South Africa Changed Me: What a Coaching Conference Revealed About Purpose, Power and Belonging

Some journeys are not holidays. They are mirrors. They ask you who you are, what you stand for, and whether your work is as necessary as you believed it to be. My recent visit to South Africa was one of those journeys. I returned home changed - not simply inspired but transformed.

Palma Black getting ready to present

The Invitation That Asked Me to Step Forward

The invitation came after academics within the Black coaching research community recognised the impact my social enterprise has had on the lives of Black women. It was an honour, but it was also a stretch. Imposter syndrome arrived loudly, as it often does when we are invited into spaces that ask us to own the value of our work.

Through self-coaching and a little cajoling by Patty Seven, I accepted the invitation and chose to present my work through an academic lens. My research poster, Soul Purpose 360 Theory of Change: From Passive Observers to Changemakers, shared research conducted between 2020 and 2022 and highlighted the findings that continue to shape powerful client transformations and the growth of Soul Purpose 360.

When Research, Practice and Lived Experience Met

Speaker after speaker spoke directly to my soul. Their words affirmed my coaching approach and the importance of recognising the African diaspora experience within coaching practice. What I heard was not abstract theory, it was lived reality, professional validation, spiritual and ancestral recognition.

So much of what was shared resonated with my experience of coaching Black women in the UK. I realised I was not only in the right place; I was part of a wider global community of Black coaches whose questions, commitments and journeys reflected my own.

Over time, I had adapted my practice to meet the needs of my clients rather than rigidly adhering to the Western methodologies in which I was trained. In South Africa, that adaptation was affirmed. I was reminded that coaching must be responsive to context, culture, history and identity if it is to be truly transformational.

Why Black Women Need More Than a Standard Coaching Model

Presenting my research poster affirmed my coaching research, practice, methodology and delivery model for Black women whose experiences are shaped by layered realities, including:

·        Intersectionality

·        Structural and systemic barriers

·        Racism and misogynoir

·        Forces beyond individual control

These realities explain why a more nuanced approach is needed - one that goes beyond what a simple GROW model can achieve. For Black women navigating systems not designed with them in mind, coaching must do more than set goals and measure progress. It must create space for truth-telling, restoration, agency and collective possibility.

One of my most powerful takeaways came from Sibongile Muwamba, PCC, whose presentation on Umuthu: “I am because we are; together we become”, explored a relational way of knowing, being and becoming in coaching. It spoke directly to the soul of Soul Purpose 360. I returned with pride, renewed enthusiasm and an even deeper commitment to support transformative change for Black women in the UK.

Beyond the Conference: Bearing Witness in Johannesburg

When the conference ended, some people took the opportunity to go on safari. My travelling companion and I felt called to something different. We needed to make sense of what we were experiencing as Black tourists in a country where the legacy of oppression was impossible to ignore.

Although I have stayed in hotels around the world, these interactions felt different. I noticed guarded and deferential body language among hotel staff, a sense of suspicion in exchanges between staff and guests, and an absence of confidence among many Black South Africans that felt stark when compared with the confidence I see among my Black brothers and sisters in London. Johannesburg seemed to echo with oppression. Set against the context of the conference, my experience of “post-Apartheid” South Africa exposed the systemic and structural racism that continues to shape daily life. Johannesburg became an emotional journey.

As a child, I remember watching news coverage of the murder of South African schoolchildren. I wanted to visit the site of the 1976 Soweto uprising, the Hector Pieterson Museum and Mandela House at 8115 Orlando West, in honour of my involvement in the anti-racist movement in the UK and the many ANC, PAC and Anti-Apartheid activists I had met. Yet the heavily touristed Mandela House, filled with post-Apartheid awards, and the site of the massacre left me feeling unsettled. I understood the importance of tourism in generating income, but something about it felt uncomfortable.

Seeing vast aluminium settlements and deep poverty beside empty land, office buildings and houses of extraordinary scale reinforced my sense that Apartheid’s consequences continue to dominate Black life. Speaking with Black South Africans, visiting townships and homes, and having honest conversations was difficult—but necessary. “Nothing has changed since the end of Apartheid” was a phrase we heard repeatedly when people felt safe enough to speak openly.

We also witnessed this in restaurants, where my colleague and I were seated in areas where white customers did not want to sit near us. It took time to process the emotional weight of what we had seen and felt. When I returned home, many people asked how my “holiday” had been. My answer was simple: “It was not a holiday. It was an experience—all of it, the highs and the significant lows.”

Returning Home with Renewed Soul Purpose

This was a life-changing experience, and I give thanks for the invitation, the recognition and the community that made it possible. I also give thanks for the moments that challenged me, because they reminded me why Soul Purpose 360 exists.

Special thanks also go to our trusted driver, who will remain anonymous for safety’s sake. The connection we built will enable Soul Purpose 360 to play a small part in supporting the lives of a handful of individuals in the months ahead.

I returned from South Africa clearer, bolder and more convinced than ever: coaching for Black women must be rooted in context, community and courage. It must honour the whole person, the histories they carry, and the systems they are required to navigate. Above all, it must support movement - from passive observers to changemakers.