The Yoga Bar and African Affirmations with Fikile 'Fix' Moeti (S8, E7)

Fikile "Fix" Moeti calls herself a Lightworker and you’ll find out what she means by that in this episode. The Social Entrepreneur is the founder of a pay-it-forward education and women-focused social enterprise, The Fix Scholarship. She is a well-known former radio DJ and MTV South Africa presenter. 

This long-time yogi is now navigating a new chapter as a mom and owner of a beachfront yoga studio and bar called The Yoga Bar, on the East African island of Zanzibar. Her work with The Fix Scholarship has also led a to a new project that she co-founded with one of the scholarship alumni, and it’s called African Affirmations, an inclusive 30-card deck for children, and the young at heart. You’ll also hear how her family’s legacy of activism and education has been instrumental in shaping her life today and career.  

Fikile ‘Fix’ Moeti’s story isn't just about change; it's a beacon for anyone yearning to pursue creativity and authenticity while navigating life's ups and downs. Find out how business, life and local traditions intertwine to create the perfect conditions for slow living and creativity. 

 LINKS AND MENTIONS

https://africanaffirmations.org/ 

Gugu Mbhata Raw (Actress)  

Thandile Lujabe-Rankoe (Diplomat and Fikile’s grandmother) 

Fix Scholarship

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, guthuanos Kosanarichi, and today we are talking about transformation and reinvention. My guest is social entrepreneur yogi and DJ Figile Fix Muedi. Many of you might know her as a daytime radio DJ from 5FM and also as an MTV presenter, but a few years ago she left radio and television behind. She left South Africa for Tanzania and welcomed a new season that would allow her to continue shining a light into the lives of other humans. All of this coincided with COVID turning 30, the birth of her child and a painful divorce.

Speaker 1 0:48

In today's conversation, we discuss her journey to becoming a yogi, or light worker, as she calls herself, doing business in Tanzania, her philanthropic work through her very own social enterprise, the Fix Scholarship, and how she blends her different talents and interests to create a meaningful life. If you've ever dreamed about working and living abroad or how to live more creatively, then this is the episode for you. Here is Figile FIX Mueti in her own words. I think a good place to start is to start with you describing the core of your work and the deeper meaning you attach to the activities that you engage in.

Speaker 2 1:36

Wow, that is a loaded question now. It never was a loaded question before because I defined me very much by what my job at that time was.

Speaker 1 1:50

That's why I asked the question.

Speaker 2 1:52

So one thing I can say to you right now of who I am now is who I think I've always been from childhood is that I'm an entertainer. It's one thing I know I'm very good at doing, and a chapter that I've come into is healing. So I consider myself, I call myself more of a light worker, and that's just a gift that I've carried from childhood that I've only come into fully embracing most recently. So if you want to put it together, I'd say I am in essence. If I had to say who is Fikile Mweti, I would say I am an entertainer and I am a lightworker and I make it work somehow.

Speaker 1 2:38

That's wonderful. So what did lightworker look like when you were younger?

Speaker 2 2:43

So I'm from a place in South Africa called East London, or should I say where my village is is a place called Nwamakwe. We're the ones with the cliques and we my mom and I were walking in East London, which is like a city close by, not too far away from our village, where most of my family also settles, and I went to school there and we were walking in a mall and a lady came up to my mom and she said listen, your daughter has healing hands. And my mom at the time obviously was just a little bit. She's in the mall, she's got responsibilities, not thinking much of it, looked at her and just said, thank you. I think she didn't really know what to think of it and just said, yeah, she's got healing hands and that was it. And the lady continued on and my mom reminds me of that every day since she's seen my journey and where I am today.

Speaker 2 3:37

Yeah, and and it's, it's something definitely that I've. I've stepped into and didn't go the traditional route and decided to go and figure this out in Fikile's way, my own way, because I'm quite diverse and multifaceted, and particularly in my upbringing.

Speaker 1 3:57

Yeah, absolutely yeah, we're going to talk about all of that.

Speaker 2 4:03

So I hope yeah, I hope that answers your question as to where that started.

Speaker 1 4:08

Yeah, I mean right now. How does that manifest itself? The light work, yeah.

Speaker 2 4:14

So initially I mean right now I am a yoga teacher I found a lot of my, I want to say, shamanic journey, my in South Africa we talk about Sangomas, like that is the journey that I feel that I've been on in a different way. All these conscious, connected ways were kind of coming towards me and I found that more in Eastern medicine, in Chinese medicine within yoga philosophy and I thought let me dig deeper here.

Speaker 2 4:48

And so I decided to get my teacher trainings. And COVID happened soon afterwards and I was like I'm just gonna quit my job while I'm at it and go live on an African island Zanzibar in Tanzania, to be very specific and just continue on with my healing journey, because I want to heal personally.

Speaker 2 5:11

so and that was a, that was a turning point for me, for something that I went through, and to open up a studio where I've built a conscious community that is not only yoga focused, and that was the beauty about this discovery of self. And this is why I say Lightworker, because, as much as I called it a yoga studio, or yoga shala if you want to call it, it's a beautiful place on the beach in Zanzibar, in a village called Cairo Cuingua to be exact. We created this. I say we, I created this, and I need to stop doing that. By the way, why do you keep saying we? That's a story. That's a story for FIGS Scholarship as well. When I started the FIGS Scholarship, Right, right Okay.

Speaker 2 5:57

But I always said we and I needed to stop. I need to stop doing that and say and be proud and not feel ashamed and I deservedly should say I started a conscious community in the east of Kiwangwa and it was so much needed. There were a lot of women. Zanzibar is a very yin island. It's a feminine island. You feel it when you're there. We say pole, pole, which is slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly.

Speaker 2 6:26

You have picked up some Swahili yeah oh yeah, in chantania and swahili, pole, pole meaning. So it's you, you, you have to embrace it, because you can't fight the passiveness of it. It's going to be passive, it's going to be slow, and you can fight it or you can just kind of relax and work with it. And that is. It's a beautiful thing that we've created. I've created there.

Speaker 2 6:54

So yeah it includes yoga and includes music. It includes compassion, healing too from my one-on-ones and we do a lot of cord cutting, so whatever like the client kind of needs. That sounds amazing. We we go around it. But yes, my, my background and my base is is based on yoga philosophy. Yoga is is a huge part of this discovery nice, nice.

Speaker 1 7:19

Why zanzibar? I mean, you would think south africans closest is mozambique. You might want to dabble there. So what drew you to Zanzibar?

Speaker 2 7:30

I have to be honest. I've been visiting Zanzibar for the past 12 years. It was my first time and I loved the place. I always said if I ever wanted to move being in South Africa, I always said if I wanted to move somewhere, it would definitely be be to East Africa. I was very drawn to the Swahili people. There's a part of me I feel inside them, so I always say, like I feel ancestry when I'm there too.

Speaker 1 7:53

That is, that is an energy thing, you just yeah, yeah, there's just some places which you connect to yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 8:02

So I decided to. I decided, you know what, if it's going to be anywhere and on the continent, it's going to be there. I mean, I partly grew up in Botswana as well.

Speaker 1 8:12

I know you've got quite a story. Yeah, there's Botswana, there's England somewhere in the mix. You know it's all happening yeah.

Speaker 2 8:23

I've got that background so I I think I've always just noticed. I've always growing up, I've always known there's above and beyond south africa 100 percent sure and and I've appreciated other african cultures so much, having grown up outside of south africa, which I didn't see really amongst my peers, who were born, bred in South Africa and had no aspiration really about traveling.

Speaker 2 8:50

No, we don't travel you know, it was about overseas, you know, and particularly Black South Africans. It's one of those things where there are not many Black South Africans that were traveling to Zanzibar, for instance. And now I'm seeing more of a popularity of African women coming in their groups coming through, because they're just like ah, it's Africa.

Speaker 1 9:12

Like I'm right here I want to go somewhere.

Speaker 2 9:15

You know, I want to be super different, so I mean each to their own, but there's a feeling. There's a feeling of home. So I live in a village, I don't live in a city. It's something that I appreciate so much. I live in like a. It reminds me of living on a farm almost. I simplified my life and I wanted to simplify my life a whole lot more. I appreciate so much more in my life. Little things when I come home and I mean we just spoke about it earlier I've actually come home to come and visit my mom and see how she's doing so, I think, just particularly coming out of COVID.

Speaker 2 9:50

I'm so happy with that. I'm so happy with the deep appreciation of leaving the fickle in the city for now, especially during that time, and going their necessities is what I need for now. And let's see how this goes and that's been a big part of that spiritual awakening, Massive part actually.

Speaker 1 10:09

So you decided to simplify your life and you know, you left radio and you left South Africa.

Speaker 2 10:17

Those are huge, huge changes, Big, big shift to, just, you know, take it a few steps back. Once upon a time time. I would call myself a radio DJ. Exactly what are you, I wouldn't say, entertain? I would say I'm a radio DJ. And before I was on radio, I would have said oh, I'm an MTV DJ, and that's what I do, you know and that's how I kind of entered into the industry.

Speaker 2 10:39

But after doing that and I've been doing I started that when I was 19 years old is where that career began. I was studying film and media at the University of Cape Town and decided to try out to be a presenter on TV. I knew I had an underlying talent of just an urge to entertain. So it happened and moved my life to johannesburg. It felt like I always say, I always say when someone asks me this question, I always go. It reminded me of one of those idols moments where you're like in the top three and then all of a sudden you're holding hands or in like a beauty pageant and you're all holding hands and you're like, oh my gosh, is it going to be me? Can I just want to put this out there. I knew it was going to be me.

Speaker 1 11:23

I you know that.

Speaker 2 11:27

I knew it was going to be me. And here's the here's. The weird part about it is that at that moment I decided I thought do I really want this? Do I really want this and that was a very I've.

Speaker 2 11:40

Only those things are starting to come up a lot more now in the last four or five years. Do I really, did I really want it at that time, or do is this, is this going to be good for me? So I mean, that's, that's. That's always a dot dot, dot. At the end I mean you never know. It led me to where I am today, absolutely.

Speaker 2 12:00

It was a good platform. Right, exactly, and that's exactly the word. It was a platform to many beautiful things that I got to do, but I struggled with the entertainment industry, the fickleness of it, the idea of being an it girl, and consistently chasing this it girl model was really I mean, imagine being a 19-, 19 year old who's kind of told you got to change this about yourself, you got to look like this, you got to be like this, you got to be at these parties all the time, of course you gotta hang out with these people.

Speaker 2 12:35

I found myself very confused, but I've always been very thankful that I had such a grounded family and I knew if anything should happen. I've always got my family to go back to and that was always a reminder. My mom always said don't go out there with these boys who have Mercedes Benz's and BMW's. We have that at home. I mean, we had one car, but I love that but she works.

Speaker 2 13:05

You know she works super hard, so she to make sure that she could provide everything for me. So she was just like. We can even ask our friends if you want to really ride in one of those cars don't go out with these you know I'm a quaint is what she used to say oh god, oh, he's done tape.

Speaker 1 13:23

I went to Rhodes, I missed that, oh lovely.

Speaker 2 13:27

Oh, it's a special place, it's a, it's a real, real special place. So so you know, I'm very thankful for the groundedness I came from, but none of my family members were in the public eye, you know so and I mean when I say in the public eye, in and particularly in the entertainment industry, of course yeah, yeah yeah, so as much as they wanted to guide me.

Speaker 2 13:50

They didn't know how to guide me and how best to guide me, and at the time I think also with MTV they were like well, this is the second year we're doing this. Let's just, you know, do the best that we can do. I mean, mtv was only two years old at that time so there was a lot of like, there were a lot of firsts for everybody, and it led me to radio, which I absolutely love.

Speaker 2 14:13

I absolutely love radio and I continued on with radio, and that was a journey on its own and a journey of of confidence and really fighting.

Speaker 1 14:24

That's when I feel like my fight for women began also when I stepped into the entertainment industry, oh man radio, especially South African radio, it's just a boys club through and through.

Speaker 2 14:35

I don't know if it's changed much.

Speaker 1 14:37

But you know it's just boys everywhere and it's it's hard to break through. I mean yeah you were actually, you know, breaking a lot of ground when you got to 5fm. That was pretty unique, I think before that was what maybe not not nicole fox and michelle constant had been there.

Speaker 2 14:59

DJ.

Speaker 1 15:00

Kula.

Speaker 2 15:02

Kula had been there.

Speaker 1 15:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2 15:04

There was me and Poppy had just Poppy Shongana had just arrived. Yeah, she had arrived just before me, so we were both in this place, and Anele and Grant and Grant yeah had just arrived afterwards. So you know, it was this. It was a change. It was a change which was necessary.

Speaker 1 15:27

It was a very long overdue change yeah.

Speaker 2 15:31

It is, and when I left radio, particularly 5FM, these things were brought up. They'd been bubbling under for a really long time and we got to have these conversations. Thank you, COVID, once again all of us on a WhatsApp group. We all had to be on a WhatsApp group.

Speaker 1 15:48

Yes.

Speaker 2 15:49

And we all had to make these. You know, starting the new year, starting the new radio year and us having to like say, hey, starting the new year, we need to have these conversations. What's happening here? What's happening here? Like there were so many changes and so many uncertainties and everyone just kind of like, were not many changes and so many uncertainties? And everyone just kind of like we're not giving any f's anymore.

Speaker 1 16:12

They were just like you know what you?

Speaker 2 16:12

just I'm gonna say what I feel, yeah yeah, yeah, I'm going crazy in my house and I'm gonna say what I feel.

Speaker 1 16:21

So yeah, that's great.

Speaker 2 16:23

Yeah, we were dealing with a lot of that, but it has changed. I'm seeing so many differences. I'm seeing powerful women like oh, she does the midday at the moment and I've just seen her on this pressure show. She's one of my favorites. Her name will come to me just Danelle. She is just skyrocketing and I see her because I saw her grooming.

Speaker 1 16:43

And.

Speaker 2 16:43

I saw her hustling and she used to work behind the scenes and now she's in front of the mic. And it took her forever to get in, to prove herself in front of the mic, and she's just doing so well.

Speaker 2 16:57

And I'm like that's a young black woman who really, really wants it and I and I love seeing that. It's why reasons of reasons behind, that is why I started the six scholarship is because it wasn't about was a. It's about what happens after you know you, can, you, you're creating all this, this great magic, which is great, which is awesome, and your talent is out there. But what's it for? What's the purpose?

Speaker 1 17:20

yeah, the shades and layers and we are talking about transformation and reinvention with Fikile Fiks Muwedi, social entrepreneur, lightworker and the founder of Fiks Scholarship. Up next, we discuss the scholarship itself and the various projects that have come out of it, one of them being African Affirmation Cards for Children, and this is a collaboration between Fikile and an alumna from the scholarship fund. Have a listen. Let's talk about the scholarship actually. So it's a social enterprise, right? You're focused on impact. So you know, talk about how you put it together first of all, and who were you looking for when you started handing out the opportunities?

Speaker 2 18:08

The opportunities. That's right. So the FIC scholarship was something that came out of an awesome school. It's a business school in Johannesburg called GIF and they were one of the first business schools to ever start a social entrepreneurship program. While I was at 5FM, in the beginning days, during my young days between 20 and 24, I decided to take a little bit of a hiatus and wanted to go back to school, leave the entertainment industry for a while, just discover other talents that I never got to discover. A lot of people you know my age were traveling the world, discovering trying to find themselves.

Speaker 2 18:48

And a lot of people were like are my age? Were traveling the world, discovering, trying to find themselves? And a lot of people were like are you stupid?

Speaker 1 18:53

You just won a DJ competition.

Speaker 2 18:54

And now you're about to like leave it all and just go and study and be a student again and I was like, yeah, I'm okay with that. And I did it and I got to Chicago. Actually, I went and I studied entertainment arts and media management in Chicago and one of the greatest things about being there is when I discovered what social entrepreneurship was.

Speaker 1 19:16

Right.

Speaker 2 19:16

Because they had, there were courses out there and I was doing a lot of research on them and it was kind of bubbling under like this is what's happening, this is what's happening with social enterprises, what's the new impact, and you can create impact at this within your business. And I was like, oh, I love the sound of this kind of work and it feels it's like what I've always wanted to do. And then I wasn't able to finish my studies at Columbia because I was just trying to look for scholarships myself and look for funding myself and very difficult to to find those things as an undergraduate. So what I end up doing is coming back home as part of my second year, after my second year, and I said to my mom I still want to continue my studies.

Speaker 2 19:57

So I'd looked up social entrepreneurship and I was like that's what I'm going to do right and and this and and that, and that'll be my continuous of what I'm trying to get done, because Because you know how it is in family it's always like get your degree. It doesn't matter, just get your degree.

Speaker 1 20:12

So I think I had all of that expectations also.

Speaker 2 20:16

So I came back from the US feeling a little bit like a failure. I'll be honest.

Speaker 1 20:23

It's hard. I did, yeah. You went with one goal and seemingly didn't achieve it here.

Speaker 2 20:28

That's it. That's it. But it opened up another door, which was really amazing. And I did the social entrepreneurship course at Gibbs Business School, the Golden Institute of Business Science, and it was one of the best things, one of the best most healing and this is what we don't speak about a lot when we, when we talk about the healing process in schools that was not just a program to show me how to do my giving, giving me kind of a business business background on how to run a non-profit organization, for instance, or how to run a social enterprise, or how to run the logistics, how to only do monitoring and evaluation, or whatever you, you know all the things that consist of running.

Speaker 1 21:11

The hard skills yes.

Speaker 2 21:13

The hard skills absolutely. There was a lot of self-development in that program.

Speaker 1 21:19

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 21:20

A lot of self-development and the people that joined the program were really compassionate people and compassionate about the work that they did and it was their purpose. And they made the program very specific to that. They didn't want to only say, okay, if you have a degree, or if you have this or if you have that, they didn't put too many prerequisites surrounding it. But I mean, in terms of the theory and the practicals that we were doing, you had to get past that. It was not easy. It's not an easy course.

Speaker 1 21:53

I always say this.

Speaker 2 21:54

I was like it's definitely not an easy course. It's quite close to your PDBA and MBA, but just underneath and a lot of people struggled from that perspective. But geez, the amount of knowledge I got from women who have been running organizations for 10 years because they had to within their community. They had no other choice or something happened to them or their family members or something happened to someone within their community Women and men. By the way, this is obviously open to all.

Speaker 2 22:29

But the real, the true social entrepreneurs were in that program and I was like, wow, so there was a lot of self-development within that and things that helped me that a therapist would never be able to help me with.

Speaker 1 22:41

All the reflections and introspections and mission statements it's hard work.

Speaker 2 22:48

It's hard work and lots of journaling and personal development journaling and I was like I need someone to know about this course. I need women to jump on this and people who don't have the opportunity, who are doing great things already. This will help them. This will not only help them personally. This will help their enterprise. This will help their entirety. This not only help them personally. This will help their enterprise. This will help their entirety. You know, this is their ultimate.

Speaker 1 23:13

Kundalini, you know, this is the bliss Right right, that's what the course is. And how did you raise funds? How did you raise funds to run it?

Speaker 2 23:23

I was very grateful when I arrived back in South Africa that my radio manager at the time well before she was now the big boss and she was like we want you back on radio. And I was just like, oh, I had no intentions to go back into radio, I just want to be a social entrepreneur. And she was like it's a really good deal, just come speak to us.

Speaker 2 23:43

And I was like you know what. It's not a bad idea to do this, because I'm one of those people where I do wear many hats, but I do struggle to be a jack-of-all-trades when I really am super focused on something and.

Speaker 2 23:57

I was so focused on what I wanted to create with the FIGS scholarship. I was so focused on what on the work that I was doing with Gibbs. I was like that was my be all and end all at that moment. But yes, you do need to pay for your house, you do need to pay for, you know, expenses you know, be a grown up.

Speaker 1 24:18

Yes.

Empowering African Children With Affirmations

Speaker 2 24:19

It made sense. But not only did it do that, it gave me a platform to really take the fake scholarship to another level and the station was able to assist me with the fundraisers that we did public fundraisers, my DJ events. As being a radio DJ, I've always loved to DJ. Music is a big part of my healing process.

Speaker 2 24:41

So, that's one of the many hats that I do also have. The first two to three years was really difficult, and I'll even say from the first year was really difficult because I was working so much on radio and over committed with radio. I was like we need to do a fundraiser and whatever we didn't make from any DJ gig, I would just talk to the club owner or promoter and say, hey, let's make this a fundraiser for the fixed scholarship. I'm not going to make any money I'll DJ for for free, but everyone that comes through the door the money goes towards the scholarship program and that was kind of the deals that we were able to make.

Speaker 2 25:16

So once again using my platform, but a one-woman show that has been going for over a decade. I took a break just after COVID I did take a break and we still communicate as a group of ladies. We've got a WhatsApp group. We're always supporting each other. We've had, like one year, two scholarship scholars. The next year we've got like five scholarship winners, the year before that maybe two. So it's just dependent on our partnerships and feasibility for it. Yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 1 25:48

Yeah, and you'll still be carrying on with that work, finding new projects to support and finding new recipients to boost on their journey.

Speaker 2 25:58

What's been interesting is what's come out of the FIGS scholarship. So I talk about that hiatus that I took. I can actually say it wasn't really a hiatus. What we did was we just created another project within the project.

Speaker 1 26:14

I love that.

Speaker 2 26:16

From the fixed scholarship. We and I say we now, because the beauty about the scholarship as a whole is these recipients. When I look at their CV or their resume, I go, oh my god, I'm definitely not doing enough. That's how I feel and then when I go and watch graduation, oh my gosh, I mean, these are grown-ass women doing amazing things yeah so I started going.

Speaker 2 26:40

Why am I not collaborating with them? Like they keep asking, what more can we do, how else can we support? And one of the projects that was birthed from the FIG scholarship was African Affirmation, which are affirmation cards. So that was a collaboration with one of the FIG scholar recipients, one of the recipients of 2018.

Speaker 2 27:07

She's a beautiful, amazing lady named Oshira Soti and she's an occupational therapist and an advocate for children with special needs disability. So we worked together for these African Affirmation Cards. So that's another project that we did. So, as I say, as much as the FICS scholarship did go a little bit quiet in terms of what we do for women, over the past 10 years we moved to a project for children and I think that coincides with the birth of my son.

Speaker 1 27:37

Yeah, that's great. That's great. So tell me about these African affirmation cards. What's in them? What are the kids going to love?

Speaker 2 27:44

about them. What are?

Speaker 1 27:45

moms going to love about them? What do I love, oh man.

Speaker 2 27:49

So African affirmations came from a very, actually very, traumatic time in my life, and it was when I went through my divorce.

Speaker 1 28:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2 28:01

And Malachi, at the time, was six months old.

Speaker 1 28:05

Oh gosh, between six months and one year that's very early New mom and and one year that's very early New mom and divorce Christ girl, exactly, and that's the pretty stuff.

Speaker 2 28:15

I'm not getting into the nitty gritties of it, but it was one of the toughest things I've ever had to go through.

Speaker 2 28:20

The divorce in itself, what I had to deal with after the birth of Malachi, what I had to deal with when I left and I felt so guilty for my son. I felt so guilty that this had happened and I should have been better and I should have thought better and I had to do a lot of healing in that process and this was what forced me into the work that I do, the light work that I do. It's really forced me into this space. I've had to go into a lot of healing for me and while going through that healing, I remember talking to my therapist and saying you know I feel the shame, I feel the guilt, I feel this.

Speaker 2 28:56

You know anger and all of this. And you know I want Malachi to know that he's amazing and just because it all happened to him, it wasn't his fault.

Speaker 1 29:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2 29:06

And I remember my therapist saying well, what do you want to do for him? And I said I was like, oh, maybe I'll write a book to explain this, because how do I explain this to a child? How do I explain?

Speaker 2 29:16

you know, you only really know single momhood, you know. And she said to me well, if you want to write a book about it, and I was like maybe I'll just start writing in my journal, kind of thing, and then if it turns into a book, I'll write a book. And I started writing in my journal to him and that was really helpful. And then I started remembering how many affirmation cards I was using personally for my life and a friend of mine had got me some cards because she knew I was going through a tough time and I was like this is great. I was like, oh my gosh, I should do this on Malachi, this is great. But they just weren't the affirmations I would have used for him with what we were going through, and they were not really like. I was like these kids don't look like. You need to find kids that look like you and my son has a speech delay.

Speaker 2 30:01

We believe it could be high functioning autism, which you know, what we're still yeah, we're still in that space of is it autism? Is it global developmental delay and all of that, but whatever, I'm trying not to put a name on it. Whatever it is, it's who he is and and I'm celebrating him for yeah, yeah and I'm harnessing his development with what he has, yeah and so, yeah.

Speaker 2 30:26

So I was just like I want to team up with someone who you know, who kind of understands this about children, and that's when Bashira got in touch. I got in touch with Bashira being a occupational therapist and focusing in disability and special needs and I was like girl, I want to make some affirmation cards. And she was like for the African children. I said for the African children.

Speaker 2 30:48

And I was like, let's do it. But you know what's special about these cards, these 30 cards in a pack and they all have different affirmations. All have different kind of kids. There's a special needs child on each card. You notice it very, very subtly and the affirmations speak to the special needs. So you will see the I'm worthy of love, no matter what I look like or you've got, I feel healthy when I exercise and it's like a girl running with a prosthetic leg kicking a ball. Everything was chosen very carefully. The images were done by a 13-year-old.

Speaker 1 31:29

So it was that illustrated by kids. Oh, that's great. Are they on your online store? Where can people find them?

Speaker 2 31:39

So we do have an online store. It's africanaffirmationsorg. You're welcome to head there.

Speaker 1 31:47

I'll include a link for that.

Speaker 2 31:48

yeah, yeah, that's fantastic yeah, we love those cards. They they are for there. You'll find that they're not only for kids, they they end up being for you too.

Speaker 2 31:56

You're like oh my gosh, I needed this part yeah building confidence, building self and building also communication between you and your kid. You're able to kind of just go. I'm feeling sad today and you're like, okay, why are you feeling sad? What happened? You know that was the real idea behind it and I've got to say they're one of the first cars I've ever seen and we think still the first today that also have Braille. So it's not only just the word that also have braille, so it's not only just the word, they also have braille, nice.

Speaker 1 32:30

That's a great touch. Very proud of those.

Speaker 2 32:34

Great great.

Speaker 1 32:35

So your light work is in your yoga studio, at the yoga bar in Zanzibar. And then you've got the African affirmations.

Speaker 2 32:44

Which I use at the yoga bar, which you use at oh fantastic, exactly, tie it all in.

Speaker 1 32:49

Yes, so what's been the most surprising thing about doing business outside of South Africa?

Cultural Differences and Personal Journeys

Speaker 2 32:57

Gosh, you have to think about that one, because there are many things but I'm trying to think of if there's anything specific. As a business owner, I've only worked in Zanzibar and the culture difference is a massive difference. Zanzibar is 90% Muslim country, so they take their holidays very seriously, they take their prayer time very seriously, they take Ramadan very seriously. And this is not to say other places do not take. I take it seriously. I speak specifically for zanzibar um and they take the cultural beliefs of that village. If one of the elderly passed away in the village, we mourn for that weekend and we are not. We can't play music, and I mean we're right on the beach but we've got a very close connection with our village and we don't play live music.

Speaker 2 33:50

I DJ every Saturday night, One thing I love to do. It's like when I get into my zone. It's a meditation for me, actually DJing, I must tell you, but we don't play live music. They asked us respectfully and we said, of course we won't play any live music because it's just respect for for the village itself. So that I've really gone back into into, I've gone backwards but I've gone forward yeah and you'll get like based on. You'll get that if you, if you, if you know what I mean, it's based on this conversation.

Speaker 1 34:20

It's basically slow living yeah.

Speaker 2 34:22

Yeah, yeah, but you're moving. You are so far forward. I just feel like my highest self has grown so much by going backwards.

Speaker 1 34:32

Yeah, it's timeless. Basically, I mean that's it. That's it Because you can't put it in the past, you can't put it in the future, it's just timeless.

Speaker 2 34:41

Absolutely. So I speak then, particularly with that question, from a cultural perspective, which has been really really interesting I mean everyone in zanzibar really works in cash most of the time. So I went from this like car society and tapping with my phone to like sorry, we don't take cards. Sorry, we don't take cards that's funny and I mean it's the village, you know, like, like hard they if they have to, but like it's, it's. It's very much a, a cash society, unless you're dealing with, obviously, tourists, the big tourism economy, of course yeah and that's also what 60 percent of my guests are tourists coming from all over the world.

Speaker 2 35:23

we've got a huge, huge European influx each year, each season and, yeah, a lot of things are in dollars and euros because of that within the hotels, which is also very interesting. So you know just the way in which different countries work has been quite an eye opener for me, that's interesting.

Speaker 1 35:43

Yeah, quite an eye-opener for me. That's interesting. Yeah, it's now time to get into the Shades and Layers rapid fire with our guest Figi Lefix-Muedi. And before we get to that, I have to let you know that we both got the name of an actress so very wrong during our conversation. It is in fact Kugumbata Raw and not Tandimbata, as we both say. I guess her name slipped both of our minds at the time, but nevertheless, let's get into the story of how it all started for Fikile. How did she become the person that she is today? So the entrepreneurial journey has that always been something you wanted to do? Know how were those seeds planted?

Speaker 2 36:27

definitely from the matriarch we have. We have the sisters and the and the elderly, elderly grandmothers who have really showed the path. That I mean I need to give credit to my grandfather and my great grandfather. What strong men and loving men and compassionate men. That is one thing I have, gentle giants is what I want to use.

Speaker 2 36:55

Gentle giants, gentle giants that took care of their family, took care of their wives, and from from then I've learned so much and from them they have taught the family so much in terms of what is important. My grandfather, my great-grandfather, excuse me, from my mother's side was a teacher, a headmaster here in the East Indies, and I mean that was passed on also to the rest of the family, to his kids. However, my one grandmother became a nurse and soon after fighting for her rights and not wanting Bantu education, she went the political freedom fighter way and she's a very well-known diplomat, a former diplomat she's I mean she's almost reaching 90 soon and she is still doing talks with her books and her name is if you ever, if you ever get to find her book.

Speaker 2 37:52

She's got her memoir, that's out. It's Tandile Rangko Lujabe, and she was posted in Norway, was her first posting. And that was because the Norwegian government, or should I say the Norwegian consulate on the African continent, were hiding her. So when she made it onto the list, the the band list, yeah, she she was. She had to flee, obviously, south Africa, the apartheid regime, and went into Botswana. The Norwegian consulate would hide her there and then, when they found out she was there, she would head, you know, to Mozambique or in Tanzania.

Speaker 2 38:37

There were also the comrades that were in Tanzania and basically she built a very strong connection with the Norwegian government and that was her first posting and many other postings after that. But yeah, she's a, she's an amazing woman. Please get her books. They, they inspire me every day and it's she's one of the main reasons why I I do what I do.

Speaker 1 38:57

We had big shoes to fill yep giant shoes to fill.

Speaker 2 39:03

But she and she was the reason why most of my family I speak about my mother now, my mom's sister, my mom's brother, there were seven of them. She is the reason why all of them got to study outside South Africa.

Speaker 1 39:18

Yeah, Because they wanted a better education for them. That is great yeah.

Speaker 2 39:23

Yeah. So I'm here, I'm literally here because of education. Fantastic, the audacity of me not to to, to give opportunity. I mean it just, it just wouldn't make sense for me personally. That's it. For me personally, it's just yeah, it's just yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 39:43

Paid for it, yeah.

Speaker 2 39:44

Yeah, you got it. You got it In your own way.

Speaker 1 39:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2 39:48

Of course.

Speaker 1 39:49

Of course, Great, you did mention that none of them were in the public eye the way that you have been. So who are your mentors? And you know people you could go to for guidance to handle this spotlight living.

Speaker 2 40:03

My mother. Wonderful my biological, amazing mother whose house I'm in right now yes, mom, Thank you as much as she wasn't in the entertainment industry or understood it and just saw it from afar. I mean, there wasn't even social media. Really, at that time, when I was at MTV Vijay, I think Facebook was only started or had just been created. So, it was still in Boston. Where did it start? Somewhere in the US?

Speaker 1 40:36

Yeah, here in Boston. I'm actually in Boston. It was here in the dorm rooms.

Speaker 2 40:40

Well, there we go, there we go.

Speaker 1 40:42

Before they all went out to Cali.

Speaker 2 40:44

Exactly so it was still there as a little pilot project. For me it was. It was my mom, who was, who just said just remember who you are, remember where you're from and remember you can always come home.

Speaker 1 40:58

So she oh, that's nice.

Speaker 2 41:00

It was. It was the grounding thing that I needed to hear, to be reminded of. If it doesn't work out, you're not a failure. Like you've never been the girl to like get into a skimpy bikini and like twerk all over your you know TV. Like it's just not who you are and you know what. I don't have anything against you If that's who you are. It's who you are, but she's just like you know who you are. And I think that I really do come from a solid grounding from that perspective.

Speaker 2 41:32

My mom's always known that I was quite strong in who I was, so I think that always helped me and that was her affirmation towards me.

Speaker 2 41:43

She would affirm me from that perspective and I loved that. But she just said just go. She said go, have fun and enjoy and live your life. And when you're not having fun is when you know you need to change. And that's and that's what happened when I knew that it was time I would change. I love the experiences I got to to have, but I also knew who I was.

Speaker 1 42:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2 42:09

That's, but I also knew who I was. Yeah, that's amazing. And how has that influenced your motherhood journey? That's a journey on its own and that's been a healing journey. So my mom actually had me when she was 18 years old, very young, she was very, very young. And here's the hard part very, very young. And here's the hard part she didn't. She was so scared to tell her parents that the only the only time that the parents her parents knew that she was pregnant was the day that I was being birthed, the day Right, right, right. You know we openly talk about it now, but you know this was her story. But the day that I was going to be born was when they were like she was like complaining about tummy pain.

Speaker 2 42:50

She knew that she was pregnant and that was it. And she wasn't ready to have me. She was, you know. It was like a complete traumatic experience for her.

Speaker 1 43:02

I'm sure, I'm sure.

Breaking Generational Cycles Through Motherhood

Speaker 2 43:04

And those things and and you know that carries within your nervous system and it carries on to the child, yeah, so there's been a lot of there's been a lot of work that we've been doing, I've been doing and I'm slowly getting her there. So I say that because that has a lot of impact on my birthing story too, and I wasn't aware of it. I just knew I want a child at 30. I was like 30 years old, I want my first kid and it happened. It happened, but I had to wake up and go, oh my.

Speaker 2 43:43

God, this is the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life and and also just be compassionate to myself about certain truths where I was like, oh my gosh, I feel like my life has come to an end or like I feel like I've stopped being feeling and I feel like I can't be who I am freely and I feel like shameful for the things that have happened now, because I had to get out of that relationship for the safety of me and the safety of my son. I feel like I have to do this all by myself and you know, I went through a traumatic experience with my birth, like my mom had.

Speaker 2 44:16

I didn't have my child at 18. I had my child at 30. You know, like that was a big thing. It's like I'm not going to have a child when it's young because you know to see what my mom went through and you know we talk about it all the time and but you know these things are generational and I'm trying to really break that cycle is kind of the work that I'm currently doing now. Um sure yeah and and and, just understanding that being a mom of a boy child you know, so working, working on that too.

Speaker 2 44:44

Yeah, he's only six.

Speaker 1 44:46

But you know, oh, the messages are so strong, though, about.

Speaker 2 44:54

You know what a boy is and how they should be I'm very, I'm very fortunate to have a lot of help I. I have met a lovely partner in my life who lives with us in zanzibar, and I mean we run the yoga bar together and amazing a lot of beauty has come from it and you know my son has that backing that, that male foundation also.

Speaker 2 45:19

You know it's male teaching, sorry, and I'm very grateful, grateful for that, but there's, there's still. There's still a lot to be done, but I also need to be patient and enjoy the miracle of right now. There's so many miracles. Malachi means messenger, and I truly believe that he has been my messenger since his birth, or even before his birth, and he chose me Wonderful, wonderful.

Speaker 1 45:44

So that brings me to the rapid fire. First thing that comes to mind. You writing a memoir. What would you call it and why?

Speaker 2 45:53

It would definitely be something about women helping women, being part of a woman community. It'll be around that from like. I wouldn't call it like patriarchy, but something along those lines yeah, something not necessarily a political book, but it'll definitely be along those lines. I've been thinking about that for a while now, yeah, yeah, we.

Speaker 2 46:19

We've been trying to get a fixed scholarship coffee table book out for a while, for for our 10 years. We tried to get it out. We didn't manage, so it's still something that we've got um in our set of goals okay so yeah, that's, that's the next thing looking out for that yeah, yeah, cool.

Speaker 1 46:39

And if you had to turn the same memoir into a biopic, who would you choose to be the lead actress?

Speaker 2 46:46

good question. I don't know why she just came to my mind, but, and I don't know why because she's not from south africa, she's from the uk, that's fine, but she's south african is. Oh, if her name is, is tandy raw batter on my bike, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 47:04

Tandi Raw, bata or Mbata. Oh, yeah, yeah, tandi Raw, yeah, mbata, mbata, that's it.

Speaker 2 47:08

Yeah, Mbata, yes. I don't know why she came to my head. But her, she's fantastic. That's why. So, random yeah cool.

Speaker 1 47:18

Oh, that's an interesting choice at first.

Speaker 2 47:22

Yeah, we don't even look anything alike.

Speaker 1 47:25

She's an actress, she can do it great. And which famous black woman would you invite to dinner? Living or dead?

Speaker 2 47:37

at this journal, a dream journal, and I've written down a list of people I'd like to meet in my life, living or dead. Oh, this is a hard one, because this is a hard one for me because I don't want to say like an obvious person. Why not? Because I know deep down I'm saying it because it's an obvious person all right, okay, that's fair but I know, I know it will, I know it would come to me at some point yeah but you know who I wouldn't mind, and sitting with again, it's my grandmother.

Speaker 2 48:07

Nice, that's it. It's my grandmother. I I didn't realize how much I was learning from her before she died and she is my mother's mother and she is everything that she said. Now, everything that she said to me has kind of come true, and whenever I have thoughts or whenever I see like a little bird sitting on my window seal or the whales go past, you know and I'm watching the ocean there's this vibe that happens in the back of my head, going grandma's come to say hi.

Speaker 1 48:44

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 48:45

My grandmother comes up, so I feel like there's a lot of communication that happens between me and her when I'm in my higher self. So I wouldn't mind it, just the communication being a little bit more clearer when I needed Speak human please. Oh, that's lovely. Great.

Speaker 1 49:14

Thank you for letting me have that opportunity? Yeah, sure, absolutely, absolutely. I think we learn so much from each other's stories, that's why I? Have these conversations. So if somebody wants to, you know know, live as creatively as you do where would you advise them to start?

Speaker 2 49:35

I would advise them to and I learned this from Elizabeth Gilbert I would advise them to write a letter to fear and list all the things that you are fearful of, and from there you'll find that your step forward is a whole lot easier, because actually your list is very small, not?

Speaker 1 49:57

that big.

Speaker 2 49:59

It's just when it's in your mind and it's in your head it feels much bigger, it feels like Everest. But if you just break it down, actually you will manage and just make it past day three.

Speaker 1 50:13

And where can people find you if they want to work with you, find out what it is that you do, or give you money?

Speaker 2 50:21

Hmm, gosh, that's been an interesting one. I've had to do a lot of clearing and a lot of affirmations of being deservant of earning good money. If you want to get in touch with me, you can go into my social media. On Instagram, I'm at Fix Moiti. Otherwise, you can also go check out the yoga bars Zanzibarcom that's our website. The yoga bars zanzibarcom that's our website and just look out for retreats. That's a huge one that I'm launching this season. First season was establish our place, establish community, grow and grow the studio, grow the charlotte, grow the place.

Speaker 1 50:58

The second season, third season, is now officially retreat and if you do want to learn more about those retreats and any of Figile's other projects, please go to the show notes. There are some links included there. Thank you so much for listening and for your ongoing support. If you enjoyed this episode or you think somebody else might enjoy it, please do spread the love and share it. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your ongoing support. I'm Kutlonos Kosanarichi and until next time, please do take good care.