Sinethemba Shabalala was born in Durban, a warm and vibrant city off the coast of the Indian Ocean in South Africa. Although they bounced around from city to city, the one constant in their life was a love for music, dance, and culture. Having been born into a family of singers, dancers, and writers, Sinethemba has always shown a keen interest in literature, film, and performance art.

At the tender age of three, Sinethemba was already fond of entertaining fellow beachgoers through song and dance. This talent came in particularly handy when Sinethemba developed an interest in beauty pageants, a hobby they started at eight years old and committed to well into their teenage years. In the seventh grade, they were afforded the opportunity to participate in the Rock Challenge South Africa, an anti-drug and anti-crime campaign that took the form of a friendly performing arts competition. At the beginning of high school, they began studying dramatic arts and discovered their love for the arts extended to thespianism. Not long after, Sinethemba appeared in the ecomusical, The Indaba Tree, which was penned and performed to raise awareness of the importance of green space in the city of Pietermaritzburg.

This was just the beginning of Sinthemba’s involvement in the community. Though she had already joined and initiated several choirs and smaller singing groups, it wasn't until 2009 that Sinethemba was welcomed into the Y-Arts program hosted by the Pietermaritzburg branch of the YMCA South Africa where they co-founded a dance group and helped inspire more young women to join the program. Eventually, Sinethemba joined a performing arts high school where they were introduced to philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir, through the Dramatic Arts.

This knowledge later served as a gateway to spirituality and the occult. Sinethemba majored in Contemporary Dance in Dance Studies and began training in Theatre Dance. After completing high school, Sinethemba moved to Johannesburg to complete their tertiary studies in Language Practice and Applied Linguistics at the University of Johannesburg. This choice was inspired by the desire to create a unique set of skills and knowledge that would lay the foundation for their future success.

In their first year at the University of Johannesburg, they were named the 7th Overall Top Achiever of the First Years. In 2018, they became a member of the prestigious honour society, UJenius, and the Golden Key International Honour Society. While pursuing their language studies, Sinethemba never gave up on their artistic dreams. They continued working part-time as a dancer in various corporate entertainment events, recorded and released several musical projects, and started a blog on self-development, holistic healing, and spirituality. At the end of their third year, they were offered a position as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Languages and Applied Linguistics. The pandemic of 2020 led to a career pivot into the field of EdTech and Learning Design. Since then, Sinethemba has worked as a TEFL instructor, translator, and instructional designer.

In conclusion, Sinethemba is a multitalented individual with a hunger for knowledge and a passion for culture. From performance art to philosophy and linguistics, Sinethemba’s journey has been nothing short of extraordinary, endowing them with a rare mix of skills and experience that prove to be invaluable, especially in the field of art and entertainment. Sinethemba hopes to travel and indulge in the various rich cultures and subcultures of the world, not only to learn from them but also to share their own culture with them as an African born into a world where their history, culture, and contribution to the world has been erased, uprooted, or diminished. Sinethemba’s dream is to leave a shining legacy of their own that inspires other gifted African children to explore all their talents and use them to make the world a better place.