From abuse to empowerment: How a Zimbabwean artist is using her passion to help others
Bulawayo resident Sikhulekile Dube, also known as Skhue, has dedicated her life to empowering young girls and women through art despite facing numerous challenges along the way.
The founder and director of Pumula Arts and Crafts Center has been able to promote and preserve culture and heritage values through creative arts, services, and sports. Her center offers skills training on beading, detergents making, macramé, crocheting, knitting, food processing, events decor, capacity buildings entrepreneurship skills, business management, communication skills, Afrocentric designs, basic to leather products production, and fine arts.
Skhue has proved that passion drives the vision regardless of the challenges faced when building a business. She identified her talent at a young age and has since mentored and coached others to realise their potential. Her centre’s youngest modeller and beader is only six years old, showing the importance of early identification and nurturing of talent.
Responsibilities
“I had started responsibility at an early age. I could plait other girls at school to get extra cash so I can buy books for me and other siblings. I could even do door mats using rugs. I was very creative in whatever I touched with my hands,” she said.
Speaking about her drive to help young girls and women through her art, Skhue said, “When I linked the abuse and the way I was raised by a single mama, uncle when mom died, granny when uncle died, and later by different relatives when granny passed on as well.
Moreover, this really touched me because I had started responsibility at an early age, I could plait other girls at school to get extra cash so I can buy books for me and other siblings.”
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Empowering Young Girls
She added, “I was very creative in what I touched with my hands. I thought of empowering young girls and women as a way of passing my skills and ideas so that they don’t face the same challenges that I faced in life.”
In 2017, Skhue quit her job in South Africa so that she could focus on her passion for art and helping others. She realized that her skills in visual and performance arts, as well as her mentoring, facilitation, coaching, counseling, and teaching experience, could make an impact on many young girls and women facing different challenges. Today, Skhue has won numerous awards, showing the growth of her business and entrepreneurship.
One of the initiatives that Skhue has spearheaded is an “Exhibeni Youth Festival” aimed at bridging the gap between the young and the elderly. By mobilizing youths and elders for open discussion segments, culturalists take up the role of grannies and aunts to give lessons on different topics relating to growing up, maintaining relationships, and raising children.
Realisations
“I have realized that most cases of Gender-based violence are caused by shortcuts in marriages, and disputes between parents and children are caused by miscommunication due to the generation gap. We serve as an intercessor in such situations,” Skhue explained.
Despite her success, Skhue has faced numerous challenges along the way. The lack of social support, financial support due to economic hardships, and losing trainees after grooming them are some of the most significant setbacks she has faced.
However, she has worked around these obstacles by partnering with other organizations, working with government ministries, and always researching the latest trends in her field.
The Future
Looking to the future, Skhue plans to build a culture and heritage site that will attract tourists and create employment in the community. The site will feature a cultural museum, restaurant, library, guest rooms, and temporary shelters for the vulnerable.
“We plan to have a cultural restaurant, cultural museum, cultural library, guest rooms to shelter invited facilitators and visitors, and a temporary shelter for the vulnerable. This will help us to preserve our culture and heritage through documentation and creative art,” Skhue concluded.
Lastly, despite the challenges she has faced, Skhue’s passion for empowering young girls and women through art has remained unbroken. She has continued to inspire others through her leadership, creativity, and unwavering commitment to preserving and promoting culture and heritage values.
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Thank so much for recognising me.