There is a particular kind of silence that surrounds mental illness in many African churches – the silence of believers who are suffering but afraid that naming their struggle will be read as a failure of faith. Living Beyond Anxiety speaks directly into that silence. Charlotte Mugabe, founder of the Botswana-based platform “All Things Anxiety…
Thabisile Gumede 4 September 2026 On 30 August, ten women gathered on a sunlit veranda at the Mazisi Kunene Museum in Durban, mats rolled out beside stacks of books, for an experiment Zenzele Book Festival founder Andiswa Mpulo had been carrying in her heart for years: what happens when we treat reading as seriously as…
Kgomotso Molefe 1 September 2026 There was a turning point in my life that I will never forget. I had reached such a dark place that I attempted to end my life. I was alone and became unconscious for hours. The people I lived with could see that I was very unwell, but nobody took…
Stella Moll 26 August 2026 There is a strange silence that can arrive after healing. For so long, your story may have been organised around what happened to you: what you survived, what it cost you, and how you learned to keep going. Then, slowly, the crisis quietens. The memories remain, but they no longer…
Thembelihle Zwane 24 August Kungazwakala sengathi utshelwa nsuku zonke ngezinzuzo zokuzivocavoca nokuthi kungakusiza kanjani, ikakhulukazi ekuphileni isikhathi eside nangenjabulo. Kodwa iqiniso ukuthi njengoba ukhula, umzimba wakho uyaguquka. Ukuzivocavoca uneminyaka engu-30 kungase kube ngokuhluke kakhulu kunokuzivocavoca uneminyaka engu-50. Njengoba ukhula, ungase uqale ubone umehluko phakathi nangemva kokuzivocavoca – ekuguqukeni komzimba, izicubu zomzimba, amandla, kanye nokulingana kwawo….
Thembelihle Zwane 20 August 2026 Yini ocabanga ngayo lapho uzwa igama elithi “ukuzibophezela”? Kwabaningi, leli gama lidala umuzwa ongemuhle, lapho uzizwa ucindezelwe ukuba wenze into. Mhlawumbe uzizwa ungathandi ukuyoqedela umsebenzi othile, lokho okuzibophezela okuye kwaguqulwa kwaba yinkinga. Nokho, njengengxenye ebalulekile yomphakathi, ukugcwalisa izibopho kwabanye kungaba nenzuzo, hhayi kuphela kubona, kodwa nakuwe. UJuliet Wakefield, isazi sesayensi…
Kgomotso Molefe 19 August 2026 I grew up in an environment that was deeply toxic. As a child, I watched my father physically abuse my mother. Sometimes my siblings and I were too frightened to help her. There were nights when we hid in a room, terrified he would come through the door and hurt…
Thembelihle Zwane 19 August 2026 Sometimes it feels like you can’t step out of your front door without spending money. Whether it’s petrol for the car, a taxi fare, or bumping into a friend and ending up at a coffee shop in Florida Road or Long Street, you leave the house and, before long, the…
Thabisile Gumede 17 August 2026 Siphokazi Zuma remembers the sound of her grandmother’s amasi calabash – a dull, rhythmic knock against the kitchen wall as it fermented on the windowsill. “She used to say, feed the mind by feeding the mouth properly,” Siphokazi recalls. At the time, it sounded like an old woman’s proverb. Now,…
Thembelihle Zwane 14 August 2026 Njengoba abantu abaningi baseNingizimu Afrika bephila impilo yokuhlala kakhulu, ochwepheshe bathole ukuthi ukuhlala isikhathi eside ngosuku kunomthelela obanzi empilweni. Abanye basebenzisa umfanekiso wokuthi “ukuhlala kufana nokubhema.” Uma umsebenzi wakho uhlanganisa ukusebenza kukhompyutha ehhovisi, ukuhlala emgwaqweni ushayela noma usemathekisini isikhathi eside, kanti izinto ozithandayo zihlanganisa ukubukela i-TV noma ukuhlala ezitolo zecoffee,…
