Podcast: Fighting to be seen with Sihle
Published: 11/Jul/2025
Source: Global Voices
When you are stateless, the question of ‘where you are from’ takes on a whole new meaning
“Where Are You REALLY From?” is a podcast series from Global Voices that emerged from a panel at the December 2024 Global Voices summit in Nepal, where members of the Global Voices community shared their experiences of dealing with other people’s perceptions about their diverse and complex origin stories. In each episode, we invite our guests to reflect on the assumptions that lie behind the question, “But where are you really from?” and how they respond.
The podcast is hosted by Akwe Amosu, who works in the human rights sector after an earlier career in journalism and is also a coach and a poet. She is a co-chair of the Global Voices board. She’s in conversation with Sihle Nxumalo, a former stateless person who is now part of the leadership of the Global Movement against Statelessness.
The transcript of this episode has been edited for clarity.
Akwe Amosu (AA): Hello and welcome to Where Are You Really From? A podcast that explores identities. I’m Akwe Amosu, and today I’m speaking to Sihle Nxumalo. Excuse me for mispronouncing your name, Sihle.
Sihle Nxumalo (SN): You pronounced it correctly.
AA: Thank you.
SN: Thank you for having me. Thank you for that kindness.
AA: So, Sihle, why do people ask you this question? Where are you really from?
SN: It’s because I was born in Durban, South Africa, and I was given away to foster care in a different province, the Limpopo province in South Africa. And growing up, I couldn’t really speak the local language that well. And so people were curious as to why I could not speak the local language that well. And so they would want to know where I’m from, where I live. But then they’ll be like, no, where are you really from? Because you don’t speak the language, so you can’t be really from here. And so that’s why people would normally ask that question.
Read further: https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/11/podcast-fighting-to-be-seen-with-sihle/