Healing Through Expression

Growing up in Bulawayo, creative expression was part of everyday life. Performances by IYASA (Inkululeko Yabatsha School of Arts), music drifting through Makokoba, and community gatherings built around dance and storytelling shaped the spaces many of us moved through. Those experiences created room for connection, conversation and reflection long before I understood them in those terms.

Years later, as a scholar and creative living in Makhanda, I encounter a familiar rhythm. During the National Arts Festival, streets fill with performances, exhibitions and public gatherings that draw people into shared spaces. Behind that energy, however, many of the realities that shape everyday life in Bulawayo remain visible here too. Economic strain, unemployment and social pressures continue to affect communities, while conversations around mental health often remain difficult to have openly.

Mental health challenges continue to affect large numbers of people across Zimbabwe and South Africa, yet access to support remains uneven. Stigma still influences how people speak about emotional distress, and in many communities, access to mental health services remains limited. Rural regions and under-resourced areas frequently carry the greatest burden.

In places such as Makhanda and Bulawayo, mental health cannot be separated from the broader conditions people live through. Long periods of unemployment, financial instability and uncertainty around the future shape daily experiences, particularly for young people. These pressures often accumulate quietly and become difficult to navigate without spaces that allow for expression and support.

Community arts initiatives have increasingly become part of that process. In Bulawayo, projects linked to organisations such as the Isilwane Youth Centre have used music, dance, visual art and performance to engage young people around issues affecting their wellbeing. The conversations in these spaces often begin with creativity rather than clinical language. That shift matters. Young people can enter through familiarity and participation rather than feeling that they are stepping into environments built around diagnosis and judgment.

A similar process has unfolded within projects across the Eastern Cape. During the National Arts Festival, artists regularly engage with themes of grief, identity, vulnerability and social pressure through performance and visual work. These spaces create opportunities for experiences that are often carried privately to become part of public conversation. Creative work can place difficult subjects into view without forcing people to speak before they are ready.

Stigma remains one of the largest obstacles surrounding mental health support. Silence often grows around fear of judgment, social expectations and misunderstandings about mental health conditions. Creative practice has offered communities different ways to approach these conversations. Through exhibitions, performances, writing and community projects, difficult experiences become visible and open to discussion. Shared experiences begin to emerge from subjects that many people previously carried in isolation.

Through my involvement in the development and rollout of Intetho Magazine, I have engaged with young people navigating diverse social and economic realities. Their experiences reveal both strain and possibility. Conversations around artistic practice regularly move beyond performance itself into discussions of wellbeing, identity, and personal growth. Creative spaces have also become places where young people are exploring entrepreneurship, project management and collaborative work while building confidence in their abilities.

Initiatives such as the Hoppy Vibes Mental Health and Wellness concert series in Bulawayo have created opportunities for artists to engage directly with mental health themes through music and performance. Beyond raising awareness, these spaces encourage participation and dialogue while allowing young people to shape the conversations themselves.

There remains a need for stronger institutional support around initiatives of this nature. Greater collaboration between researchers, artists, mental health practitioners and community leaders could strengthen existing work and create approaches grounded in local realities. Support structures built around communities themselves can create environments where people feel recognised, heard and included within conversations about their wellbeing.

In communities such as Makhanda and Bulawayo, creative expression continues to provide a space where people process experiences that are often difficult to articulate elsewhere. Investing in these forms of cultural engagement opens pathways for dialogue, connection and support while recognising the knowledge and resources that communities already hold.