Epi Mabika speaks on new book, women’s voices

Hildegarde The Arena
IN his article, “The assets of a nation: graining benefits from past, present and future investments in assets” DN Idris Pearce says, “ . . . if real or intellectual properties are worth stealing, they are also worth valuing and merchandising to benefit the public, which owns them. I say ‘valuing’ because in any economy — whether it is a centrally planned economy or a free market economy, the basis for prudent and practical decisions on fixed assets should be a valuation of them.” This line of thinking ran through the interview I had with the 35-year-old Zimbabwean-born Epi Mabika, whose recently published book, “Success GRAVITY: 7 Keys to Unlock Your Dream Lifestyle” will be launched in Harare at the end of this week. This is her first book.

Epi now lives in the United Kingdom where she works as a dental hygienist.
Before I give excerpts of the interview of Epi’s book, I also thought it prudent to say that for any nation, young people are the most important resource, and for Zimbabwe, they are the Zim Asset.

Not only can they define and translate it into reality but they can also implement it.
This basically means that this is a two-in-one approach, with the Zim Asset economic policy document on one hand, and on the other with young people being the nation’s tangible assets.

When they dream, they dream big, leaving footprints of their dreams as they move on, thanks to information and communication technologies, which have allowed their voices to be heard. You hear their voices everywhere and they are forceful, an indication that the baton has been successfully passed on to them.

This is what Epi has done with her first book. Exuding self-confidence and an understanding of issues she told me that it is not just about her writing a book, but this is also about a young black woman filling the void in the now competitive motivational writing.

“I’m the last born in a family of six and I studied at St John’s High School in Emerald Hill before proceeding to Nagle House for my Advanced Level.

“Some of the principles that I discuss in my book are from my school background. Our motto at St John’s was ‘veritas’, which means truth.
“So, I have a chapter on integrity because this was something that was instilled in us as teenagers that we must be people of integrity and in the 90s when I was there, there were no teenage pregnancies or drug involvement. St John’s really encouraged us to be people of integrity.”

Epi went to the UK in 1997 and because of her passion for the health profession, she wanted to give back to society. I also asked her what motivated her to write book and she said although she enjoys her profession, she realised that “it’s time to give back to other people and to contribute to their success because in order for my dream in the dental profession to materialise, other people have been helping me along the way. I want to be able to help someone’s dream come through and get to a place where they call success”.

It took Epi six weeks to write the 152-page book because she had a coach who helped her “get over some psychological barriers — that is, will people like this; how will it be read, etc? So I had to get over from my own barriers that could have actually stopped me from writing. It worked much quicker because a coach was there”.

Did the coach tell her what to write and how to put her ideas across? Epi said, “He didn’t. He was only there to help me overcome my own limitations.”

Since Epi is resident in London, but is launching her book in Harare, what does this say about her targeted readers? Is she writing for international readers, Zimbabweans or both?

Epi said, “My target audience is international, but mainly Zimbabwean because my heart is in Zimbabwe. I do care about the responses from Zimbabwean readers.”

She also explained that “GRAVITY” in the title is an acronym that stands for: goals; relationships; attitude; vision; integrity; time management and your contribution.

Responding to the competition in motivational speaking and writing, Epi said that there has been a positive response to her work and apart from the book, she has speaking engagements in South Africa, Mauritius, Canada and the US for 2014.

“What I think is the appeal factor is that I’m an ordinary human being. I’m not a big name yet maybe, but it’s all the more tangible. I’m reachable or at least all the goals I have attained are attainable for others as well, because it’s not someone who’s there with millions of dollars.

“If I can do it, others can also do it, and the fact that I’ve made it a simple acronym is something that at any point a reader can relate to. You can ask yourself, ‘Do I have the right relationships in life or, who is draining my energy? How am I managing my time? Is my vision clear or blurred? What am I contributing, and what legacy am I leaving? These are simple questions that you can ask along the way.”

Epi agreed that women have a long way to go in the writing industry, but also said that all hope is not lost: “It’s time for women to rise up and know that they can actually take up influential roles — through our writing, our speaking and doing so on big platforms and not just I our homes. By so doing, we will change mindsets to say that inasmuch as there is submission in the home between husband, wife and children, your voice as a woman still counts for something. At one speaking event, I gave an illustration of Mother Theresa’s voice that spoke of kindness, Martin Luther King of his dream and Nelson Mandela’s voice spoke of forgiveness.

“We all have a message in our voices and it’s time for us to speak, help other women, collaborate and influence the world. The gap that is there can only be filled by women themselves.”

In her parting remarks, Epi Mabika said, “Success is at your fingertips, because the way I define it is how you define it for yourself. It’s not about cars, houses, large amounts of money in your bank account. It’s more of you attaining your goals. When you’ve reached them, you seek bigger goals for yourself — living life by design and not waiting for life to happen . . . But on the back end of that, the whole GRAVITY message is that you are contributing back and helping others attain their level of success.”

“Success GRAVITY: 7 Keys to Unlock Your Dream Lifestyle” was first published by Fastprint Publishing in Peterborough, England.