Chronicle Editor
Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Reporter
CANADA-based mbira maestro Francisca Mandeya is visiting Zimbabwe after nine years.
The mental fitness coach is set to perform at Alliance Française de Harare on Friday in celebration of Women’s History Month. This will be a meet and greet and sharing of stories from seven women drawn from around the country who have gone through under her coaching.
The following day, she will return to the same venue to present on “Mental Fitness Through Positive Intelligence” during “The Ladies Breakfast Meeting,” hosted by Kutenda Creations.
Mandeya said the workshop will help participants move from self-sabotage to self-mastery.
“My latest music project is titled Go Home Before the Storm Hits. I recorded three songs Mbira Dzangu, Qujannamiik and Go Home Before the Storm Hits, but the songs were not mastered as we ran short of funds to record three more songs to make a decent album of at least six songs. I use the songs in my suicide prevention and mental fitness workshops,” she said.
Mandeya said Mbira Dzangu is going to be recorded this year in Canada.
“The songs are in a project titled ‘Go Home Before the Storm Hits’, a suicide prevention initiative that I have been working on and now it got funded. We all need a go-to, something that helps us cope with our emotional struggles.
“We can prevent suicide if we share our tools and support one another. Mine is music among others,” she said.
The accredited, well-known and acclaimed Canadian award-winning certified coach, community leader, educator, published writer, activist, mental fitness trainer, speaker and mbira musician now lives in the Canadian arctic in Iqaluit, Territory of Nunavut, Canada. Her hit track Ngano Yerudo was released in 2014.
Mandeya is the author of two social justice books: “Mother Behold Thy Son” and “Searching for Racial Equality,” both available in Paperback and Amazon. She is the winner of the Nunavut Black History – Sankofa Social Justice award (2022) – awarded by Nunavut Black History Society. She is a double winner of the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women gender equality award (2015). – @mthabisi_mthire
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