STAFF WRITER
TWO former Petra College young girls from Bulawayo have collaborated to release their debut anthology.
Titled Tipsy Heart, the anthology written by Tatenda Mafa and Buhlebenkosi Bhebhe is already available on book shelves. The book which was published through Amazon Self-Publishing was co-edited by Alison Ndabambi, Clive-Todd Phiri and Bekezela Sibanda.
The book, according to Mafa, is basically an anthology “which highlights a series of emotions and situations we go through as we learn through our lives. We wanted to write poetry that people of all ages can relate to and feel like we are speaking to them.”
She said the book covers a number of themes such as love, growth and betrayal.
“The book portrays a range or variety of emotions from happy to sad and everything in between.”
Asked about what motivated them to come together and write a book, Mafa said: “I have always wanted to write a book and I just didn’t know how to do it. I have been looking for ways to publish for a while, one of my poems was published in a book titled One Voice in 2018. I also post poetry readings on my YouTube channel.”
On her collaboration with Bhebhe, Mafa said it all dated back to their history as school mates at Petra College.
“Buhlebenkosi was one of my school mates from Petra College. Working with her helped us both to realise our passion for poetry and better our poems and come up with other initiatives. We realised that mental health is one of the aspects of wellbeing that’s often ignored, so we are now focusing on trying to raise awareness of mental health,” Mafa said.
She added: “My brother is the one that suggested this route of self-publishing through Amazon, which is a great opportunity for both Buhle and I because it means our work gets officially memorialised and we are now published authors.”
