern Africa (OSA) for support. But it’s a thing with Africans, especially Southern Africans: We don’t really push hard sometimes. We waited one month, two months, three months, four months. Then we’re like, ‘Okay, let’s nudge again,’ and then things started to move. The office said, ‘Okay, the fastest way to do this is because DSA is already a grantee of Ford OSA, so we will increase your grant to cover the polarization work.’
We called each other and celebrated. We laughed, I think, for about five minutes. We’re like, ‘We did it. We did it.’ Tears. It was a dream come true. There have been conferences, workshops, learning circles, and each time, there’s nothing that is as exciting as a leader than being told your team is performing exceptionally well in unpacking a complex topic that first had everyone like, ‘Why are we talking about this? But now everyone is like, ‘We need to talk about this even more.’”
Kea Seipato: “We were trying to prove that polarization exists in Southern Africa, but not in the quintessential ways folks understand. We thought the best way to do that, since we’re both educators, is to create knowledge. So we embarked on a yearlong research project that, combined with conversations with activists across Southern Africa, tried to unearth the manifestations of polarization, and we looked at it through two tracks.
We looked at the manifestation of toxic polarization in Southern Africa through Afrophobia, which many folks know as xenophobia. The second track was through the shrinking space of dissent, which some people will know as shrinking civic space. Basically, the idea that we were trying to prove is that there’s a historical context at play that created how Southern Africa looks like today—and in order for us to understand the tensions that exist in 2025 amongst folks within Southern Africa, we need to look back.”
Harnessing the Power of Collective Intelligence
Adria Goodson: “Tawanda, I hear you using the best leadership skill ever, which is not just delegation but recruiting the right people to take a leadership role, who can have a very strong understanding of the complex systems that we’re in. Kea, you have described how people take ownership of knowledge and transform it into something that is both hyperlocal and cross-applicable across contexts.
There’s a quote by an individual named John Mohawk, who’s an Indigenous activist in the United States, and he says, ‘An individual is not smart, but merely lucky to be part of a system that has intelligence. Be humble about this. The real intelligence isn’t the property of the individual. The real intelligence is the property of the universe itself.’ I’m curious about your thoughts here.”
Tawanda Mugari: “I’m literally going to take that and put it on my status. But I need to emphasize that my leadership journey from 2021 right up until now has significantly improved. And you’re right that it might have been intelligence or foresight but also it was being in a system that then made me see my own weaknesses and strengths—and then how I could actually rally behind and use the strengths of others.
With this polarization work, I can write something and know that if I pass it to Kea, it will come out better. Or if Kea throws something to me to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea. I just want it to sound human,’ I can help. And it’s not just with Kea. It’s with each and every other fellow that we have actually spent time with; without those people, I don’t think that my leadership and the organization that I lead would be at this stage now. It’s quite easy now for me to just pick up the phone. If somebody says, ‘Hey, you know, there’s something in Uganda,’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I got you. Don’t worry.’ I’ve got a friend there in Kenya. I’ve got a friend there in Tanzania. Everywhere, I’ve got a friend there. So that statement is very powerful for me, and it comes from the FGF system.”
Kea Seipato: “I wouldn’t even say system, friend; I’d say ecosystem, to take it even further… The FGF was the first fellowship I applied for and took part in, even if I was nominated for other fellowships. I tend not to apply, because when you Google the fellowship, you kind of see the people they want, and I’ve never fallen into those categories. But in FGF, I met other humans who are grappling with the world and existing in the world.
I am deeply, deeply appreciative of the knowledge and the intelligence of the universe for creating the conditions for me to be within the FGF ecosystem, because I’ve been able to unlock things within me that were never going to be possible. So, and I mean just to latch on the point that you made around ‘you’ve got a friend’: Three weeks ago, I texted Cruz Helena Valencia, a FGF from the Andean region, and we had a conversation about the Constitution in Colombia, the right to recall as a direct democracy mechanism. So, my gosh, if you contribute to FGF, you will get tenfold back.”