3MT Meet the Judges: Tawona Sithole

Better known as Ganyamatope (his ancestral family name) Tawona Sithole’s heritage inspires him to make connections with other people through creativity-based interaction. He is widely published as a poet, playwright, and short story author. A storyteller and mbira musician, he is a co-founder of Seeds of Thought, a non-funded arts group. He is currently UNESCO artist-in-residence at the University of Glasgow, with research and teaching roles in the School of Education and Medical School. He has also worked in educational roles with the Glasgow School of Art, University of the West of Scotland, University of Stirling, Newcastle University, and the Scottish Book Trust.

 Can you tell me a bit about who you are and what you do? 

I’m Tawona Sithole and I use the name Ganyamatope as well, which is an important name for me, because it brings me back to a learning space. It’s an ancestral name and for me it represents the idea of interconnectedness with other people, which is why I love using it. 

I say that I’m a storyteller because I do so many things, and that’s often the easiest way to encompass them all. I’m a poet, I'm a playwright, and I'm an academic now as well. My main work is really about both creating my own work and helping other people to express themselves. Alongside my wife and my brother I run an arts collective called Seeds of Thought and that’s really the kind of work we do there – encouraging other people’s creativity and self-expression.  

I also work in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow as an artist-in-residence for the UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration Through Language and the Arts. What is seen most of the time in the refugee integration process is things like the form filling and the basic things that people need to make it in a new place, but within that we also know that people care very much about their culture and their language being respected and being present in their lives. So, we look at this, as well as hospitality as being at the centre of integration – there aren’t just incomers who need to assimilate to what is presented as a host situation, it's a mutually made thing. 

What does your work involve on a day-to-day basis? 

Writing and thinking - probably a bit too much thinking! We often use the word collaboration only in certain contexts, but I can't think of any of my work that isn't collaboration. I’m always either in a meeting discussing something, or trying to work out how best to do something. Something that I’m also really interested in is how we relate to communication. We often see communication in terms of what we want to say, but really we should think about what we're going to listen for. So that’s what my days are filled with really: writing, thinking, listening. And discussion too – that’s a very important thing. I love discussing things, I love changing my mind. Sometimes you hold onto something and then you have a conversation and you start to find ways of letting that thing go if it's not serving you. 

During the Three Minute Thesis Competition we talk a lot about ‘public engagement’ in an academic sense, as a vital part of disseminating your research to a wider audience. But as someone who wears quite a few different hats and isn’t always necessarily in a strictly academic environment, what do you think the value is of connecting and communicating with people outside of your field? 

When I’m communicating I always think of my audience – how would I explain this idea to a child, for example. A secret thing about me is that I love maths, and it’s a bit like looking at this big formula and reflecting on how you arrived there. Everything is narrative as far as I’m concerned – if I can tell the right story about this problem, then I have a better chance of understanding it and potentially solving it. And in order for your words or your ideas to not be insulated, you have to be able to communicate them with people outside your realm or your field. One of the projects I’m involved in is this migration-based research hub that brings together over 70 different researchers, and one of the silent tasks within that is those researchers finding a language they can speak to each other in. You know, everyone’s got their own toolkit of fancy words from their respective fields, but an essential part of our work as academics and in our lives in general is learning to communicate with each other across fields and in different situations. 

It can especially be a problem in academia, which often fosters an environment of using overly complex language or jargon. Sometimes you feel the need to validate why you’re in this position and it’s enticing to use that kind of inaccessible language to show yourself as a scholar who is knowledgeable and settled in a certain field. But if you close something off to all but a handful of people through your communication style, you aren’t properly honouring the work. That’s what it’s really all about - honouring the work. When you’re spending a lot of long hours researching, reading and thinking you want to make sure you’re doing proper service to the work itself, and the best way to do this is to make sure you’re allowing other people to understand what it is you’ve done. 

What are the main features of a good communicator to you? 

I have to start by saying that there’s an identity issue at play with the term ‘communicator’.  In my dad's language Ndau there's a word they have: shumoh. Shumoh is about purpose, it's about asking yourself the right questions: what or who am I serving through what I’m communicating? The communicator can either serve themselves because they've got all this information they want to give out. Or they can serve the audience, by asking themselves what they think other people might want to hear. Or they can serve the work itself. All those things can live separately or they can be combined, which is really when the best communication happens – when someone is true to themselves, is mindful of their audience and is also truly dedicated to their work. 

I also really can’t argue against listening as being at the centre of everything, which is interesting because we often don't do it well. I’m known as a spoken word poet for example, which is a trap for me because it’s a loaded term. As academics too, when we go to a conference we’re not listed as keynote listeners, we’re keynote speakers. We’re always leaning towards the speaking side of communication, so much so that we sometimes forget that listening is equally important. 

What will you be looking out for in the presentations which make it to the final? 

I’m going to be looking for presentations which are meaningful, and though content is important it’s also really about how it’s delivered. I also, as someone watching a presentation, want to feel like the presenter is being caretaking of me – that they’re present in the moment and aware of who their audience is. 

I also always look for how the presenter is aware of and interacting with the space, of course we’re going to be in a digital space, but there’s an awareness that comes with that nonetheless. Reading the room (whether real or virtual) is important – you can come and say all you have to say in three minutes, but if you just recite your words without really being present in the moment you can easily lose the audience. Pausing is also something I look for – it’s not a race to speak as many words as possible and if someone pauses if can often be more meaningful than filling the space with more words. 

What are you most looking forward to about being involved in 3MT at UofG? 

That's an easy one - learning. I have to quote my dad on this, because he always says ‘enter every situation as a student’. So, I'm really looking forward to doing that and learning a lot. I know each presentation is only three minutes long, but I feel like after listening to all of them I’ll have learned something of each of those topics, which will maybe generate some questions or intrigue or surprise. But I also think that learning aspect stretches to the modes of communication themselves. As much as I’ve spent all this time being a communicator myself, there is bound to be something new that I’ll learn from that experience of being around the presenters and the other judges. I think for me that is the most valuable thing. 

Any final words of wisdom for this year’s 3MT competitors? 

I think that I want to be involved in making as welcoming a space as possible for the presenters. I know that nerves are at play with these things, and the caretaking aspect that I mentioned before goes both ways. As long as the speakers feel as close to comfortable as they can then I’ll be happy, because it’s not an easy thing for them. As they say, the ears don’t go to the farm to work, they just sit here on our heads, so in many ways though our job is hard in some ways it’s easier than theirs on the day. So, I’m really thinking about those presenters, and I hope they sense that we’re there to learn too.