Author Chengeto Mayowe recently joined an exclusive club of public speakers as she gave her first ever TEDtalk. Titled “The importance of representation and preserving culture” the speech brorrowed heavily from Chengeto’s personal experiences while relating to the broader picture of conserving our heritage.
My mentor always says “Kuziva zvauri kuziva kugara, nzira inokusvitsa kwaunogara”, translated this means to know who you are is to know how you live, the path will always lead you back to where you come from. Now this is very true for me because growing up my father was a diplomat, I didn’t grow up in Zimbabwe.
As a child of a diplomat Chengeto was privileged to learn about other cultures but her father was adamant she learn about her culture. She would have lessons every weekend and these lessons were the basis for her love of culture and where her stories that she writes come from.
Chengeto believes that culture is intrinsically tied to identity and without one the other suffers greatly. She also believes that representation is extremely important and grew up not seeing herself in any of the literature she read. Thus she seeks to change this by incorporating stories that are uniquely Zimbabwean with characters that are also Zimbabwean.
There has been a disconnect that Chengeto seeks to reconnect so that people are proud of their culture and heritage, regardless of who or where they are. Chengeto Mayowe, is a Zimbabwean author, poet, spoken word artist, host and healer. She has often said she used to write with her late father, John Mayowe, growing up and he would encourage her every chance he got. Her fathers love for culture, tradition and his children is what sparked the idea of writing fiction stories with hints of reality thrown in and Zimbabwean history, myths and legends.
Chengeto is passionate about African literature and mental health and this is evident in her work. She makes affirmation cards for those with issues they do not vocalise out loud or people who wish to have words to lift or ground them. Her mission is to heal with her words, inspire with her stories, enlighten the world about African literature and Zimbabwe and last but not least to make people fall in love with poetry again.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. The event hosted in Borrowdale, Harare saw the debut of several other speakers including Polish violinist, filmmaker, director and writer Klara Ana Rosa among others.
You can watch Chengeto’s TEDtalk here.
