I spent a lot of time trying to reconcile with my identity growing up. Being comfortable within my own skin was my biggest challenge while growing up in a country where there is racial divide (SA). It was always you're not black enough, or You’re too white. But also, I grew up in a dualistic world, being in English schools and living in a black community.
Meet Tumi
Close friend and beautiful human who has experienced the full brunt of life but holds a glimmer in his heart. That shines through what he creates and who he shows up as.
Tumi shares openly his journey on getting lost and his flows that brought him back to living and helped him understand the meaning of his life.
"My main inspiration in my life is my gran, and she taught me a lot about how to believe in myself and strive for all that I am. She is a hard-working woman.
She knew how to go about accomplishing what she believed in, what she wanted to do. She was a great artisan, a great architect. She knew how to build haha. A very resilient and strong-willed woman; against all the odds, she always found a way to persevere and come through the other side.
English was the main language where I could fully express myself because I was speaking more of it than my native languages. But I remember going back home and having to re-adapt. My friends were speaking my native language, and I would miss certain phrases or words said in conversations. I felt torn between these two worlds and how I showed up in both of them. (I was also learning 5 languages in between.) It kind of created this moment of who am I?
When I started learning how to write, I felt I could be who I wanted to be and express the fullness of myself…
The love for writing is close to my heart because being an only child, unable to easily share my thoughts with spoken words enabled me to transmute this with written words. Playing with words was like painting a picture. It helped me to be more expressive.
I then started painting with music... I use this to paint an image of a journey that I take people on. It's a soul connection that I create to connect and find resonance.
I think music has always been a part of my life...
I used to sing when I was young. Being an introvert and soft-spoken, singing allowed me to open up more. It enabled me to evolve from this cocoon into this unique butterfly that would soar. This feeling felt like it almost always was there and needed to be released, and that outlet has always been something creative, something expressive.
I run as well, to feel in my body and to feel free. I feel exhilarated when I run; as if I could launch into space. I feel in my happy place. Running is a meditation practice for me.
Life is a question of choices to me; you choose to create or to not create.
Creating is, I feel, expressing the fullness of your being and why you came to exist. For me, this is my journey; this is why I came here.
- Tumi