Qhawekazi - Tembisa Jordaan
Tembisa Jordaan - Conservationist and Storyteller; Senior Manager Biodiversity Economy and Stewardship, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife; NEWF Fellow; Climate Story Lab ZA Fellow; filmmaker; MasterChef!
Interview and written by Aisiku Osebhahiemen Andrea, as part of the SciComm in Practice Fellowship. Edited for clarity and length.
Meet Tembisa a multitalented and busy scientist and science communicator. She works for Ezemevelo KZN Wildlife, is starting a PhD, is an award winning filmmaker and is a chef - earning a top 5 place on MasterChef! Read the whole interview for some fantastic ideas, advice and learnings from this accomplished scientist.
Her Work: Trained as a marine scientist with a multidisciplinary background, Tembisa works at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, where she helps landowners combine conservation with commercial activities. These include the donation of wild game, sustainable harvesting of game and plants and supporting communities to use indigenous plant and animal materials for products like cosmetics and medicine. Her team helps people navigate government red tape, promotes skills development, and connects people with funding to make their projects sustainable while also conserving wildlands.
Tembisa’s award winning film “Ulwandle Lushile”
“My biggest focus is inclusion, but it's not necessarily only focused towards previously disadvantaged communities or business or potential business owners, but it's also open to society at large with particular focus on marginalized communities. I am very passionate about this subject matter, especially within the scientific space.
Her Research: Tembisa is planning a PhD that will focus on the economics of conservation, how to pay for conservation and, where possible, make it sustainable. She points out that while Southern Africa has policies and legal structures in place, the actual mechanisms for implementing a biodiversity economy are missing. The skills gaps, legal issues, and land ownership issues—rooted in Apartheid—make it a complex system to navigate.
She hopes her research will clarify these challenges for Southern Africa, “There are a lot of brilliant ideas, a lot of Western concepts that we are trying to superimpose onto Africa, but nothing is actually working because there's no consideration for the context.”
“I'm trying to make sure that the global South understands that we're already operating within a context. There's already things happening here. We just need to work together so that we can assist them to offset their own first world damage to the environment. It's not us who are doing the damage.”
“So my PhD is trying to address the perception that we don’t need to land grab in Africa to protect the environment. No, you need to offset the damage you've caused where you live by compensating us for safeguarding what we have protected for free.
“I'm not going to be reinventing any wheel. I'm just going to be saying how it really is. I hope I don't have a six-year PhD because of this!”
Films & Filmmaking: Through her work in film and as a filmmaker, she’s able to ensure that science is better understood and used, “My deepest concern is always how the information we work on as scientists translates to communities because we don't really focus a lot on that aspect. Whether it’s the decisions we are taking to government or how they're going to impact ordinary people.”
Working with Wild Oceans, she contributed to the Shark Under Attack movement and film. “It was a very important film because sharks are really easy targets. If you look at our ocean space and how contested it is for different activities and, with the pollution in our oceans and all of the fracking of our ocean floors, there's a lot going on that is threatening all of the big fish and the special habitats that are not even undiscovered in our oceans. And, a threat to sharks is a threat to a lot of marine life. We don't know what the cascading effects of losing that giant predator could be on the food chain, so it was a very important film and it got me into film.”
Now as a filmmaker herself, she’s made an award winning short film titled “Ulwandle Lushile, Meeting the Tides”
“It’s a Zulu term that the ladies use to say that the tide is low. It's a short film, narrating the journey of the women, traditional harvesters, going to the ocean to collect mussels for their families. It was my way of archiving that indigenous intrinsic knowledge that communities have of their ocean space and how they read the environmental cues to know when it's safe to go and harvest natural resources.”
“I think it did really well, and I'm glad that it was received well globally. It got second place at the Yale 360 Environment Contest, and it's archived on their website for life, which was a major win. It also got an award from Jackson Wild which is like the Oscars of natural history film.”
“It made me realize that my science doesn't have to only sit on a journal article paper. It can be translated into other forms of communication that can be used immediately by people and not be stuck somewhere in a library.”
Tembisa is working on four other film projects at the moment. “I think the most important one is an edutainment series, semi-animated, where I will personally be taking young people on a journey on our coastline. Hopefully that will be done throughout the African coastline. But my focus will just be South Africa now, to educate them and I want to see if it can somehow influence curriculum.”
Her Love for Ocean & Wildlife: “When I studied my natural sciences degree at Walter Sisulu University, I met with Professor Dr. Motebang Nakin, a very passionate, Black marine scientist. His passion and knowledge for marine space was really inspiring.”
“But before that, I had deep connections with the ocean in terms of my spirituality. I've always been a water baby. I'm always the one friends always have to wait for because I always pack a swimming costume, even if it's winter! My connection with the ocean was almost like the pieces of the puzzle holding it all together.”
“So, when Dr. Nakin used to take us out on our practicals, and as I saw the beautiful places of the Eastern Cape that were less than a hundred kilometers away from me, I started to realize that there's a lot about the world that I know nothing about.”
“I saw that I have a lot to learn and it was just more fascinating than terrestrial stuff, to be honest. And I realized that this is the space that I'm most challenged and I'm most comfortable in, but uncomfortable. So I felt as if I could grow, but also that I could make the biggest change in this space. I'm one of those people that in my life, everything that I do has to make a change, especially in Black people's lives, especially Black girls.”
How She Feels When Out in Nature: “Calm, self-actualized and rooted. It's the comparison between my life in the city compared to when I go into the wild. In the city, there's always a rush for something bigger, better. There's a lot of inadequacy around living in the city. There's a bigger car, there's a bigger house.”
“But when I'm in nature, I could be walking barefoot and everything is just exactly how I want it. And I feel whole. I feel as if I've achieved my goals. I feel like I'm exactly where I need to be. I feel like I'm on track. Yeah, I’m in the right profession!”
Rank hard work, curiosity, communication, and creativity in order of importance: “For me, it's not necessarily the order of importance, but it's the order that makes sense. Because if I were to put them according to the order of importance, they probably would all be number ones. But for me, it's a process flow. Curiosity is of utmost importance. Nothing can start without that. And then once you're curious, you need some element of creativity in order for you to devise where you want to take that. And, you can work hard, but if you're unable to communicate, I don't know how far your hard work is going to take you. So I think I'm going to put communication before hard work. And then I'll put hard work last, because I feel like we're glorifying hard work.”
What else is equally important: “I think you have to be tenacious. There's a lot of things that knock you back as a Black person in science, too many things. You receive a lot of microaggression in terms of your knowledge or your ability to present a certain topic or your understanding of a concept. You need tenacity to push through all of that.”
Her Scientific Superpowers: “My ability to connect with people. I generally make the statement, even when I work with my team, that I'm not good with people. But when I'm doing my job and when I'm co-creating with them, I connect with people very well. We both walk away inspired by whatever engagement we have. So I think I need to start embracing that I'm actually good with people.”
Her SuperScientist Name: Qhawekazi is an isiXhosa and isiZulu word meaning “heroine” or “brave woman” someone who stands up for people when others can’t or won’t. When it comes to issues of the enivronment and conservation, we need those brave people who will say “not on my watch” and do something about it.
Her Heroes: “That one is very easy for me. My hero is my grandmother. Her name is Mamsa Mnyele.”
“She's a very, very resilient woman, very loving, nurturing, and she traveled and spoke so many languages. She was a linguist. She could learn languages very easily. She was not a scientist. She worked in the medical space as a nursing assistant, but she did many things. She was a basketball player. She was among the first women to learn how to drive, and she taught many taxi drivers how to drive.”
“So yeah, so she's my hero. She's my only hero.”
Advice to young Africans who look up to her and other scientists: “My advice to them is not to look up to me too much. I need them to find their own voice in this field. Find inspiration in ordinary people who motivate you to do the science that you want to do. Because what we do, whether you are studying dolphins or sharks, we're doing it for society, whether you like it or not. So find inspiration in the people that you're doing this work for.”
“Because I think sometimes scientists can really mislead and I’d hate for my version of a career to mislead anyone. Think of it like passing the baton—take it, improve on it, challenge it, and make it yours. You must test existing theories. Trust your own voice.”
“If you have the drive to do it and you have the right kind of support around you, you just need the right head on your shoulders for you to achieve it.”
“So in essence, don't swallow everything hook, line, and sinker. You'll be able to find your own voice and make it yours. Take your dream and make it yours.”
Lessons Learned Throughout Career: “I've learned two lessons. One is that all the skills that you're amassing in your career are going be valuable at the end of the day, all of them. Whether it was learning how to deal with certain people in the workspace, or how to form a good work ethic, and how to deal with difficult situations in the workplace. Every single job I took contributed to the person that I am today. None of it was a waste of time.”
“The second one is, it's good that I didn't rush the PhD. I do have regrets about it sometimes, but I think for me as a Black person, it was very important that the last significant degree that I do has my own voice in it. So even though maybe I wanted to do it earlier, I'm glad that I decided to wait for the PhD to find me instead of chasing to do it when I was much younger. I'm glad that I'm set on something that I know I want to do my PhD on. And I think it's important that that has to be my voice.”
How have you bounced back from adversity: “My parents went through a messy divorce, and it affected my grades. My matric year was so average.”
She had dreams of becoming a pediatrician, but did not get the bursary for medical school. This pushed her toward the sciences instead
In university, Tembisa noticed that, “The ballgame changes completely. All the straight-A students that you used to see in high school suddenly become average students. And all the hard workers that used to study hard in high school suddenly become the ones who are actually comfortably cruising through university.”
“You don't have to be smart. You just need to be resilient and you need to be very inquisitive. It's a self-driving kind of experience.”
“It's just about using your resources well. The people and resources that you have at your disposal at university are there for a reason. And I made sure I used every single one of them. There's no such thing as being a teacher's pet in university.”
The role of Black people and communities in transforming the biodiversity sector - ensuring African voices are heard and valued: “I think our value systems with the environment are completely misunderstood in many different contexts.
“The history of forced removals and marginalization has shaped how Black people interact with nature, sometimes leaving them disconnected from it. In rural areas, environmental conservation is embedded in daily life—through sustainable herding, crop rotation, and resource use. Even in townships, practices like reusing supermarket plastics for multiple purposes reflect an ingrained environmental consciousness that isn’t always recognized as "green" because it doesn’t fit mainstream, socially accepted images of sustainability.”
She believes this disconnect is not just about personal responsibility but also about systemic issues, including a lack of representation and documentation. Black communities already engage in environmentally responsible behaviors, but these actions aren’t widely acknowledged or included in mainstream environmental narratives.
“If I were to address that subject matter, I would say there's no one answer to it. There's a lack of representation in terms of Black people households and how they're already green and how they operate. There's a lack of documentation in terms of how being displaced can also change the quality of your life.”
The connection between chef Tembisa and scientist Tembisa: “Oh, there's definitely a connection. It's a match made in the heavens. I think my friends could see it, and that's why they forced me to enter the MasterChef SA show. They intersect very well, very, very well.”
“Cooking, like science, also has a curious side to it that requires you to test a few things outside of the barriers of, can I, is mango a fruit, or can I put it in a salad, you know? So it needs that curiosity for you to try different things and to know when things would definitely not work.”
Common challenges she faces as a scientist, chef, storyteller, and filmmaker: “Barriers to entry. There are many barriers to entry in all of these fields. And it's almost as if they are cousins.”
“Barriers to entry and limited grant funding hinder small-scale, impactful projects that aim to drive meaningful change and build capacity in developing communities. There’s a need for sustainable models that can outlast NGOs and ensure lasting impact within these communities.
“To better address these issues, it’s important to have more people on the ground in the continent or appoint local experts who understand the context. This approach would improve understanding of grant and development mechanisms needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Allies should prioritize in-country representation and contextual knowledge before issuing calls or implementing programs, ensuring better alignment with African realities.”
Last words: “I think maybe the only element around my cooking that is kind of missing is the importance of preserving our indigenous food history or food culture, and therefore our indigenous seeds and grains. I'm in the process of working with a very exciting group at UCT that's working on seed sovereignty. It's a very important project about preserving our indigenous seeds and how that's actually something that could potentially deal with food security in the continent and the drive to just push forward African grains and substitute them with all of the colonial grains that are taking up a lot of natural resources, just balancing things out in other ways.
I'm not just trying to protect the environment. I'm also looking out to see what other ways can revolutionize our food space in order for it to also address conservation issues. So I literally live conservation in my other worlds as well. The food component is quite important to me.”
Thank you so much, Tembisa. We look forward to seeing what you do next!
Credit - Background image in card - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hluhluwe_green_hills_..._(47294082242).jpg