“Yolanda knows the music that gave birth to music. She is wise, and that is rare.”
Bayo Akomolafe
“There is a before and an after meeting Yolanda. She expands your universe.”
Martin Calnan · UNESCO Chair
“Every time you speak, we are assured we belong, we are safe. You are the voice of home.”
“Yolanda is a serious (and very joyful!) force of Love in this world. She is a gifted writer and every word she writes inspires us to enter the heart of Love more fully.”
“Yolanda Sokiri is a brilliant and big-hearted force of nature. Her mind is a beautiful place to be.”
“I feel your vast and spacious heart, so directly and fully, and have been incredibly grateful to be with you and your words, both written and spoken.”
Decolonial Thought Partner & Strategic Facilitator
Come be in Grandmother’s Hut.
Daughter of a South Sudanese, Bari (Nile) refugee and a Tanzanian, Chagga (Kilimanjaro) agriculturalist — soil and soul are my foundations. I am a Swahili- and French-fluent African woman, and an initiated Medicine Woman.
Eldering · African-rooted wisdom for governance · Soma-poetic sensing
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About Yolanda
Dreamt into being by my grandmothers.
Child of Afrika. Eldest of the longest river. Daughter of the tallest volcano.
My grandmother began walking this path with me at age eight; over the more than twenty years since, it has deepened with each initiation — through loss, through growth, through maturity. I stand within African-rooted lineages that hold entangled ecosystems — human, ancestral and earthly — as sacred.
Alongside this inherited lineage, I trained as a global mystic under Andrew Harvey, Mirabai Starr and other guides. I have spent decades in leadership, governance, education, humanitarian and social justice systems — recognised in 2003 as a Pioneer of the Nation in the Voluntary Sector by Queen Elizabeth II.
For more than 20 years I have worked across the United Nations, international NGOs and civil society — from humanitarian response in the Great Lakes region, to child rights advocacy in Geneva, to community programming with refugee and minority ethnic women in the UK.
Rooted in a diasporic entanglement, I bring a personal and systemic understanding of historic wounds, active conflict and collective healing.
A life that has unfolded across cultures, communities and four continents. Guided by stories, symbols, silence and sensitivities.
Ways of working
Many roles. One way of relating.
Decolonial Thought Partner
Thinking together about power, belonging and leadership — applying Ubuntu philosophy, non-violent communication and decolonial frameworks.
Strategic Facilitator
Designing and holding strategic conversations and capacity-strengthening that build trust and cultures where people and purpose flourish.
Eldering
African-rooted wisdom for governance. I hold Elder and Space Holder roles across international leadership networks.
Soma-poetic Sensing
Working at the intersection of social justice, storytelling and sensing — weaving somatics and land-based embodiment into trauma-informed care.
Sacred Earth-Heart Ritualist
Indigenous East African ritual that invites us to relate with HEART, and as EARTH.
My practice includes
- · Trauma-Informed & Decolonial Facilitation
- · Non-Violent Communication
- · Child Rights & Gender-Transformative Programming
- · Governance & Partnership Development
- · Ancestral Healing
Our greatest organisational challenges cannot be solved by better strategies alone. They ask us to transform how we relate — to power, to one another, to the communities we serve — with HEART, and as EARTH.
When relationships change, organisations change. When organisations change, systems begin to change.
I partner with international NGOs, UN agencies, philanthropic foundations, leadership teams, boards, founders and practitioners.
Eldering · Ancestral healing
Irrigation practices for these prophetic times.
In my Chagga homeland on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, the old irrigation channels were tended together — water guided gently from the mountain so every field could drink. Eldering and ancestral healing work the same way: they return nourishment to what has been left dry in us, in our families and in our institutions.
These are trauma-informed practices for the body, mind and soul — ritual, somatic sensing, story and land-based embodiment — that help us carry historic wounds with care, soften what has hardened, and let wisdom flow again between generations.
We are living in prophetic times. They ask us not to rush, but to irrigate — to become good Ancestors, now.
Offerings
Ways to work together
1:1 Oracle Reading + Mentoring
Private sessions to listen for what is asking to be known, and walk with it.
Group Guidance
Circles where story, ritual and deep listening carry as much authority as strategy.
Consulting
For organisations: leadership rooted in radical care, drawing on decades in governance, humanitarian and social justice work.
Collaborating + Guest Teaching
Bringing African-rooted, relational ways of knowing into your programme.
Speaking + Prayer Engagements
Keynotes, blessings and ceremony for gatherings.
Contact
I walk ahead of myself in perpetual expectancy of miracles.
Anaïs Nin
If you're a leader, practitioner or organisation reimagining how power, care and transformation can move together, I'd welcome a conversation. Book a 45-minute discovery call.
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