Ramarumo authors Celebrating Life

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As a young boy growing up at Tshibvumo village in Dzimauli, Mashudu Ramarumo discovered a worn-out copy of the Bible in his late aunt's house and started exploring its chapters. Little did he know that the reading of the Scriptures and great stories found in the Bible formed the basis of his love for literature and planted a seed in his heart for writing.

However, today he recalls that reading the Bible ended up triggering a deep passion to share the wealth of information about human life with other people.

“When I was alone, I would take notes that I would share with my friends who showed a great interest in my writings,” he said. “Their interest became a fuel that propelled my energy into producing more writings. Soon after I had earned the nickname 'Bookworm'”.

In 2003, a grown-up Ramarumo started writing motivational articles for the Zion Christian Church's magazine known as Messenger. “I have so far written over 30 articles for the Messenger, which is read by thousands of readers throughout the world,” he said. “These articles paved the way for my book, Celebrating Life.”

According to Ramarumo, the title of his book is self-explanatory. “It seeks to implore masses of our people, young and old, rich and poor, employed and unemployed, leaders and followers, to celebrate life in spite of all difficulties and challenges,” he said. “Life is the ultimate gift that supersedes all other gifts. Life precedes anything we own. Life is so precious, to such an extent that no amount of money can buy it. No one is voted for to receive life. We do not receive life as a result how much we have in our accounts.”

He further explained that life is given to humanity as a privilege and for a specific purpose. He stated that humanity was given life to celebrate it and not to harm fellow human beings. “Before we can celebrate academic excellence or the purchase of a property, we should have started with celebrating life each day,” he said.

He said it had taken him three years to write Celebrating Life. He had to research the material which resulted in the actual content of the publication. His book is published by a ground-breaking publishing house, Dzuvha Publishers, which seeks to promote a culture of reading and writing in South Africa.

“It is Youth Month now, and I can only encourage youths out there to be aware that life is a precious gift given to them by the Giver as a huge privilege to fulfil a specific purpose,” he said. “If they do not find this specific purpose, their lives automatically become an experiment. They live life without any meaning and direction. They will end up using their lives for dangerous activities that end up disrupting their destiny. They need to be aware that as long as they don’t understand the reason for their existence, they will be victims of misuse, abuse and waste. The end result is loss of self-worth, self-esteem and dreams, and they become slaves of poverty, substance abuse and loss of freedom through incarcerations in correctional facilities.”

Ramarumo's book is directly available from him and he can be reached on 076 391 4374.

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.