Kenyan artist Mwongela Kamencu, known as Monaja, has spent his life writing music shaped by history, politics and protest. In this episode of What Takes Root, he traces the moments that radicalized him: from his childhood under an authoritarian regime to student uprisings, election violence, and the killing of a classmate. As Kenya’s youth-led protests erupt in 2024, his music moves alongside the protests, urging people not to despair, but to rise.

And for more information about Mwongela Kamencu and the work that he does, follow @monajamwenyewe on Instagram.

In 2012, almost on a whim, social justice leader Sabah Khan helped to found a football team for Muslim girls in Mumbra, India’s largest Muslim ghetto. But it wasn’t easy. From fighting for time on Mumbra’s crowded fields to overcoming societal pressures to keep girls indoors, Sabah explains how something as simple as playing a game can be a powerful act of resistance.

For more information about ORA, visit https://orawards.org/

And for more information about Sabah Khan and the work that she does, see her profile on LinkedIn.

What Takes Root: Stories of Resistance and Reclamation is a first-person podcast featuring changemakers from the Global South. From how Muslim girls learned to play soccer in India, to political music shaped by Kenya’s long history of resistance, to community radio reaching isolated Indigenous communities in Bolivia, these are intimate stories of people reclaiming power, voice, and possibility.