Nonkululeko Tabata
Embedded Files
Director of Community Wealth Building, Nexus Community Partners
Conference Participation
Lightning Round II: Impact of Government and Community Interventions
on Reducing Inequality
Paper: Reclaiming Collective Courage: Black Cooperative Histories and the Future of Ownership
Abstract: This presentation explores cooperative and shared ownership as rooted alternatives to extractive economic systems. What is often framed as “new” is grounded in long histories of collective survival and resistance in Black communities, from mutual aid societies to freedom farms to cooperative enterprises built in response to exclusion and harm. This work reclaims those traditions and carries them forward.
Drawing from the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship, this session highlights how leaders practice economic democracy through shared governance, community ownership, and collective care. It centers political education and storytelling as tools to name systems and reconnect to ways of organizing that have always existed.
This is not just theory, but a pathway toward dignity, self determination, and community controlled futures rooted in justice and liberation.
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Biography: Nonkululeko “Nkuli” Shongwe is a strategist, movement builder, and cooperative enthusiast with a deep commitment to resourcing and strengthening community-led initiatives. Born in South Africa and rooted in St. Paul, Minnesota, Nkuli brings a global and deeply personal perspective to her work. Her experiences in philanthropy, grassroots organizing, and cooperative economics have shaped a practice grounded in equity, sustainability, and community power. Nkuli currently serves as the Community Wealth Building Director at Nexus Community Partners, where she leads the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship. This space supports Black-led cooperatives and collectives through political education, legacy reclamation, and strategies centered on liberation. Nkuli also serves on the board of Taproot Investment Cooperative, is an interim board member of Collective Diaspora, and is a working board member supporting fundraising efforts for Khula Unqobe Creative Arts, a cultural youth organization in South Africa. Her work is deeply rooted in the values of mutual aid, democratic ownership, and collective liberation. When she’s not organizing or building with others, Nkuli finds joy in cooking, reading, and taking peaceful walks by the water.
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