Roots of Wisdom
An Indigenous Journey of Self-Discovery for young adults, 21–35
An indigenous-rooted approach to self-discovery and personal growth. Over twelve months, you go back to where you come from, understand what you carry, and build your career or business from solid ground. Tap into your roots, unlock your potential, and come home to yourself, whole and self-accepting.
- Begins 15 November 2026
- 12 places
- 12 months
- Opening retreat 29–31 Jan 2027
- Two 3-day retreats
- Online monthly sessions
Sankofa.
La Siphuma Khona.
Go back and fetch what you left behind.
The method
Sankofa is about going back to review your life so you can move forward on purpose. We look at your family: its history, its patterns, its wounds, and how colonial history moved through it. We look at your schooling and the beliefs you formed about your own intelligence. We look at your name, your role in your family, your friendships and your personality.
Then we turn forward. You test your gifts in real life, position yourself for the work you want, or start the business you've been carrying in you, with a group and a coach holding you through it.
Who it's for
For ambitious young adults who want solid ground under their ambition
- You're ambitious. You want to grow in your career, build a business, or both, and you sense your foundation in who you are isn't as strong as your drive.
- You carry anger and resentment towards your family. You know it isn't healthy, you don't want to carry it into your adult years, and you're ready to understand where it comes from.
- You feel there's a lot you don't know about your family: where you come from, who came before you, and why things are the way they are.
- Your family carries trauma, and you're ready to look at what it holds.
- You feel a deep responsibility for your family and want support so it doesn't become a weight you carry alone.
- You want a stronger sense of who you are: your personal, cultural and indigenous identity.
- You're carrying an old story about yourself from school or home, and part of you suspects it isn't true.
- You're at a crossroads: back to studies, a new direction, or something of your own.
- You want to do this work now, so you don't keep going back to fix things later.
- You want to do life differently. You've tried on your own for the past three to five years without the change, career progress or meaningful results you hoped for, and you're ready to be guided.
- You're willing to implement. You're open to learning, studying and reading, and to challenging yourself emotionally and mentally.
The year
From gathering at home to returning changed
December is when people go home and family gathers, so the journey begins there. Two in-person retreats hold the year together; monthly online sessions carry you between them.
- 15 NovOnline · Onboarding
Sankofa begins
Onboarding for the whole programme: why the year is structured the way it is, and exactly what happens in December. You receive your personal journal and the Family History Collection workbook.
- DecAt home · No-contact month
Gathering
No sessions. You'll have practical tasks and activities to do with your family: nothing formal, designed to be fun and intentional, and to draw out the stories, names and answers we carry into the January retreat. If questions come up, you can still reach Nomveliso.
- JanIn person · 29–31 January 2027
Opening retreat: Soul Recharge
The first part of integration: put down what December surfaced. Zazi and the Inimba Birthpath. Then prepare for the year ahead, craft your vision and choose your first 90-day test.
- FebOnline
Family Dynamics
Lineage, patterns across generations, and how to ask your family hard questions with care.
- MarOnline
Indigenous Identity & Cultural Grounding
Your name, how you were born, your role in your family, your cultural identity.
- AprOnline
Intellectual Growth
What really happened at school, what you came to believe about your intelligence, and whether to study again.
- MayOnline
Emotional Intelligence
Self-esteem, emotional well-being, your friendships and top five, and managing yourself.
- Jun–JulIntegration
A pause to live it
No group sessions. You carry out your second test in real life, with a mid-year one-on-one review in July.
- AugOnline · with a career coach
Self-Leadership: Career
Skills mining, career paths and positioning yourself for the jobs you want.
- SepOnline · with a career coach
Self-Leadership: Entrepreneurship
What your family history says about the entrepreneur in you, and piloting your idea.
- OctIn person · 3 days
Closing retreat
Bring the year together across every pillar, share your identity statement and your plan for family, and graduate.
Five Pillars
Self-discovery is not one thing
It's a combination of five areas that shape how you grow, each looked at backwards first, then forwards.
Family Dynamics
Parents, siblings, history, patterns, trauma, and a conscious relationship with family that works for you.
Indigenous Identity
Your name, your birth, your place in the family, your cultural grounding.
Intellectual Growth
Your formal education reviewed with fresh eyes, and the path you choose now.
Emotional Intelligence
Well-being, self-esteem, personality, and the people you keep close.
Self-Leadership
Vision, gifts tested in real life, and a career or business built from who you are.
Investment
One programme, one price, both retreats included
- Opening retreat, 29–31 January 20273 days
- Closing retreat, October3 days
- Monthly online group sessions8 months
- Individual reviews at set points through the yearIncluded
- Personality profile and skills mappingIncluded
- Workbooks for each stageIncluded
- Private one-on-one coachingBooked separately
Retreat location (Johannesburg or East London) is confirmed once the cohort is set.
Full programme
R53,000
| Registration fee Your personal journal, assessments and the gathering of your history: past assessments and school reports | R1,500 |
| Deposit on enrolment Secures your place and the retreat venue | R8,000 |
| Balance of R45,000, paid your way: | |
| Monthly, November to October | 12 × R3,750 |
| Quarterly: Nov, Feb, May, Aug | 4 × R11,250 |
| Once-off on enrolment | R45,000 |
| Programme fee | R53,000 |
The registration fee is separate from the programme fee. The deposit is non-refundable once the venue is booked. Monthly and quarterly payments are by a signed 12-month agreement.
“I discovered most of who I am between the ages of 19 and 25, and I did it intentionally. The person I am today was birthed through the choices I made then: to set out to understand my family more broadly, its traumas, what made me angry, what made me sad and what confused me, until I had a bigger picture that helped me make a core decision about who I wanted to be in my family.”
Your facilitator
Nomveliso Mbanga
Indigenous Identity Strategist™ and founder of Mayine Development Institute. Nomveliso did this work herself between 19 and 25, and has spent more than 30 years working with young people and families. Roots of Wisdom is her own journey, structured so you don't have to walk it alone.
- Over 30 years working with young people and families
- Founder of Mayine Development Institute, operating since 2015
- 20+ residential camps and retreats facilitated
- Creator of an ICF-accredited, indigenous-based methodology, trademarked in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and the United States
- Programme design and candidate selection experience at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation
How to join
Twelve places. The cohort begins on 15 November 2026.
Send an email
Email Nomveliso with the subject “Roots of Wisdom”. You'll receive the booking information in reply.
Readiness conversation
A one-on-one call with Nomveliso to check the fit, for you and for the group.
Register
Pay the R1,500 registration fee and share your past assessments and school reports.
Secure your place
Pay the R8,000 deposit, choose monthly, quarterly or once-off for the balance, and sign your agreement. We begin on 15 November.
To enrol, send an email
Subject line: Roots of Wisdom. In your email, include your full name, age, the city you live in, and a few lines on why you want to do this work now.