She buried her mother, sister and brother, now Sibongile turns grief into purpose - TimesLIVE

Sibongile “MomSbo” Segobola was a pregnant teenager when her mother died from ovarian cancer. She was just days away from giving birth, and so heavily pregnant that she could not travel from Johannesburg to Limpopo to bury her mother. Her mother was laid to rest on August 3 1991.

Four days later, Segobola gave birth to her daughter. At a time when she needed her mother most, Segobola navigated two life-changing experiences at once: grieving a parent while becoming one herself.

More than three decades later, grief has continued to follow her. Her sister died from ovarian cancer two years ago and in July this year she lost her brother to throat cancer.

But rather than allowing those losses to define the end of her story, Segobola says they have helped shape her purpose. On Saturday, she will become the first African woman to host a One-Woman Fearless Summit on the continent when the global women’s empowerment movement makes its African debut in Ekurhuleni.

The summit is expected to bring together about 215 women leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals and changemakers for a day focused on purpose, courage, leadership and overcoming adversity. Leadership expert and strategist Dr Sonja Stribling will headline the event, alongside speakers from South Africa and abroad.

For Segobola, however, the gathering is about more than successful women sharing their achievements. She wants it to be a safe space where women who have experienced grief, trauma and other hardships can tell the stories behind who they have become.

“This summit is Africa’s inaugural One Woman Fearless Summit. It is a platform to remind women that resilience and courage are not abstract ideals but lived realities that shape our purpose and drive us forward,” she said.

Segobola knows this from experience.

More than 35 years ago, she was in the second year of studying towards a teaching diploma in Polokwane, Limpopo, when her mother’s health began deteriorating.

“I was a teenager and pregnant. My mom was staying with her younger sister in Johannesburg; her health was deteriorating due to cancer, and my belly was growing fast,” she recalled. “When schools closed for the July mid-term break, I rushed to Johannesburg to be with my mom. She passed away on the 27th of July, just a few days before I gave birth.

“Because I was so heavily pregnant, I couldn’t travel back home for her funeral. She was buried in Limpopo while I stayed behind in Johannesburg. My mom was buried on the 3rd of August; my daughter was born on the 7th of August 1991.”

At the time, Segobola could not have imagined where her life would eventually take her.

“What I thought was the end of my story was, in many ways, God preparing me for a chapter I could not yet see,” she said.

She said she would not have believed anyone who told the pregnant teenager grieving her mother that she would one day become the first African city ambassador for a global women’s movement.

“God’s grace can find you even in the seasons when you believe He has forgotten where you are.”

Canadian social entrepreneur Sharla Brown selected Segobola as the One Woman Fearless movement’s first city ambassador in Africa.

Brown founded the movement in 2015 and, according to the organisation, more than 200 summits have since been held in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Brown’s own cancer journey has particular resonance for Segobola, whose family has repeatedly been touched by the disease.

Even as she prepares for what should be one of the proudest moments of her life, Segobola is again carrying grief.

Her brother died from throat cancer in July, two years after she lost her sister to ovarian cancer.

“Even now, as I prepare to host and speak at the Fearless Women’s Summit SA, I’m walking through another one of those seasons, grief,” she said.

“It has been one of the hardest chapters of my life. But life continues, and so does one’s purpose.”

It is this reality that Segobola wants reflected at the summit, women celebrating their achievements without having to hide the painful journeys that preceded them.

Among the speakers is a woman who lost both her parents to HIV at a young age and will share her own journey of overcoming adversity.

“This summit is more than an event, it is history in the making. We are bringing a global movement, and its keynote voice, to African soil for the first time,” Segobola said.

“I want every woman who walks into that room, and every woman who hears this story, to know that being fearless doesn’t mean falling apart. It means refusing to let that have the final word.”