Author offers youths platform to confront past demons

ONCE a victim of abuse, she grew, overcame and evolved, becoming an adolescent and family counsellor, in her attempts to give those who have suffered a similar fate a chance to rise above past trauma and get back to living a life free from unresolved past issues.

Kudakwashe Kunzekweguta is an author with an incredible life story to tell, having survived through writing about the trauma of sexual, emotional, verbal abuse, bullying and domestic violence.

Speaking to NewsDay Life & Style, he said: “I started writing when I was in Grade Five, leading up to 2016 when I dabbled into poetry. I then launched my first book called Survivor in 2017.

“The thing that pushed me to write is what I was going through at the time. I am a survivor of abuse and I wrote as a way to escape. It was my way of coping.”

Through her recent book, Colour Attitude launched on March 4, Kunzekweguta — who is also a counsellor by profession, hopes to reach out to individuals who have suffered abuse in the past to rise and look into the future.

“I am a counsellor by profession and during sessions that I have had with various people, I have realised that a lot of people suffer from unresolved childhood issues. It is these issues that affect their future,” she explained.

“Colour Attitude explores childhood trauma as an under explored topic that is barely talked about in Africa, yet it is affecting many people. The book will take the reader through causes of childhood trauma, its signs and what can be done to manage its persistent nature.”

Kunzekweguta revealed that her latest book has been somewhat a pill that is too bitter to swallow for some.

“One of the readers of my recent book Colour Attitude, reached out and told me that she had read the first chapter of the book, closed  it and could not continue because it made her revisit past traumas that she was not yet ready to confront,” she said.

Apart from being an author, Kunzekweguta is also a women’s rights and gender activist. Through her activism, in 2019 she was selected by the Dutch embassy as one of the gender champions (the youngest) among 15 other gender champions in Zimbabwe.

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