“Each person is unique and we all have different identities…”
So often identity is already determined by the past and current circumstances but Phiwokuhle Gwala challenges the discovery of identity through her 2 published books known as The Future That Awaits me and Was Eve Wrong? Furthermore, she is the founder of The Eve Foundation.
Gwala was born in Durban in a township called Molweni. “My upbringing was standard and from a loving family. I was always around my parents, grandmother, uncle and brother”. She remembers attending her Grade 8-9 at Verulam Islamic Institution which was a boarding school and finished her high school years at Wynburg Secondary. “I have a qualification in Business Management and Micro MBA” says Gwala. With her business skills she was able to establish the Eve foundation in 2019.
The Eve foundation consists of 4 branches. “The first branch is The Eve foundation which is the main branch. The second branch is the Wisdom in Ink branch which is where I publish my books. The 3rd branch is the Eve’s business hand branch which is where I help people who wish to start their own businesses as I am qualified in business management and business facilitation. And the 4th branch is the Eve’s literature mentorship branch where I mentor other people who wish to be authors” explains Phiwokuhle.
Her first published book is The Future That Awaits which is targeted to help teenagers to discover their identity. “A teenager’s life is usually predicted at the age of 13 he/ she will begin to smoke, at the age of 15 it’s predicted that he/she will fail at school and further predicted that at 16 years she is likely to fall pregnant. Sadly it has always been negative predictions but I plan to make the narrative a positive one” she adds. The second book is called Was Eve Wrong? It is targeted at females of all ages to help them discover their identity and purpose and heal from the wounds of the past.
“I was not inspired to write the books at first, it was just me expressing how I was feeling in written words. I do believe I was called to write even though at first it was a distant thought” she says. Gwala is 22 years and first wrote when she was 19 years old; to her she was not writing a book but expressing her thoughts. However it later transpired after rewriting her first book 3 times due to unforeseen circumstances that she is an author. “In rewriting my book God removed my pain during the process and left wisdom instead”, she reminisces.
“I wish to influence people to fully discover who they are and to have a sound mind to achieve in any situation”, says Phiwokuhle. Her advice is: “don’t run away from your past pain because healing from it helps in discovering your identity”. Gwala’s author, entrepreneur and mentor skills open a chapter that equips people with the skill to acknowledge when one needs time to heal and how society should practice empathy towards people who are in the process of healing.
This year the author plans to publish two more books. The books will be called After Perseverance and Superhero Jesus. In her busy schedule she still finds time to add value in her community by participating in community activities which are largely directed to the youth.
She concludes by saying: “Each person is unique and we all have different identities. Above all you can ever do, discover who you are, find yourself within yourself and never stop seeking your identity from God”.
By Sandra Lesenyeho
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