The journey to Draft Forward With Zizo began long before the name existed.
In a world that feels increasingly fast-paced and ever-changing, there has always been one constant in my life: creativity.
As a child, I was drawn to storytelling. I loved gathering other children and re-enacting stories, entering school art competitions, and immersing myself in creative and artistic expression wherever I could find it. At home, I watched my mother transform simple ingredients into memorable meals, sing, dance, and express herself in ways that showed me creativity was not a commodity. It was a way of life.
At the time, I had no idea that creativity could one day become a career, a practice, or even a business. I simply knew that it was everywhere around me.
Today, creativity remains a lifeline. It shows up in my life as more than artistic expression or creative production. It is a way of thinking, problem-solving, adapting, and imagining new possibilities.
Over time, I have come to realise that creativity is not confined to a single discipline or profession. It extends into the way we build communities, navigate challenges, pursue opportunities, and shape the lives we want to live.
I am not defined by a single arena, and neither are you. We are capable of growth, expansion, and reinvention. So too are our ideas.
Throughout this journey, we will continue exploring those possibilities together, examining how creativity helps us solve problems, create value, and better understand ourselves and the world around us.
It shows up in my work as a documentary photographer and visual artist, in the communities I engage with, in the stories I tell, and in the way I navigate the world.
Draft Forward With Zizo was born from that understanding.
This platform exists to explore creativity not as a luxury, but as a force that shapes how we live, work, build, and imagine the future.
Through stories, conversations, lived experiences, and practical examples, we will unpack how creativity influences our lives and how many of us are sitting on valuable ideas, experiences, and intellectual property without fully recognising their potential.
My hope is that together we can learn, reflect, and discover new ways of seeing the world and ourselves.
Zizo Bongekile Manona
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