Sunrise December 3, 1944 ~ Sunset September 11, 2023
Nothando Zulu, master storyteller, cofounder and president of the Black Storytellers Alliance (BSA) and producer of the annual Black Master Storytellers Festival, “Signifyin’ & Testifyin’” for the past 32 years, entered the Village of the Ancestors at the age of 78, on September 11, 2023.
Nothando, which means “mother of love” in the Zulu language, was proud to say that she was a country girl from rural Franklin in Southampton County, Virginia. Born a sharecropper’s daughter, she came to Minnesota at the age of 16.
She was best known as a warm, loving community advocate whose storytelling prowess earned her numerous national and international awards for oral storytelling in the African and African American traditions. Nothando will be honored at this year’s 33rd Master Storytellers Festival on September 28-30.
Nothando leaves to mourn her loss her husband, Vusumuzi; children, Makeda, Keke, Terrence, David and Stephanie; her sister-in-law, 17 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, seven nieces, five nephews, seven great-nieces, six great-nephews, and numerous extended family, community children and friends.
The funeral was held on Wednesday, September 27, at New Salem Baptist Church, 2507 N. Bryant Ave. in Minneapolis.