Image: Zinzi (left) with her husband Matthew and daughters Khaya (6) and Litha (3) on a family vacation at Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 2022.
Zinzi Kellen (she/her/hers) grew up in a left-handed, Black, and female household. It wasn’t until she stepped outside of that environment, that she realized that she lived in a right-handed, white, and male-dominated world.
Zinzi was born and raised in Kimberley, South Africa during the apartheid regime as the youngest of four sisters and was brought up by her mother, a teacher. Her father, who passed away when she was young, was an activist and freedom fighter. Growing up in a Black neighborhood while going to a predominantly white school, she witnessed the stark difference between the two worlds.
“I knew people who lived in corrugated iron shacks, who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, and I also knew people who had private jets and holiday homes with butlers,” shares Zinzi. “South Africa is one of the most diverse countries and that just goes to show that diversity does not mean equity, because South Africa is also one of the most unequal places to live, still today.”
Navigating between those worlds helped prepare Zinzi for her journey from South Africa all the way to Washington. She worked in various nonprofits in South Africa that focused primarily on program management work in grassroots health and education organizations, and found she was naturally drawn to serving her community. While studying at Rhodes University, Zinzi met her now-husband, who is originally from Spokane. They decided to make their way to Washington, where Zinzi found herself in a completely different environment once again. She worked as a Program Assistant at Gonzaga University, then as the Assistant Director of the Center for Community Engagement.
“Coming from a diverse country, you learn to be humble and to read the space and the people there and be respectful of their culture,” she says. “I feel that translates here because there’s different Tribes, different races, different ethnicities in Washington, and so you understand how to get to know the people in the room for who they are, and the stories that they bring.”
Through her community engagement work, Zinzi started to learn about Inatai Foundation, who she says, “speaks the same language I was speaking.” Inatai Foundation mirrors her values, as she believes that community members are the experts of their own lives. Centering community stories is the work she’s most excited about in joining Inatai as a Strategy & Impact Associate. In this role, she provides administrative, project management, and strategy support to the foundation’s Strategy & Impact department, which is responsible for stewarding Inatai’s long-term vision.
“I grew up grounded in the philosophy of Ubuntu, which is that we are all part of one community, and we look after each other,” she shares.
It is this philosophy that’s responsible for her emotional connection to Washington, despite being born thousands of miles away. Her guiding principle of interconnectedness, of seeing what connects us more than what divides us, is responsible for the emotional ties that have formed between herself, her family, and their home of Spokane.
Although Zinzi’s father did not live to see the end of the apartheid regime, his legacy undoubtedly carries on through his children, especially Zinzi.
“I think he would be very proud that I’m working here,” she says. “He died before South Africans were free, and I feel like my visceral connection to Inatai is a nod to him.”
