I find myself in the entertainment industry. But yeah, I'm just a young man living in a male body, experiencing the flaws, lights, and the calling. I think sometimes we exaggerate the things we enjoy doing into callings so that we can find meaning and purpose in them. For me, it's something I enjoy doing because I grew up not being able to express myself. I didn't feel like I had a voice. As a dancer, this became my form of expression, and I found my voice through being in the entertainment space. That's why I grew more within the entertainment industry because my voice was growing. I transitioned from a dancer to an actor, content creator, DJ, and MC. As my versatility grew, I felt my own voice, as if God's voice, becoming stronger. That's why I'm able to go on platforms like this and share my voice. It helped me develop a stronger sense of self-confidence, self- esteem, and self-worth. So, calling? I don't know because I haven't connected it in a spiritual sense. Some of the things we do in the industry aren't uplifting in a spiritual way. It's difficult to say it's my calling when I might be playing a serial killer in a movie. Hungani: Firstly, thank you for having me. It's truly an honour and a privilege, and I don't take this opportunity lightly. Hungani Ndlovu is a young black man who is now a father, husband, and child of God. I am a believer in the Christian faith, and that is essentially who I am. What I do is not who I am, but I work as an actor, dancer, DJ, and entertainer.
Hungani with his wife Stephanie
CAM: Yeah, I'm going to come back to that because what you just said is very important for our readers and listeners. We're talking about healing. Let's unpack your life, you openly spoke about the abuse you went through during your school days, right through to a previous relationship, where you experienced domestic violence. Do you mind taking us through that journey? Hungani : In primary school, I was a very shy kid who struggled to fit in. When I got to high school, my parents decided to send me to a boarding school, a very prestigious one. It was an opportunity for me to explore, grow, and figure myself out but because I was a shy kid and attended a traditional boys' school, things didn't go as planned. Bullying was a prevalent issue, and sometimes it was disguised as initiation or a tradition that we all went through. But the impact on individuals was much more damaging than the sense of community within the school. The bullying I experienced made me lose self-confidence and self- worth. Eventually, when I reached a senior position, I found myself retaliating by bullying the juniors because it seemed like that was how the system worked, and I needed to follow it to survive. Looking back, I realised that spending my last five years from grade eight to matric in that environment was very traumatic. Experiencing bullying and then becoming a bully is not a healthy framework to enter the real world. And this is where my abusive relationship began before I even started university.
June 2023 | Collective Action Magazine
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