Martha Musonza
Martha Musonza Holman has created links between the country she was born in,Zimbabwe – and the country that is now home, Wales.
She founded the Love Zimbabwe Community Interest Company, and visits Zimbabwe frequently to work with traders and on community projects.
In 2017 she won an award in the social and humanitarian category of the Ethnic Minority Welsh Women Achievement Awards (EMWAA) for women who have made a significant contribution to Welsh life.
Holman was included in the 100 + Welsh Women list which was “created to mark the contributions of women, past and present who have made brilliant contributions to our national life.”
1971
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean
2001 – Moved to Wales
2013 – Love Zimbabwe won the Glastonbury Green Traders Award. Holman was
nominated on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio show as one of the five women in the UK who have made an impact in their countries of origin. In 2013 Holman was also awarded a special recognition for her contribution to livelihoods and Fair Trade within the Wales Africa sector, by the Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa team.
2016 – Love Zimbabwe Trust registered
1992-1994 – Diploma in Education, Geography Teacher Education from Belvedere Technical Teachers college, Zimbabwe
2017-2018 – MA, Special Education and Teaching from University of South Wales
2019-2021 – PGCE, Special Education and Teaching from University of South Wales
In an interview with Wales Online, Holman describes teaching geography in a village high school, when Mugabe was still in power. As a single mother with two boys she simply wasn’t able to earn enough as the economy was failing. She started travelling and trading in arts and crafts to supplement her income.
She was accused of teaching politics to her students and began to fear for her life. Coincidentally she had met a woman from Carmarthen, Samara Hawthorn, who was part of a ‘hippie’ group in Zimbabwe at that time. They became lifelong friends and continued to correspond after Hawthorn had returned to Carmarthenshire. When Holman wrote to tell her of her fears – by this time, matters had escalated and her dog had been killed and she herself had been beaten – Hawthorn demanded that she get out.
She had to leave her two sons, then aged twelve years and nine years in the care of her adopted cousin, as she couldn’t afford to get them all out. She arrived in Wales and has made it her home ever since.
Holman taught geography in Zimbabwe from 1995 until 2000, before relocating to Wales in 2001. She established Love Zimbabwe, a charity and Fair Trading organisation seeking to empower Zimbabwean people.
Settling initially in Carmarthenshire, she started volunteering in schools and community organisations as a fairtrade speaker. She established a Community Interest Company (CIC) to help women in Zimbabwe earn fair and sustainable income from their work.
Her flourishing charity, Love Zimbabwe, works with communities facing poverty ( including those with disabilities) to learn a trade and have an income. The Charity sells arts and crafts from the co-operatives and the profits are sent back to help sustain and develop the communities.
The products have taken her far afield, travelling to festivals such as the Small Nations, Blue Rock, The Green Man, Glastonbury, Womad and Zimbabwean Music festival in Seattle, USA.
Another aspect of Love Zimbabwe is more hands on. It has been building the Chinamhora Community Centre, now the hub of Chinamhora village, along with a clinic, a borehole and water tank to provide proper sanitation, and donating medical supplies and clothing .
An active climate change campaigner, Holman participated at Oxfam’s Climate Hearings which provided a platform for the voices of those most affected by climate change to be heard. She also represented Oxfam Cymru at the UN Summit on climate change in Copenhagen.
Holman has continued in education throughout, and currently tutors children with special needs.
Martha met David Holman in 2004 in London, where she was selling Zimbabwean arts and crafts. They married in 2007 and moved to Abergavenny. They have one child
Martha has two grownup sons who still reside in Africa and help run projects there.
https://lovezimbabwe.org/
https://www.100welshwomen.wales/100-women/martha_musonza-holman/
https://blackhistorywales.org.uk/our-team/martha-musonza-holman/
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/cyclone-idai-zimbabwe-wales-died-16044700
https://www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/six-businesswomen-leaders-trailblazers-actively-21065984
