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Arts Correspondent
Men don’t cry; Depression is a white people’s disease; Don’t mourn miscarriages. The list goes on. Such statements have left many with bottled up issues and this could be the reason cases of suicide have been on the increase as both man and women battle depression due to among other reasons economic and family problems.
Journalist Tendai Mutema explores some of these topics that give rise to mental health problems in her debut novel — “From Within Me”.
She brings to light some of the topics that African families are not willing to discuss, albeit their devastating psychological impacts and effects on family relations.
For instance, the mental and psychological traumas caused by toxic parents, how childhood traumas continue to haunt people even in their adult life, betrayal within families, deception, identify crisis and some of today’s churches as a place of hope but with no hope.
Through the protagonist — Mutema highlights the suffering people go through in silence, unable to approach the outside world for fear of being misconstrued by the society especially when it concerns maternal health problems.
In the book, Tendai also battles identity crisis and childhood traumas that stem from the venomous and deceptive parents.
The weight she carries growing up threatens to strain her relations in adulthood as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt.
A journalist by profession, Mutema, has previously worked for the now defunct Sunday Mirror and the Zimbabwe Media Commission.
She said the publication of her novel by Royalty Books was a long-cherished dream that had come true.
“I wanted to be a novelist before becoming a journalist. The gift of writing and storytelling feels innate to me . . . At the age of 15, I would constantly tell my family that I was definitely going to write books.
“Somewhere along the line I forgot or rather convinced myself it was unachievable, but I realised that eventually those dreams simply do not die.”
Being her first novel, she admits the writing process required diligence, motivation and a clear objective.
She often had to put herself into the shoes of both her characters and readers as she addressed a wide range of themes including power.
The book will be officially launched on Saturday in Harare. Several guests are expected to grace the official book launch with discussions around mental health and child abuse issues expected to be topical during panel discussions.
There will be live music entertainment at the launch.
Online Reporter