The Writing Coach Podcast 26: Decolonizing science writing with Sibusiso Biyela

Meet Sibusiso Biyela, a South African science communicator and journalist interested in decolonize science communication using indigenous languages. Don’t worry, I don’t speak science, so we’re talking mostly about language, storytelling, politics.

Sibs normally writes in English. He recently completed a story about a newly discovered dinosaur species in his mother tongue, Zulu, which doesn’t have a word for “dinosaur.” As you’ll learn, it’s not a language normally used for communicating science, but he was up for the challenge.

Click to listen to episode 26 of the Writing Coach Podcast:

WCP26 Decolonizing science writing with Sibusiso Biyela

Meet Sibusiso Biyela, a South African science communicator and journalist interested in decolonize science communication using indigenous languages. Don’t worry, I don’t speak science, so we’re talking mostly about language, storytelling, politics. Sibs normally writes in English. He recently completed a story about a newly discovered dinosaur species in his mother tongue, Zulu, which doesn’t have a word for “dinosaur.”

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Mentioned on today’s show:

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Sibusiso Biyela on Twitter @astrosibs

“Decolonizing science writing in South Africa” on The Open Notebook

“Ososayensi bathole isilwane sasemandulo esandisa umlando wohlu lwezilwane” on SciBraai

The viral #ScienceMustFall video

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