Who do you talk to when you feel depressed or want to open up about a horror in your life that left you broken? Books are one of the mechanisms that assist in healing. It is for this reason that author Fred Mfuranzima recently released a book titled, ‘The Lonely Soul’ with therapeutic information to offer hope and a means of healing to people encountering depression. The author also aimed to stimulate healing from his past hurt and focus on his inner strength. Mfuranzima looks back to his school time as a teenager when he underwent depression but lacked people to open up to about what was perturbing him, apart from his close friend who encouraged him sometimes when times were tough. “I was broken emotionally and no one would understand my situation, this pushed me into a lonely state, and triggered anger as no one cared to offer an ear to my pain,” he states. He, therefore, started joining clubs and was the leader of many, like Never Again Rwanda which shaped him and offered him a reason to work together toward achieving life’s goals. Before joining the clubs, he stresses that he was all by himself and couldn’t go out, engage in other activities with fellow youth, and didn’t feel safe confiding in people. With time, he notes that he was able to make friends, and jot down some of what was on his mind. This was the genesis of his writing talent, as he expressed himself freely and the views of others. Through writing, the novelist adds that he found solace and joy. It’s some of his stories and poems that he piled together to form stories to portray therapeutic, and educational information to readers who could be battling depression. His book also uses imagery, and metaphor to facilitate personal growth, restoration, and greater self-awareness. It centers on a young, broken passionate change maker, trying to face the community challenges and build a critical, free and sustainable peaceful, and developed society. The young activist was born as a result of rape, during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. For him, roughly 25 per cent of Rwandan citizens’ struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and one in six people suffer from depression. “So by honoring individuals’ values and beliefs, as an art therapist, I meet a lot of people who are challenged with medical and mental health problems, as well as those seeking emotional, creative, and spiritual growth. “Writing ‘The Lonely Soul’, I applied psychological theories, and my own experience in double-sided stories, to make readers not feel alone,” he states. Mfuranzima explains that the book is intended to help people manage and learn from negative experiences. According to him, poetry has got him out of toughest times and is a safe haven he runs to when he requires to purge his soul and acknowledge his emotions. ‘It’s not something I force, when it flows, it flows, and I embrace it.’ The novelist started writing these specific stories when he was in Advanced level in secondary school while encountering challenges with his family, a thing that hardened relating with other students and fitting in at school.
