Pumelela Nqelenga

Pumelela Nqelenga, a South African theatre practitioner and Lecturer at the University of Cape Town's Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies, specializes in Contemporary Nguni Performance, Site-Specific Performance, and the role of the Black Female Body in Performance. She has lectured at Rhodes University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal on topics including Oral Poetry in South African Contemporary Theatre.

Educational Background:

• Masters in Drama (Contemporary Performance), Rhodes University (2015), with Distinction
• Honours Degree in Drama (Physical Theatre, Applied Theatre, Contemporary Theatre)
• Bachelor of Journalism and Media Studies (Television and New Media)

Nqelenga's research focuses on decolonial performance practices, particularly the intersection of Nguni cultural traditions with contemporary theatrical forms and the socio-political implications of Black female embodiment in performance spaces. Her work bridges academic inquiry with professional practice through site-specific performances and interdisciplinary collaborations.

As an interdisciplinary practitioner, she has performed in award-winning national and international festival productions since 2008, directed/choreographed student works at UKZN Pietermaritzburg, and curated the 2020 decolonial Site-Specific performance of Aimé Césaire's Return to My Native for UKZN's Decoloniality Summer School. She briefly served as Acting Director of the Hexagon Theatre in 2020.