Koketso talks to people, using her writing skills

Read: 1401

Koketso Nyathi (20), a woman born and raised in Zimbabwe and who now resides in Musina, realised in high school that she was able to express herself better through writing, rather than speaking directly to people, and now she has finished her first very novel.

“I was inspired to maintain sobriety by my passion for literature and my love for reading. The fact that l couldn’t talk to people about how l felt made me think of pouring my feelings into writing,” she said.

In short, Under The Meslow is a fictional story about an African girl who manages to help doctors find a cure for a certain disease. The Meslow in the story refers to a big hole in which the doctors dump the bodies of patients they thought had died, after accidentally injecting them with the wrong vaccine.

Writing has kept Koketso sane during very trying times in her life. She loves to read and reads indiscriminately - from newspapers and online material to novels which, she says, stimulates her greatly.

“Justine Hardy is one of my favourite writers,” she said. “I love her book In the Valley of Mist very much. l just love her writing style and how she brings emotions into play and how she tells a very similar story throughout the entire book without losing the plot.”

Kokesto matriculated at the Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo High School in Zimbabwe in 2020. She came to South Africa for a visit last year and decided she liked it here as she gets to interact with many other artists. She is deeply involved with youth development projects, where she gathers young people and addresses them on social issues, such as teenage pregnancies, substance abuse and domestic violence. She presents her programmes and initiatives via her organisation, called Fix It Club.

“Fix It Club aims to help vulnerable children with some school necessities and also to deal with matters pertaining to child abuse,” she said. “We also recently started an organisation called KOTIN Writers with some friends from Zimbabwe. The idea there is to help young writers by encouraging them to keep reading and writing, so that they get to also tell their own Zimbabwean stories.”

Last year, she was awarded a considerable cash prize and certificate in an open-category poetry competition, courtesy of Lil Daddy Entertainers.

Koketso works hard and tirelessly at writing new poems and rehearsing them for live performances. “As an artist, my aim is to entertain people, caution on anti-social behaviour and to encourage people to never give up,” she said. “I want to set an example for my peers that no matter how thorny the road is, it’s never impossible to achieve one’s goals.”

Follow Koketso on her Facebook page (Kaykay Kayz) or contact her on Tel 063 406 9952.

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.