I am Faswillah Nattabi and I am a storyteller based in Brixton Johannesburg.
I am 23 years old and I am currently an arts facilitator at the Shade Youth Arts Programme and presenter on The Muslim Gallery Show on INX Prime Channel 345.
I started writing poetry at the tender age of 12, but before that, I was into writing stories as a young child. I am a lover of language; I honestly think language is our human superpower. I love language and writing because, through writing, I can observe the processes that I experience and those that other people experience.
Through language, I can perceive the world around me and even create my own. When I started writing, motivation was absent. My writing began primarily as a reflection of my reality; I wrote about what I saw.
As I developed into my teen years, the state of my emotions determined what I would write. I would thus struggle to write if I did not experience any intense emotions. I am now at a place where I have integrated reflecting my reality and my emotions in my writing and the challenge that I now face is incorporating my ‘audience’ when I write.
I have successfully identified who my ‘audience’ is and now it is a matter of keeping them in mind when I write so that my work can be accessed and engaging. When I have reached maturity in my writing, which I believe will be sooner than later, I envision myself having the impact writers the likes of Toni Morison and Arundhati Roy have had, the power in the way in which their works have questioned the world.
For anyone who aspires to such heights, it simply starts with observation of self and the world around which can be reflected in journaling every day or even writing reflective pieces on things and ideas that interest them.
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