The most tragic occurrences have the capacity to ignite a fire that connects us to a spring of purpose that overflows with creativity. Mpho Mathaba is a living example of this fact.
She is a young Mosotho girl who walked in to a vaulting scope of a purpose that not only healed her, but it helped her use her art to caress the aching souls of those her craft touches. Mpho Mathaba is a rising literature mogul in Lesotho because she found who she is in the simplicity of syllables.
Growing up, Mpho was an introvert who spent her time exploring a surreal reality which existed in the black and white of a page. Being this reserved word addict, she soon came to realize that she loved the comfort words gave her. As a matter of fact, she started to express herself through the very words she had become addicted to.
She poeticized her feelings and created allusions of escape in the times her emotions spiraled out of control due to circumstances beyond her control. Little did she know, she was a walking repository of hidden treasure.
There is a sentient that Mpho refers to as magic whenever she holds the pen to immerse herself in her writing. She recites in one of her poems, “I am an artist in the world of syllables and I have gathered my magic behind a pen.”
In ancient Greek, the word for the highest degree of human happiness is called Eudaimonia and this is the very degree that Mpho reaches when she is fully immersed in the magic of her pen. In case you were wondering, although she does write digitally sometimes, she prefers pen and paper because her ‘eudaimonia’ lies in feeling the realness of what she has expressed in her hand.
Being a young writer, Mpho has received an Honorary First Place Award for her story-writing in the World Of Words Foundation Story Writing Competition. Here, she wrote an out-of-the-box letter to the girl child which expressed her ideologies on the bondage of patriarchy. After this studious win, she went on to start a blog of her own.
In the introduction she writes, “ …this blog serves as a space for me to freely get intoxicated with the alphabet.”
This rising literature mogul reports that she draws her inspiration from the sky and its bodies. She uses her imagination to interconnect the stars and come up with stories. She is a fanatic for cloud chasing and she loves the serenity that comes from looking at the clouds.
Music also plays a major role in the construction of Mpho’s craft. She loves the depth that comes with each lyric and how each melody makes her travel to places she never thought she could.
Now to the tricky part; how did Mpho use her art to heal herself? Like every artist, art cures one from things not spoken about. It becomes an outlet of things that cannot be explained in words. Art forces the artist to face their emotions when others would rather drown them in alcohol.
With Mpho, writing is a special form of art because when she pours out her emotions through her pen, she unconsciously creates a projection of other people’s most intense feelings.
Below is one of Mpho’s favorite writings;
“Today I have allowed my pen to take over
I have allowed its ink to expose me,
To lay out my nakedness,
It’s nib has my has my full permission to uncover all parts of me,
Shallow or deep,
Raw or mild,
I shall not put its lid on.
I shall bask in the glory of what I really am,
I shall be a writer,
Unapologetically,
Today and other days to follow,
All my bitterness and sweetness will be released,
Released from the tissues and pillows that soaked my tears,
And I shall ascend to my throne,
As the Queen of Syllables.”
Mpho’s form of art is writing. It is her form of magic because it does more than just caress her soul alone. She dreams of igniting the spark of Lesotho’s excellence in literature and it will definitely be an honor to have the entire world touched by her magic.
To access Mpho’s writing visits the sites below.
Mpho Mathaba Blog: https://melodies.art.blog
Mpho Mathaba contribution to book; https://whosestorieswillwehear.org/2021/02/05/mpho-mathaba-lesotho