She believes she can conquer anything.
Actress, mom, and businesswoman Mona Monyane has overcome some of the toughest challenges thrown at her and she is still on the journey to healing.
She founded Power Of Wellness (POW), a space for people to deal with issues of mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and financial health while battling with their hardships.
She also launched The POW Book Club, Melanin Magic Sessions and POW Sessions, where she shares her spiritual beliefs and her identity as a black African woman.
She opens up about being sexually abused at a young age and losing her home in 2019, after it caught fire, to help others heal.
It was in 2016 after the death of her seven-day-old daughter that she realised it was time to begin her healing, she tells Drum.
“Healing is a lifelong journey,” the 31-year-old says.
“When I lost my daughter I needed to find myself again. I was lost. I needed to start facing my spirituality and my calling.
“I realised that I had emotional blockages that I needed to account for. I had to rebuild my relationship with God and rediscover God in my life.”
When her daughter died, she says, she left all that she had known in the entertainment industry to focus on her wellness.
“I went back to nature; I visited the forests, spent time at the beach, near the rivers and I went on a journey to thwasa (sangoma initiation). This is where my healing journey began,” Mona says.
“I had to address the fact that my father was absent while growing up. I needed to deal with my issues of sexual abuse, losing my daughter, and many other issues that were blocking me from healing.
"Once I faced those issues head-on, I was able to let go and let God. Even the burning down of my house was a sign that I needed to start over, and I did.
And her experience has been an ashes-into-beauty one, as she's been able to bounce back – challenge after challenge. "I now have a beautiful home for my family,” she shares.
“The power of the wellness movement is about working through the toxic and how women talk about each other; the strained relationships between mothers and daughters; and learning to say ‘I was wrong and I need to apologise.' So I use that platform to tell my story and guide people to find answers for themselves."
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Mona believes her daughter's death was tragic, but it was for a reason.
“It made me a better person and I found healing through pain. Had my child lived; I don’t think I would be this woman. I lost myself in motherhood and being a wife and put myself on the backburner. I believe it was God's biggest wake-up call to me.”
She is now a living testament to resilience.
“My dad was absent, I have been molested, abused and raped, and I have lost a child. Yet I am sitting here at 31 years old confronted with living and reclaiming my life and story,” Mona says.
Confronting her problems has also allowed her to take care of her health and diet.
“I’ve even lost weight through healing. I was active before falling pregnant. The baby weight stayed because I got depressed and I continued to gain weight because I was unfulfilled and unhappy and not taking care of myself,” she shares.
“I was blocked. I struggled to even write a short story or idea. My cup was empty until a tragedy happened, which was a breaking point.
“When my healing began I started being exposed to black women in business who motivated me. I learned that we spend so much time balancing work, home and parenting that we neglect our own needs and we do not take care of ourselves. When do you get to the inner work? How often do we say we are not okay?” she asks.
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Her journey has also helped her to become a better mother and friend, Mona adds. She and the father of her children, actor Khulu Skenjana separated, but she has been able to rebuild her life and have a healthy co-parenting relationship.
“Khulu and I are even at a beautiful space because of my healing, where we wish each other well. We can have a conversation with each other and not fight or have a sense of blame. We have reached a place of understanding that we are parents, and this is God’s gift to us; that we are a family forever because we have children."
