Nhau: A genius author in the making
Eighteen-year-old Makomborero Nhau, a Roosevelt Girls High School student currently awaiting her O’level results is undoubtedly a genius author in the making if her passion and consistency is anything to go by. Her debut book titled Profused Feelings, which she intends to officially launch soon, is an outpour of her feelings and emotions on various topical issues whose purpose is to inspire and motivate different audiences.
She said she started writing when she was in Form 2 when she wrote a poem for her friend on her birthday, which inspired her to embark on poetry resulting in her winning a poetry writing contest titled Daughters Destined for Purpose (2020) in which she emerged as the second runner-up.
It is upon this background that the youthful author embarked on a ritual journey in which she penned her thoughts and feelings into poetic form in a counter book which later became a manuscript collection of short poems covering various issues including religion, feelings, mental health, violence, youth, relationships and many others.
She later sent these poems for publication resulting in the birthing of her anthology titled Profused Feelings — her first biggest and debut step in her authorship journey.
Nhau describes her form of poetic writing as “empathetic” adding that her poetry was “poetry by one lady who is walking a winding path towards God’s Design”.
In Profused Feelings, Nhau covers various reallife issues and I could not help but note the prevalent authenticity and child innocence and she touches on various topics namely:
A letter From Me to You
My Emotions
No to Drugs
Things end but memory last
Dear God
Lord, I Want to Serve You
Lord, Take Care of Me
Hope for the Less-privileged
Living Under Violence
Negligent Father
Men Under the Violence Too
The anthology consists of 80 poems and I found this to be impressive for a first-timeyoung teen-author.
Her mother described her as a “humble child” and stated that when she sent her to boarding school during her primary school years the headmistress at her school had called her and commended her for raising “a humble and polite child who comes from a family with morals and values”.
She added that her daughter would read books and novels while they were watching TV in the lounge and that she was not surprised when Nhau fell in love with writing.
Below are two extracts I hand-picked from the
Profused Feelings anthology.
My Emotions
Sometimes I misunderstand,
The twist and turns.
I have to make runs
Full of happiness
But later I’ll be down.
Another moment there is sadness
Will this continue even when I’m grown Should I get a fortune teller?
I need a happy portion,
Wish to be also cooler.
Negligent Father
You Act as if I’m a stranger,
Like we are not even related.
I feel like a lost ranger,
Seems like our bond has obfuscated.
At times I feel like I’m one of your mistakes, Or maybe part of your regrets,
Because you don’t even care about any of my likes,
Don’t get me wrong,
I’m just outlining real facts,
Have I ever held a place in your thoughts? It seems I’m the only one who misses you.
I’m always battling mental stress.
You have no clue what I go through
I wish you knew.
Showing little care isn’t that bad,
It can’t even eat away any of your dollars.
All I wish for is going to bed well fed,
Don’t look down upon me,
I might become one of the future lawyers.
Nhau summarised her poetry anthology as a book which helped her in ushering in hope to the hopeless as well as consolidating her spirituality in the sense of rededicating her life to God.
Fungayi Sox is the managing consultant at TisuMazwi — a communications consultancy firm that facilitates book project management including writing and publishing, content development and marketing, research, digital media and personal development. He writes in his personal capacity. For one-onone writing and self-publishing coaching sessions, contact him on 0776 030 949, follow him on Twitter @AntonySox or connect with him on LinkedIn on Fungayi Antony Sox.