Last night, I attended the inaugural Imbawula hosted by Random Window and Quarphix Foundation at Bean Republic.

Imbawula is an essential initiative and I’m proud to have been one of the first people to be a part of the movement. The venue which was intimate and cosy, with candles illuminating the room (an ode to a mbawula) was filled by the soulful sounds of a performance by the talented Melo B. Jones. It was nothing short of perfect.

Dreamer t-shirts were on sale at the event for R100 each. There were also donation jars going around the room, I guess the fact that there was no cover charge left people more receptive to their generosity. Proceeds from the t-shirt sales and donation jars went to Quarphix Foundation’s flagship programme, Radical Dreamers.

Putting this event review into words proved to be such a mission. I mean, how do I accurately explain the effect of Lee Molefi’s poignant, yet funny story about the year he experienced love, achievement, failure, loss, embarrassment and coming of age?

Or Vutomi’s poetic tale about the lessons she learned from the greatest love story that turned her and her “boy-man” into horrible human beings?

How do I articulate Milli B’s first encounter with her intuition or Anele’s hilarious rendition of the story that made her realize how manipulative she was at the tender age of five?

I could honestly never do justice to these stories, so… I decided to share the audio clips. Enjoy!

I hope these great stories and active audience engagement invoke a deep sense of FOMO so you don’t miss the next Imbawula.

Words: @AluwaniAudrey

Images: @Todar88