Society is divided on whether black is beauty. The lack of consensus on has forced Tag a Life International (TaLI)’s founder and women empowerment activist, Nyaradzo Mashayamombe to launch a television show named ‘Identities’ to tackle misconceptions around black women.
The new TV show which will air on the national television channel, ZBC-TV will according to Mashayamombe focus on the beauty of being a black woman and other social issues.
In an interview with 263Chat, Mashayamombe said her life journey as a black woman pushed her to go for the big screen in order to highlight and tackle some of the misconceptions that people face in society.
“The programme is a build up from my music album Zvatiri, so Identities is translated Umhlobo, Zvatiri meaning who we are as a people, as Africans.
“Its a programme that was built as result of my journey as a person and a black woman to say society as issues with the pigment of my skin, they define beauty as light and dark skinned women almost always play second class growing up,
“Within me I was at peace and happy with myself but the world was telling me conflicting stories about who I was, the texture of my hair, color of my skin, roundness of my body, texture of my voice, definition of beauty among many other issues. I grew to realize that these issues also applied to women from different communities and races,” said Mashayamombe.
She added that her new show will also touch on men struggles with male boxes, the notion that a men do not cry, the violence they are brought up to believe make a man, manifestation of money and the machismo among other issues.
Mashayamombe is the founding Director of TaLI, a girls and young women’s rights organization and is hoping to use her show to raise money that she intends to channel to her organisation’s programming.
“As a leader who has been working in civil society for a long time I have seen that the answers that Zimbabweans need are not going to come from east, west or north but us the young people, the locals coming up with solutions to make the money,
“I run Tag a Life International and it became very clear to me that I need to make the money and contribute to the work I am doing, I need to be entrepreneur to begin doing these things,” added Mashayamombe.
The show will be broadcasting weekly on ZBC starting from next week. She will also upload the shows on her Youtube platform to cater for those outside the country.
