Purple Lipstick: 2016

Learning to Make Thoughts Actions

Goodbye 2017

We made it! If you're reading this post you are probably someone that has managed to stick it out with Purple Lipstick for an entire year :D Looking back at the past couple of months I feel like there's so much good that this blog, you and everyone else who's helped out along the way has brought to Zimbabwe and to the world...

Saturday, December 31, 2016
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Different is Ok

Meet Mati

Hi I'm Matifadza Chaza,Nice to meet you :).Sooo I'm a bit of an oddball, I've always been. I enjoy doing things most people would think are nerdy or weird for example watching Korean dramas or watching anime or dressing like the 80s called and they want their fashion back. Soooo I'm a bit radical in my fight against the conventions set up by society...

Tuesday, December 06, 2016
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Everything and Nothing

college 101

The title “everything and nothing” is totally open to interpretation. You can give it whatever meaning you want to. Just as the title is ambiguous, so is this short article. Maybe, this is me being very “artsy” but maybe this is me being uncreative (insert emoji that is thinking). I would like to believe this article is the former. So, if you will...

Tuesday, November 29, 2016
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Meet Christina

against the current

Life will always go against the current , that's why when we are born the world smiles and celebrates and we wail out.Those who surround us, with smiles as if smiles are all the armor and ammunition we need to make it in life .Life promises to be accessorized with so much brightness like a day in spring. We all start off with...

Saturday, November 26, 2016
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Candidly Noni

embracing the journey

It has been a while since I posted anything on the blog, and I am sure some of you were starting to wonder if I am even still a part of Purple Lipstick. Rest assured that I am still very much a part of the family, notice that I say family….because I think that is what our cute little community is. And as...

Thursday, November 03, 2016
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Celebrating African Youth Day 2016

Africa Youth Day

What is Africa Youth Day? Purple Lipstick is so excited to be joining the rest of Africa in celebrating Africa Youth Day 2016! The day is officially set for the 1st of November. This year the African Union is encouraging young people to commemorate Africa Youth Day in their communities under the theme, ‘Promoting Youth Mainstreaming as a Catalyst towards Harnessing the Demographic...

Friday, October 28, 2016
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“Love Yourz”

college 101

You may be reading this and may recognise the title as being J. Cole’s song “Love Yourz”. This article will indeed be about the wise words J. Cole dropped in this song. If you don’t know this song…please go listen to it. It may be worth your while if you are ever feeling insecure about where you are in life. So basically...

Friday, October 28, 2016
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Freed By Love

chichi

Every person has an innate desire to be loved. A tender touch, a warm smile and a loving look can do wonders to a broken heart. My world began falling apart before it even started. Losing my mother at the age of seven broke my heart to the core. It affected myself esteem and the way I viewed the world. For years I...

Thursday, October 20, 2016
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Rock Music in Zimbabwe in the 70s???

music

To be truly honest I wouldn't ever classify myself as a "fan" of rock music. In fact when I was in college my brother and I walked into the student hangout center at our school one night looking for food, and almost fainted when we found ourselves surrounded by people screaming and shaking their heads. I'm not even going to lie, I forgot...

Monday, October 03, 2016
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First Week of University as an International Student

college 101

You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Everyone knows that saying. But very few people really understand what it means. My first week in this foreign place I had my mother and her sisters to settle me in. I was basically being spoiled so I did not miss anything. I had a part of home with me (my mother). The day...

Thursday, September 29, 2016
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Women Are Leading Africa

Inspiration

Our hearts flutter whenever we see women leading. I think Africa often gets a bit of a bad rap when it comes to the way women are treated (there are definitely things we need to work on.) However, today our team decided to put together a short list celebrating some of the great ways Women are leading in Africa! We hope that by...

Tuesday, September 27, 2016
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"Boys Will Be Boys"

alberts thoughts

When I was younger we used to have chickens in our yard (like most Zimbabweans at one point in their lives). They weren’t the pretty white expensive Broilers that would make the yard look organized and economical. Oh no, they were those kumusha type, few feathers missing, road runner chickens; and they were as anxious as they were unattractive. They were constantly on edge and would be scared of almost anything. They would run at the sight of even the slightest disturbance and blurt out loud clucks as they did. For their security we would place them in one room at night. But that was no comfort to them. The slightest sound, even the sound of a branch landing on the roof would send them into a panic and like an orchestra the entire flock would erupt into exclamations of desperate pleas for help.
What was worse was we had dogs, and for a few days we had to drill it into them that the chickens were not food. The chickens could not have cared less about our scolding and instructions. They were horrified every time Rex and Tiger ran about.

When they would make their noise from whatever trivial thing would frighten them, my mother would ask me to go check on them and see what was going on. As you can imagine this quickly became unpleasant and frustrating and after many nights of waking up and finding nothing there I eventually confronted my mother with this question
“why are they so scared all the time!?”
My mother, who is always kind and thoughtful with her answers to my questions, smiled at me and said,
“That’s what chickens do. Chickens will be chickens””

Flash forward a few months, and the chickens have become part of our regular scene at home. My siblings and I (as children tend to do) began to find ourselves attached to these chickens and ended up giving each one a name, petting them, and treating them as if they were babies. We’d rush home from school and scramble to grab some mealie meal and feed our little squad of pets. We’d add grass to their nests, chase the dogs away if they got too close, and save the chicks from whatever mess they would find themselves tangled in.
It was while we were doing all of this that I noticed something strange. The chickens began to act very differently. They would still panic here and there but they were far less noisy at night, far less cowardly at the sight of danger or disturbances. In fact they started to become brave! Chasing little children that came too close to their nests, sitting right in my lap as I ate my lunch, and walking on top of the napping dogs as they roamed their yard. The chickens became unreasonably brave, chasing maids and gardeners who entered their territory, climbing roofs, and eating food that was not for them.
This may have been funny and often times scary to observe, but when it came time for the chickens to be slaughtered (much to the children’s dismay) , the chickens were too confident to realize the man with a knife was here to kill them, and they would only run last minute. Baffled and annoyed at their failure to flee, I approached my gardener and asked him,
“why do these chickens not run!?”
He laughed and pointed at some roosters fighting and said back to me,
“that’s what chickens do. Chickens will be chickens”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Chickens are both symbols of cowardice and fearless pride. What determines which characteristic we see, tends to depend on what the chicken’s environment promotes.

I wonder what it means when we think of boys being boys as an inescapable truth that only applies to their weakness.

I wonder if like the chickens we assume their behavior is justified and permanent.
I wonder where the line is drawn as absurd or nature. Like the chickens and the dogs versus the chickens and the branch on the roof; a cat-call versus writing an inappropriate comment on their photos or posts.

Boys will be… what we allow them to be.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016
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Overcoming Depression

guest blogger

My Message To You, The Youth When I started to feel depressed, I didn’t even realize it. The feeling crept up on me very subtly. It started around November of last year and slowly worked itself into the New Year. Sometimes it hid itself. I would have days when I felt very low, tired and moody, and then I would have days when...

Thursday, August 25, 2016
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Getting Over My Insecurities

power

Its been a while since I've written on here ( i'm sorry, the team and I have been prepping for some exciting changes that you'll get to know about soon!) I honestly can't believe the year is almost over :'( I saw an advert for a musical about the Grinch on T.V. the other day and nearly fell out of my chair! Prompted...

Monday, August 22, 2016
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The Worst Kinds of Pain

guest blogger

The Worst Kinds of Pain These are some of the worst emotional pains I have ever felt. It took me a pretty long time to type this article (thank you Lower Six for the crazy number of holiday assignments you come with) and I really hope you enjoy it) 1. 1. When we find ourselves rejected by that one guy we...

Thursday, August 18, 2016
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"You are Beautiful"

guest blogger

“You are beautiful!” “You are beautiful!” “You are beautiful!” “You are beautiful!” I hear this probably every single day from my girlfriends at the cafeteria at school, at the gym as we work out together to get this perfect bodies but I am lost, world!! I tell them how beautiful they are too knowing how compliments are very necessary in the life we live in now. You want to always know you are beautiful or at least ‘trying to look beautiful’. This is what I have learned from the society through my naïve ears and eyes. I have learned that if you do not fit a certain standard, you’re synonymous with the lesser. I have been caught up with the nonsense of it all. I am walking through a road of unreachable expectations. “God! I wish I looked like Gabrielle Union.” Statements like this have made me believe that I can never actually be good enough. I want to be like someone I will never be. These unreachable expectations break every individual striving to be like somebody. Body’s not good enough? ‘Don’t eat, you’d rather starve, you need that flat tummy.’ I look around, plastered photos on billboards, commercials, music video scenes, barbie dolls. The typical beauty queens. Oh Beauty! I have realized that beauty is having hair that falls perfectly straight. Cascading like waterfalls. Eyes so beautiful. Diamonds faltered in comparison. Skin that’s not too dark. They say “light skin is the right skin”. And a body that belongs on the cover of Cosmopolitan. Beauty. I put on that make up they tell me to, to look for perfection. Concealer, foundation, mascara. I fill in these lines till I’ve colored myself “pretty”. As if it hides my emotional scars. I am screaming to the world. “Is this what you want? What about what I want?” And then, there’s this thing called a mirror. If I look in I see my reflection. The picture so clear. I can’t help but make an assessment. I still see every flaw, every imperfection, every insecurity, every heartbreak, every time I wish I were that person on TV. But what is this beauty?

I have been racking my mind trying to find the perfect definition on what beauty really is but I just don’t seem to find a clear one. I have been trying to look for beauty by trying to fit in. My idea of beauty has been tainted and poisoned. Never do I remember my mother’s words any longer. I cling to what I have been made to believe by the boys at school and by the men with eyes that never seem to get off what they call beauty. I hold on to the societal demands of beauty and I forget that, beauty, was never meant to have a definition. Beauty was meant to be looked at with fascination. If you think beauty is more than the surface of your skin. Then you have started at a good place to begin. Beauty is not on the outside. It is not something that you can see. Beauty is something within you. Something you just have to be. Beauty is always giving, and asking for nothing in return. Beauty is that thing deep inside you. It is not something you can learn. Beauty lingers in everyone, it sleeps within the soul. But only some of us find it, and that is what makes you whole. Beauty is being a friend, a friend that is always there. Beauty is believing in someone, and letting them know you care. Never feel disheartened, a lack of beauty is never near. Beauty isn’t I love you, but giving love that’s true. Beauty isn’t sweet words, but words that inspires lives. Beauty isn’t what you say, but the way it’s said. Beauty can lighten eyes, but true beauty lives, very deep inside. Its grace can bring joy to Hundreds of hearts. It is easy to find beauty, just gaze into the mirror. And remember that the only thing that matters, really matters, is that you can meet your eyes in that mirror each day and know that you have been true to yourself and that you know that beauty is more than the skin you are covered in. Make those scars beautiful. “You are beautiful”. “You are beautiful.” And I don’t mean to sound cliché, but yes you are beautiful no matter what they say. His body was broken His blood spilled so one day you’d realize what you are in His eyes. Unexplainably Indescribably Unequivocally Beautiful In Him. You would be wondrous and made whole. Sweetheart, one day you’ll believe that beauty is more than the physical. One by one, the pieces will align until you can look at yourself, head held high, smile and say I am beautiful.

Thursday, August 11, 2016
1 Comments

A Sisterhood Dynasty

guest blogger

“blame the internet “ It took me so long to write this ....trying to appeal to my generation, ‘who shall even pay attention’ i pondered ....these days its harder than it was when we didn’t have smart phones; such simple times where the sentiments were real and the love was not limited to ‘heart eyes’ and attention spans weren’t on limited. A generation...

Thursday, August 04, 2016
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Self-Enlightenment and Tales of Other Journeys

guest blogger

One of the many aspects that factor into a child’s happiness is the fact that the world seems to be pre-historically flat It doesn’t have that roundness of different perspectives and views, it has the essence of completeness The illusion that Mama and Papa are perfect; that playing in the mud for four hours is the epitome of fun; that the only thing...

Saturday, July 16, 2016
2 Comments

Purple Lipstick

Learning to Make Thoughts Actions

Different is Ok

Everything and Nothing

Meet Christina

Candidly Noni

Celebrating African Youth Day 2016

“Love Yourz”

Freed By Love

Rock Music in Zimbabwe in the 70s???

First Week of University as an International Student

Women Are Leading Africa

"Boys Will Be Boys"

Overcoming Depression

Getting Over My Insecurities

The Worst Kinds of Pain

"You are Beautiful"

A Sisterhood Dynasty

Self-Enlightenment and Tales of Other Journeys

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