Joshua Marikopo

 The month of April is #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth.  In my opinion, one of the top 3 reason why we have so many men in prisons is because of sexual assault offences. What is sexual assault? The term sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim. Some forms of sexual assault include: Attempted rapeFondling or unwanted sexual touchingForcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s bodyPenetration of the victim’s body, also known as rape - According to  https://www.rainn.org/articles/sexual-assault In Zimbabwe sexual assault offences are covered by the law in Section 65 - 72 of the Criminal Codification Act.  Today SRHR Defenders, including I, were in SAYWHAT's Studio of Choice to have discussions on the subject. We talked of how young people are vulnerable to sexual assault in public spaces such as bus terminals and in tertiary institutions by perpetrators such as lectu...

  Storytelling is an effective tool global citizens can use to engage people on various platforms. A Global citizen is anyone who feels interconnected with the world and is an action taker who tackles on problems that they see in their communities and beyond. Now, we all know storytelling. We grew up hearing stories from our family, teachers and our peers which captivated our imaginations. When we learnt how to read we drowned ourselves in books with many stories that had amazing impact on our trajectory and creativity.  Storytelling has the ability to communicate messages we want to the audience we desire the story to reach. The power of Storytelling is that it can impact persons on a personal level and evoke emotions i.e empathy which is great for making audience believe in you. Story telling is genuine. It is a personal journey and something that comes from the heart. We can also use fictitious Storytelling to actually make the same point with true stories. The objective is...

 On Sunday, the second of April, my friend John Vekris - a senior Zimbabwean, former editor and Zimbabwean culture and art expert invited me to go see the 'Ngororombe' dancers in Epworth (a settlement a little out of the city). On arrival we were met by Lovemore, one of the Club's leaders who gave John directions to the meeting place a few metres into the cluster of settlement.  Before I explain what I saw, let me give a bit of background. Mr Vekris a long time partner and supporter of the Club said to me, "Musukutwa Bikita Cultural Club were formed in the late 90s. Lovemore would know exactly which year. Like most non-professional dancing clubs they are actually burial societies, pooling money together to assist with funeral expenses. Since the economic collapse around 2008, most such clubs/societies shut down. (They could not meet in numbers and lost all their savings). Lovemore is now in the process of reviving MBCC." THe club has its unique style of dance or ...