My mother makes it a point to tell me:
“you need to be kinder to yourself”
She reminds me to binge on soft words,
to purge out the loud bully voices vacationing in me.
She calls me each morning after
to hear If my voice still smiles the same.
-Ndele
A beautiful Venda girl born in Bloemfontein and raised in Gauteng. She is not only a creative but also an amazing holder of more than one degree. She is an entrepreneur, English language consultant, triple-major holder of Bs Psychology, genetics and human physiology graduate and poet. She prides herself in bettering her community through her poetry. She is part of WOIUP which is a charity organization and the CSA&G-Center for sexualities, AIDS and gender-both under the University of Pretoria. She is Ndele Fhulufhelo Mavhungu, fondly known as Ndele to those close to her.
Her love for poetry started from a love for rap. She thought she would be a rapper but then learnt of poetry and has never looked back. “I then began performing at church which then opened me up to taking numerous opportunities to perform my work”, she shares. She adds that it is the support of her church that made her be more confident in her art. “I believe we are all vessels, pouring out the influences we meditate on and our perception of things like media, books, spiritual beliefs, experiences”, she says. She believes that God has given her the gift of poetry so that they-Him and her- could be closer, “He found a way to express himself through a vessel”. She also shares that her growing relationship with God inspires her work, “Faith is a difficult thing, it is the magic of blinding yourself from the monsters you woke up to, numbing their penetrating claws and how you can’t seem to get up from the puddle of your own fears, the truth hidden in your flaws, your surrounding and perspectives on experiences”, she says. It is from that magic that her work is created. She adds that when she started varsity, she learnt that her father was a poet and therefore believes the gift was his inheritance for her.
She says that one of the highlights of her art career so far is her first stage performance, “it allowed me to shatter my insecurities and fears when it came to performing”. Another highlight being the winner of a slam poetry competition hosted by the University of Pretoria. She hints that a book might be in the pipelines so we should keep a lookout. More performances and collaborations are also in the coming future. To keep up with her you can follow her on social media. She is: @ndele_mavhungu on Instagram and her YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFcx5vA7EFmm7FfyK-ixtzA.




A poem her father wrote when she was born:
Ndele ya mashanyo -07/01/95
‘’Ndililadza mato anga dzithavhani”
A long- gone wise man once said:
‘Just when hope begins to fade
Prayers remain unanswered’
Ndele strides proudly unto our life!
Fhulufhelo strikes and harmonies crawl in mind.
Her twitching lips make songs of the humble.
Closed-palms, moving hands-like the pounding ngoma-lunghindu after a tedious battle!
Ndele is a rose/Lilly of dad’s heart!
By: Thabelo Mavhungu