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From the Winnowing Basket to the Runway: The Story of Machuma Africa

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More Than What We Wear: Conistance Shamiso Mpinyuri and the Art of Retelling Zimbabwe’s Story Some stories are told through words, others through music, and some are woven into the things we create and carry with us. For Conistance Shamiso Mpinyuri, founder and creative designer of Machuma Africa, an accessory is never just an accessory. It is a piece of memory, a celebration of identity, and a reminder that our heritage is a living story, waiting to be told in new and beautiful ways. There is something extraordinary about the way an ordinary object can hold an extraordinary story. A woven basket resting in a grandmother’s home, the familiar rhythm of a traditional drum, the intricate craftsmanship of an everyday household item, or the music of a mbira can carry generations of history without demanding our attention. These are the things we grow up seeing, hearing, and sometimes overlooking because they are so deeply woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. Yet, within them lies a ...
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Behind Closed Doors: When Home Becomes a Place of Fear

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A Wander and Weave Reflection on Domestic Violence, the Lives We Lose, and the World We Must Change October is one of those months that gently, and sometimes painfully, reminds us of the many things happening around us that deserve our attention. It is a month in which conversations about health, social issues, and human experiences are brought into the light. From Breast Cancer Awareness to ADHD Awareness, from Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness to the many other causes that call for our compassion, October invites us to pause, learn, reflect, and become more conscious of the lives and struggles that exist beyond our immediate surroundings. Yet, among the many conversations taking place this month, there is one that has been sitting particularly heavily on my heart and mind: domestic violence awareness. It is a subject I wish I did not have to write about, a conversation I wish our world had outgrown, and a reality I wish no woman, man, or child ever had to experience. But here we ar...
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I Thought I Was Just Playing Teacher

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Plot Twist: I Became the Teacher There are some professions you choose deliberately. You research them, dream about them, tell everyone, “This is what I want to be when I grow up,” and then spend years working towards them. And then there are professions that somehow sneak up on you. Teaching was definitely one of those for me. If you had told the younger me that one day I would be standing in front of a classroom, teaching children, writing lesson plans, explaining grammar, managing classrooms and somehow being trusted with the education of another human being, I would probably have looked at you and said, “You are lying. Please. Joke’s on you!” Because when I received my A-Level results, teaching was nowhere near the top of my list. Actually, let me rephrase that. Teaching wasn't even on the list. Where I come from, there has always been this interesting hierarchy around professions. There are careers that families proudly announce at gatherings and careers that receive the enthu...
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Wait… That’s NOT How We Eat It! How Japan Turned the World’s Food Japanese

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There is something I have come to find incredibly fascinating about Japan: nothing is ever quite what it seems. You can walk into a restaurant expecting something familiar, order what you think is a Western dish, and then suddenly realise that somewhere along the way, Japan has quietly entered the conversation and said, “Hmm… but what if we did it this way?” And honestly? I love it. One of the things that has fascinated me since living in Japan is discovering how much of the food I already knew from back home or from other parts of the world has been given a distinctly Japanese personality. Pizza is no longer just pizza. Curry isn't necessarily the curry you grew up eating. Even something as universally recognisable as a McDonald's burger can arrive with a Japanese twist. And then there are the matcha drinks. I remember seeing things like matcha smoothies and thinking, Of course Japan would find a way to put matcha in this too! But the more I learned, the more I realised that t...
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They Had Already Decided How Far I Would Go

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I remember sitting in a conversation one day with a group of people, and somehow the topic of university degrees came up. You know how these conversations can go. Someone mentions a university, someone else mentions another, and before you know it, everyone suddenly becomes an unofficial university ranking committee.  Some of the people in that conversation had studied at Midlands State University. Others were from the University of Zimbabwe, and there were a few from the National University of Science and Technology. And then there was me, the Great Zimbabwe University girl. Except they didn't know that. I remember sitting there quietly, listening. The conversation slowly turned from discussing universities into discussing the value of the degrees that came from them. Which university was respected more? Which graduates were more likely to get jobs? Which institutions had better reputations? And then someone mentioned Great Zimbabwe University. I won't lie. I felt something in...
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