Bukiwe Tiyane Overcomes Loss to Realise Academic Dreams

Photo Credit: Nelson Mandela University via Facebook

Losing a mother is enough to turn just about anyone’s life upside down. Enduring that grief while raising her children, supporting her nephew and studying full-time under challenging circumstances demanded unparalleled perseverance – something Bukiwe Tiyane practised every single day to become the rising scholar she is today.

Eastern Cape, South Africa (06 May 2025) – Best described as a phoenix who has risen from the ashes, Bukiwe Tiyane is an inspiring South African woman who has picked herself from the depths of loss and the struggles of single-parenting to realise her academic dreams.

Despite losing her mother while raising her two sons and nephew in a shack, Bukiwe is beaming today as a recent master’s graduate of Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and a top achiever in the Faculty of Humanities.

Her days were marked by full-time studies while juggling three young boys, often leaving her both drained and on the verge of quitting.

“The past few years were the most difficult time of my life because of the responsibility I had to bear without funding or a stable source of income,” Bukiwe tells NMU.

But her desire to see her studies through and make her mark in the research of the empowerment of women and children in literature, particularly isiXhosa, kept her going.

Her work highlights that isiXhosa literature plays a vital role in depicting female experiences and that it not only portrays the challenges faced by women and girls but also showcases the power they hold in controlling their lives.

Hailing from the village of Ndibela in Mthatha, Bukiwe was drawn to language and literature from an early age.

A significant part of Bukiwe’s research is the belief that analysing isiXhosa texts that empower women gives hope to readers, showing them that they, too, can change their lives if they find themselves in a situation similar to the characters’.

As a leading and inspiring character in her own real-life story, we’re inspired by Bukiwe’s tenacity to overcome adverse obstacles in her journey to becoming the force and intellectual she is today, inspiring many other young women on their individual paths to realising their dreams.

Now a PhD candidate, Bukiwe aspires to contribute to language development in academic spaces to preserve African languages through both writing and teaching.