Diviner Mind: How Organisations Can Learn from the Indigenous Science of Uncertainty

by Nicola Robins

What if Africa’s knowledge traditions could guide our way through today’s planetary crisis?

This is the true story of how Africa’s Ngoma traditions helped shape the sustainable transition strategies of some of the continent’s largest organisations.

For generations, Indigenous Knowledge Systems have cultivated resilience, foresight, and adaptability. This book explores how these time-tested ways of training and knowing are being called upon again to meet the uncertainty of disruption.
Nicola Robins’ journey started two decades ago when she heard the voice of the spirits while auditing a diamond mine in Australia. Returning home to South Africa, her scientific mind spiralled out of control, forcing a choice between the methods of modern medicine and the call of traditional Africa. Her choice took her into a world where mountains do speak. Her cure carried an obligation to bring what she learnt back to the world of business.
When things are uncertain, we can’t predict the future. As the shift to farming brought new risks and uncertainties, traditional African communities used divination, spirits, and ritual to find a way forward. It kept their progress just and within the bounds of nature. This book explores how these ancient cognitive technologies can help organisations navigate change that defies orthodox strategies.

Diviner Mind invites readers into a world grappling with disruption, rekindling our natural capacity for sense-making. It offers a compelling view on the challenge of our time: how to navigate uncertainty while bringing Earth’s social, ecological, and cultural systems into renewed balance.

272 pages, Paperback

Published November 26, 2025

About the author

I'm co-founder of Incite, a consultancy dedicated to just and sustainable transitions. I'm also a diviner in the Vondo lineage of Southern Africa’s Ngoma tradition.

For the first time in 20 years, my book Diviner Mind presents these two selves together, in public.

For more than two decades, I've worked with leaders and teams, primarily in Africa, to explore how to do complex transition better. I believe it requires a radical rekindling of cognitive skills that evolved in the face of uncertainty, and that AI makes this more urgent.

My background is in natural history and economic history, and I studied industrial ecology at Yale School of the Environment.
I teach as a senior associate of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and as a visiting lecturer at the UCT Graduate School of Business.

I live in Cape Town, a short walk from the Great African Seaforest.

Reviews

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read. The author’s story of how she came to train as a sangoma/diviner—and the initiation process itself—is presented in accessible and deeply personal way. It offers an intimate view into a world that is not widely described to this level of detail. In the second half, she draws parallels between her experience and current challenges facing the corporate world, providing an alternative and insightful way of approaching organisational change. Highly recommended.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read. The author’s story of how she came to train as a sangoma/diviner—and the initiation process itself—is presented in accessible and deeply personal way. It offers an intimate view into a world that is not widely described to this level of detail. In the second half, she draws parallels between her experience and current challenges facing the corporate world, providing an alternative and insightful way of approaching organisational change. Highly recommended.