Tanyaradzwa Tiffany Nyikadzino (Efuru) grows up in Harare, a city that is becoming tougher and tougher to live in. The city exists in the Zimbabwean economy with a high unemployment rate of 20 % according to official sources(ZimStat). Critics however argue that it’s at around 70-80%. COVID-19 related lockdowns exacerbated this situation leaving at least half of Zimbabweans (7.7 million) people food insecure last year. Effects of the pandemic had included eroding citizens’ sources of income. This has left at least 27% of young people aged 15-24 suffering from depression according to UNICEF. Efuru aged 24 is one of the young people in Zimbabwe that has gone through difficult times. She decides to write poetry to cope with her thoughts and feeling. The poetry book Fading Rainbows is Efuru speaking to those that have gone through hard times like her.
Tanyaradzwa, in an interview with Enthuse Magazine, says the book is the voice of the depressed, the bipolar, the anxious, the sad, and the lonely; speaking out.
“It’s a book that is aimed at letting the readers know they aren’t alone in their feelings,” she said. “And to their friends and family, it aims to help them become more aware of the hurt that resides in their loved one who always seems to be just fine.”
“(Fading Rainbows) is a series of poems that dwell on how we get hurt that share the hurt with the reader and also bring awareness to the small and greater things that end us in an unhealthy state of mind.”
Efuru also said Fading Rainbows was inspired by the four corners of the depressed people during the Covid-19 induced lockdown.
“It was a horrible new normal- not being able to go out and I found myself re thinking of all the things that have happened when I was depressed. I was inspired to write,” she explained.
“All the cases of people living in abusive homes, especially over Covid lockdown just drove me to speak up.”
It was not only economic challenges that took a toll during the Covid-19 lockdown, domestic violence also increased in homes. A report, Violence Against Women and Girls During the Covid-19 Crisis in Zimbabwe, showed that reports of physical violence went up by 38.5% during April and May 2020 when President Emmerson Mnangagwa first announced a lockdown. Such could have triggered depression amongst people, especially the young generation.
Efuru also wanted people to start embracing the need to speak about how they feel in the book Fading Rainbows.
She said, “Half the time we do not know how we actually feel or what we’re actually going through and sometimes when you start to open up you realize that maybe you need to take a step back from life and slow down on overworking slow down from all the stressful things that are going on in your life because maybe you’re actually depressed and you don’t know or you’re becoming irritable and maybe you’re anxious and you don’t know it.”
“So, it’s important that we make a culture of speaking out about how we feel about what we’re going through to those we trust and it’s important that we create a circle of trustworthy individuals in the workspace at home in our creative circles. By doing this and also raising awareness to each other about the importance of a mental health we can prevent these adverse effects of drug abuse, suicide, and alcohol abuse to mention a few.”
The author said Fading Rainbows advocates for people to start speaking up.
Fading Rainbows is also a collection for a family of people who do not know they are related, emotionally, because they actually are not alone in feeling alone according to Tiffany.
“It Fading Rainbows) is based on issues of mental health, the things we go through that land us in depression, anxiety and panic attacks,” Efuru said.
