Narratives That Shape Policy. Stories That Shape Justice.
Truthful claims. Informed decisions. Just transitions.
Isango Lencubeko advances truthful, evidence-based communication in climate, jobs, and development — reshaping the stories, voices, and lived realities that inform policy-making across Africa.
Truth in Public Space
Challenging misleading claims & narratives
Democratic Consent
Communities shaping their own futures
Climate Integrity
Aligned with African justice priorities
"We believe policy is never neutral. Behind every law, transition plan, and development framework is a narrative about whose lives matter, whose knowledge counts, and whose future is imagined."
— Isango Lencubeko Manifesto
Our Foundation
Purpose & Promise
OUR PURPOSE
Advancing Truthful Narratives
We advance truthful, evidence-based communication in climate, jobs, and development narratives to strengthen democratic decision-making and accountable governance across Africa.
OUR PROMISE
Equipping Communities
We challenge misleading claims, equip communities with knowledge and tools, and support municipalities to ensure public information serves the public interest — not extractive agendas.
What We Do
Four Campaign Pillars
01
⚖️
Loss & Damage
Documenting the lived realities of women and children impacted by fossil fuel extraction, land dispossession, and water insecurity — and advancing reparative frameworks.
Explore Campaign
02
🌱
Food Sovereignty
Building sustainable urban food systems through mobile food gardens and community-led agricultural resilience — transforming rooftops and small plots into thriving food hubs.
Explore Campaign
03
🏛️
Indigenous Voices
Amplifying African spiritual healers, naturalists, and indigenous knowledge holders in just energy transition conversations — centring living knowledge in policy design.
Explore Campaign
04
📢
Strategic Communication
Confronting greenwashing in fossil fuel advertising and policy narratives. Advancing honest, community-informed climate communication and advertising accountability.
Explore Programme
4
Campaign Pillars
500+
Community Members Engaged
8+
Policy Submissions
2024
Established in SA
Who We Are
Centering African Voices in Policy
For too long, African communities have been excluded from the narratives that define development, energy transition, land access, and environmental justice.
Isango Lencubeko exists to centre lived experiences, indigenous wisdom, and grassroots realities in policy conversations shaping Africa's future — through strategic communication, research, advocacy, and storytelling.
Truth in Public SpaceDemocratic ConsentEconomic AccountabilityClimate Integrity
"Isango Lencubeko is not only a think tank. It is a narrative intervention platform documenting how communities experience extraction, climate injustice, food insecurity, and transition."
— Positioning Statement
HOW WE WORK
▸Research & Evidence Production
▸Storytelling & Documentary Media
▸Strategic Communications
▸Policy Advocacy & Engagement
▸Community Mobilisation
▸Narrative Change
Join the Narrative Shift
Receive research updates, campaign stories, publications, and advocacy opportunities from Isango Lencubeko.
We believe narratives are powerful political tools. The stories society tells about land, energy, development, and progress shape whose voices matter and whose realities remain invisible.
"Isango Lencubeko exists to centre lived experiences, indigenous wisdom, and grassroots realities in policy conversations shaping Africa's future."
— Isango Lencubeko Mission Statement
Isango Lencubeko
Policy Narratives Think Tank · Est. 2024 · Johannesburg, South Africa
Our Direction
Vision & Mission
Vision
An Africa Shaped by Community Realities
An Africa where policy is informed by community realities, indigenous wisdom, ecological justice, and locally owned futures — where no transition leaves communities behind.
Mission
Advancing Equitable Policy Narratives
To advance equitable and community-centred policy narratives through storytelling, research, strategic communication, and grassroots engagement across South Africa and the African continent.
What Drives Us
Our Guiding Values
⚖️
Justice
We pursue structural transformation, not incremental reform. Climate and development impacts reproduce existing inequalities and must be addressed at the root.
🤝
Community
Those most affected must be architects of the solutions. Every programme is co-designed with the communities whose lives are shaped by the policies we challenge.
🔍
Truth-telling
We advance honest, evidence-based communication and challenge misleading narratives in fossil fuel advertising, greenwashing, and public policy spaces.
🌿
Indigenous Knowledge
Indigenous and traditional knowledge systems are equal partners to scientific frameworks — living, actionable, and urgently relevant to building just futures.
How We Work
Our Methodology
01
Research & Evidence
Community-documented research, policy briefs, and evidence reports that centre African lived realities in policy conversations.
02
Storytelling & Documentary
Cinematic and visual storytelling that humanises policy conversations and gives visibility to invisible communities and realities.
03
Strategic Communications
Confronting greenwashing, challenging misleading narratives, and building public understanding of climate and development justice.
04
Policy Advocacy
Direct engagement with policy processes at national, regional, and international levels to embed community realities in formal frameworks.
05
Community Engagement
On-the-ground mobilisation, training, and dialogue processes that build community capacity to engage policy spaces.
06
Narrative Change
Long-term shifts in how land, energy, development, and transition are framed in public discourse, media, and institutional communication.
Who We Work With
Partnerships & Collaborators
We collaborate with NGOs, academic institutions, climate justice coalitions, community organisations, and media partners who share our commitment to equitable African futures.
UNFCCC
Umphakatsi Peace Ecovillage
African Climate Alliance
Loss & Damage Collaboration
Rural Communities Network
Food Sovereignty SA
Want to Collaborate?
We welcome partnerships with organisations, researchers, and community groups who share our vision.
Campaigns & Programmes
Four Pillars of Narrative Justice
We document community realities, build food systems, amplify indigenous knowledge, and confront misleading narratives — always with African communities at the centre.
01
Campaign
Loss & Damage
Stories of Extraction, Displacement, and Survival. The impacts of fossil fuel extraction are not evenly distributed — we document how women and children experience land dispossession, water insecurity, and environmental degradation.
Documenting water contamination and access inequality in mining-affected communities
Advocating for inclusive land access policies and gender-responsive climate justice
Community-owned renewable energy systems as reparative frameworks
Direct community access to international Loss & Damage finance mechanisms
Advocacy Positions
Inclusive land access policies
Community-centred renewable energy ownership
Gender-responsive climate justice frameworks
Accountability for environmental harm
Reparative approaches to loss & damage
Direct FRLD community access
Programme Components
Mobile food garden training
Urban sustainability methods
Economic sustainability through produce sales
Community nutrition & school feeding
Container & rooftop growing systems
Umphakatsi Peace Ecovillage partnership
02
Campaign
Food Sovereignty
Growing Food, Dignity, and Community Resilience. For over two years, Isango Lencubeko has worked with communities to establish accessible food-growing systems — responding to food insecurity, unemployment, and urban spatial inequality.
Training communities to build adaptable food systems in small urban spaces
Rooftop and container garden installation across Johannesburg
Supporting household food production and nutritional security
Integration with local school nutrition programmes
03
Campaign
Indigenous Voices
Reclaiming Indigenous Wisdom in the Just Energy Transition. African indigenous practitioners, healers, and naturalists hold deep ecological knowledge systems that are excluded from climate and energy policy conversations — we create space for them to lead.
Amplifying spiritual healers and traditional ecological practitioners in policy spaces
Indigenous understandings of land, spirituality, nature, and collective wellbeing
Oral history documentation and ancestral knowledge preservation
Annual Colloquium: Indigenizing Climate Change
Key Themes
Indigenous ecological knowledge systems
Spirituality and climate justice
Community-led development futures
Oral histories as policy evidence
Traditional ecological calendars
Youth & elder knowledge bridges
Partner with Our Campaigns
Collaborate on advocacy, contribute research, or fund community programmes.
Research & Publications
Knowledge for Community Justice
Policy briefs, research reports, op-eds, community evidence, and advocacy toolkits — a growing digital knowledge hub rooted in African lived realities.
Featured Publication
Community Access to Loss & Damage Finance: A Guide for African Communities
The Fund for Responding to Loss & Damage is operational — but access barriers prevent most affected communities from receiving support. This brief outlines what communities must push for at COP30 and beyond.
Documentary films, community profiles, photo essays, and stories humanising the policy conversations that shape African lives and futures.
Documentary Stories
Community in Action
Video-first storytelling that centres the women, communities, and knowledge holders whose realities must shape policy. These stories are evidence. They are also hope.
2026
💧
Documentary
The Water Beneath the Mine
Communities living downstream from a platinum mine share testimonies of contaminated water, declining crops, and unanswered demands for accountability.
A visual journey through Johannesburg's peri-urban mobile food gardens — rooftops, repurposed containers, and courtyards turned into community food systems.
Photo EssayView →
2025
🏛️
Documentary
Energy Transition Through Indigenous Eyes
South African sangomas, naturalists, and indigenous ecological practitioners speak about renewable energy, land sovereignty, and what just transitions must mean.
Challenging the Narrative: SA's Fossil Fuel Advertising
A look at Isango Lencubeko's greenwashing accountability work — monitoring misleading fossil fuel advertising and building a case for regulatory reform.
Community members from Gauteng, Limpopo, and the Eastern Cape speak directly to COP negotiators about what loss, damage, and transition mean on the ground.
Narratives influence public understanding, policy decisions, investment priorities, and climate accountability. We confront misleading narratives while advancing transparent, community-informed communication.
What We Do
Our Focus Areas
🔍
Greenwashing Accountability
Monitoring misleading fossil fuel advertising and corporate climate narratives. Building evidence bases for regulatory reform and advertising accountability.
📋
Policy Advocacy
Advocating for by-law reform and advertising accountability standards that protect communities from misleading claims about energy, climate, and development.
📊
Narrative Research
Studying how language and media framing shape climate policy, public understanding, and whose voices are centred in development conversations.
🎓
Public Education
Building public understanding of climate communication, greenwashing tactics, and how communities can identify and challenge misleading narratives.
Our Advocacy Goals
Communication Must Serve the Public
▸Clear and honest advertising standards across energy and development sectors
▸Climate communication accountability for corporations and governments
▸Stronger public-interest communication policy and regulation
▸Community-centred narrative development and media production
MANIFESTO STATEMENT
"Isango Lencubeko exists to challenge extractive narratives and build new stories rooted in justice, dignity, memory, ecology, and collective futures."
— Isango Lencubeko
Challenge a Narrative Together
Media partnerships, research collaboration, and joint advocacy on communication accountability.
Events
Join the Conversation
Colloquia, community dialogues, policy workshops, and public lectures — spaces for learning, networking, and building the relationships that drive change.
Upcoming
Upcoming Events
No upcoming events at the moment — check back soon, or see past events alongside.
14
Jun
Annual Colloquium
Indigenizing Climate Change: Knowledge, Power & Policy
📍 Johannesburg, SA🕐 09:00–17:00👥 Open Registration
Register →
28
Jun
Community Workshop
Mobile Farming Training: Rooftop & Container Gardens
📍 Soweto Community Centre🕐 10:00–15:00👥 Limited Spaces
Register →
12
Jul
Policy Dialogue
Loss & Damage Finance: Community Access Forum
📍 Cape Town + Online🕐 13:00–16:00👥 Free Admission
RSVP →
18
Jul
Webinar Series
African Climate Priorities for COP30: Community Voices
📍 Online (Zoom)🕐 15:00–17:00 SAST👥 Free
Join →
02
Aug
Youth Programme
Young Climate Advocates: Policy Engagement Bootcamp
📍 Johannesburg🕐 Full Day👥 Ages 18–30
Apply →
Past Events
Food Sovereignty Policy Roundtable
March 2026 · Pretoria
NDC Community Review Workshop
February 2026 · Durban
COP29 Community Debrief Webinar
December 2025 · Online
Greenwashing Monitor Launch
November 2025 · Johannesburg
Umphakatsi Food Sovereignty Day
October 2025 · Soweto
Want to host an event with Isango Lencubeko or invite us to speak?
Get Involved
Join the Work of Narrative Justice
Whether you are a community member, researcher, funder, journalist, or advocate — there is a place for you in the work of Isango Lencubeko.
Ways to Engage
How You Can Contribute
🤝
Partner With Us
Organisations aligned with our mission can collaborate on campaigns, co-produce research, and amplify community advocacy. Formal and informal partnerships across sectors welcome.
Explore Partnership →
🔬
Research Collaboration
Academics and independent researchers can collaborate on community-led research, co-author policy briefs, and contribute to our knowledge hub on climate justice and African advocacy.
Collaborate →
📢
Media Partnerships
Collaborative storytelling, journalism, and documentary production. Invite us to speak at your institution, event, or community gathering. Visibility drives narrative change.
Request a Speaker →
🌱
Community Members
If you are a community affected by climate impacts, land dispossession, or food insecurity — your lived experience is our most important resource for shaping effective advocacy.
Share Your Story →
🎓
Join Our Team
We open positions for policy researchers, community organisers, and communications professionals who share our commitment to justice-oriented narrative change.
View Opportunities →
📅
Attend Our Events
Join our colloquia, workshops, community dialogues, and webinars — spaces for learning, networking, and building the knowledge that drives change across Africa.
See Upcoming Events →
Support Our Work
Fund Community-Led Narrative Justice
Your contribution directly supports community advocacy, storytelling, research, and the Annual Colloquium on Indigenizing Climate Change.
R250
R500
R1,000
R5,000
Custom
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Contact
Let's Build Something Together
Whether you're a community, partner, researcher, journalist, or advocate — we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to join the movement for narrative justice in Africa.
