Self Knowledge as Life's Teacher

In this episode of Conscious Conversations, Mmabatho Montse is joined by educator, Mafole Sematlane for a rich dialogue on the role of education in restoring African identity, healing colonial trauma, and reweaving cultural wholeness. Drawing from his journey in Lesotho and over a decade of work in social transformation, Mafole introduces Afro-symbiosity, a paradigm rooted in Basotho values such as botho, khotso, and nala—as a framework for conflict resolution, leadership, and communal regeneration. Together, they explore how colonisation instilled a psychic captivity of fear and fragmentation, and how African communities can recover their sense of self through education as a practice of self-knowledge. They speak to the interdependence of land, body, and mind; the need for de-fragmented, transdisciplinary education; and the everyday manifestations of inherited trauma in postcolonial African life.

Mafole reflects on figures such as Morena Moshoeshoe I and the healer Morena Mohlomi, whose stories illuminate a pathway for personal and collective transformation grounded in humility, listening, and ancestral wisdom. The conversation is both critical and hopeful, inviting listeners to move from discourse to practice, from despair to reclamation, and from disconnection to Ubuntu.