Poet, actress and cultural activist, Tanatsei Gambura is defying the status quo and re-envisioning the creative arts space.
A passionate feminist and Pan-Africanist, her work explores the implications of culture, identity, the self and womanhood. At the age of 19, she formed the 25 May Movement, a pan-African organisation employing the power of creative arts for social change.
She said proudly, “We are an army of artists from all over Africa wielding our various art forms to ensure that one more child goes to school, one more woman can safely walk alone at night, one more worker can earn their work’s worth, and one more person can be identified how they want to be identified.”
Gambura’s vision involves building a vibrant, dynamic and sustainable creative sector that contributes to African development. 25 May Movement is now a credible voice in Southern Africa, tackling questions on how creative industries influence governance, human rights issues, democracy, and the process of self-actualisation.
Gambura’s work has been published by the Open Society Initiative for South Africa (OSISA), Prufrock Magazine, POVO Afrika and in the anthology Africanisation and Americanisation. In 2018 she was presented with the Patrice Lumumba award for Pan-Africanism.
Tanatsei is also on the board of directors of ROOTS, an organisation fighting for the social and economic emancipation of young women in Zimbabwe. In 2015, she was listed as one of “9 Zimbabwean Teens Who Will Shape the Nation” by Kalabash Media.
One of the many ways Gambura is making the world better is by running a nationwide radio broadcasting series; facilitating conversation circles around Harare; conducting workshops; publishing short films and managing to reach an online viewership of over 60 000.
