I Am Because We Are, and Since We Are, Therefore I Am - Ubuntu African Philosophy
Healing is not only an individual journey—it is a collective practice.
Our Mission
AbantuLives is a mental wellbeing initiative that supports organisations, communities and individuals to navigate the emotional realities of our time through culturally grounded, trauma-informed and community-centered approaches.
We believe many of today’s mental health challenges cannot be separated from the broader systems in which people live. Migration, inequities, historical and ongoing injustice, burnout, exclusion, identity, reproductive journeys, intergenerational trauma and social fragmentation all shape how people experience themselves and one another.
At AbantuLives we are bridge building and practicing healing by working across five areas:
Collective Care & Organisational Wellbeing – Supporting healthier workplaces, sustainable leadership and cultures of care.
Migration, Identity & Belonging – Co-creating spaces to explore displacement, home, identity and social cohesion.
Individual Wellbeing – Providing culturally responsive, trauma informed counselling to support psychological and emotional wellbeing.
Creative & Community Practice – Facilitating impact film/documentary screenings and dialogue, storytelling, music, craft and other creative approaches to deepen reflection and healing.
Infertility Counselling – A space to hold grief, identity, and hope when the world does not know how to hold you.
Our vision is to contribute to a future where wellbeing is understood not simply as the absence of illness, but as the presence of dignity, belonging, meaningful relationships and communities capable of caring for self and one another.
About Us
Our Approach
Grounded in our Ubuntu Mental Health Framework we explore what it means to live heal and belong as Africans and African-Diaspora communities navigating complex global realities. We offer counselling, group programmes, and organisational wellbeing services. Our work integrates African Indigenous Knowledge Systems with contemporary psychological practices. Through a process of collaboration, co-creation, and accompaniment our mission is to cultivate spaces in which mental wellbeing is not only an individual journey but also the collective responsibility of our communities.
Our services include:
Healing Our Be-Ing & Reconnecting Roots
Tendai Chisirimunhu Kathemba
Welcome, Mauya! My name is Tendai, translated my name means ‘ be thankful’ therefore gratitude is one of my core values l try to embody and live by daily.
I am the founder of AbantuLives, a collective care and culturally grounded wellbeing practice that reimagines mental health through African philosophies, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, creativity and community.
I am also a mental health practitioner, facilitator, researcher and story listener. Rather than viewing wellbeing solely through an individual and/or clinical lens, my work explores how histories and systems shape human flourishing.
Originally from Zimbabwe, my current home is South Africa, my own lived experience of migration has influenced my practice. Having spent over two decades navigating questions of identity, belonging, legality, home and displacement, I understand that wellbeing is connected to our systemic, social, cultural and political realities.
I hold a Master of Social Sciences in Psychology from the University of South Africa, where my research focused on social support as resilience building mechanisms to support mental health among sexually and gender-diverse individuals living in Cape Town, South Africa. I also hold an honors degree in psychology, bachelor’s degree in communication science, bachelor’s degree in health sciences and social services. I am a registered Specialist Wellness Counsellor (SWC18/357), an ETDP SETA Accredited Facilitator and a Film Impact Facilitator trained through the University of Cape Town and Sunshine Cinema.
I am a global Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity (AFHESA), an Obama Africa Leader and a YALI alumna, and I have contributed to local and international conversations on Indigenous Knowledge Systems, collective care, dementia, migration, health equity and culturally responsive approaches to wellbeing. I have also presented internationally on bridging African Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Western understandings of brain health and dementia.
Through AbantuLives, I work with organisations, communities and individuals to co-create spaces where difficult conversations become opportunities for reflection, connection and collective action. My practice combines counselling, facilitation, documentary dialogue, storytelling, creative arts and embodied practices to support healing that is relational rather than purely individual.
My work is particularly interested in:
Resilience Science
Collective Care
Belonging and Identity
Migration and Diaspora Wellbeing
Trauma-Informed Practice
Intergenerational and Collective Trauma
African Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Organisational Wellbeing
Womanhood, Fertility and Invisible Grief
Creative and Participatory Approaches to Healing
I believe that many of today’s wellbeing challenges cannot be understood through psychology alone. They require us to ask deeper questions about history, power, identity, community and what it means to belong.
My work is guided by a simple conviction:
Healing is not only an individual journey—it is a collective practice.
Please contact us today for a consultation, no obligations!
Make an appointment
Collective Care for Healing, Belonging and Wellbeing
AbantuLives offers culturally rooted counselling, facilitation and collective-care programmes for individuals, communities and organisations.
Contact us today for a professional consultation.
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