Serial entrepreneur Christine Mapondera-Talley has yet to meet a challenge she backed down from. From venture to venture, her creativity has guided her and catapulted her into a dimension where dreams become reality. If she couldn’t find the tools she needed along the way, she created them.
“Once I love something, I can’t sleep,” Mapondera-Talley told The Weight She Carries. “I just have to learn more.”
Mapondera-Talley, who was born and raised in Zimbabwe but now resides in Chicago, is the author of Makanaka’s World – a children’s book series about an adventurous girl who travels to exotic locations with her pet parrot, Fari, sharing different customs and cultures.
The book was inspired by her daughter whose middle name is Makanaka.
“When my daughter was two, I really wanted her to speak Shona (a Zimbabwean language), but it was hard because no one around me speaks it. It’s just me,” she said. “So, I started writing simple stories in Shona for her. One day, my husband asked me if I was going to have any of the stories in English. I thought, ‘Why would I want to do that?’ When he explained that it would be a great way to bring more diversity to children’s literature, I knew he was right.”
Within a couple of days of contemplating the idea, Mapondera-Talley – a dental assistant by profession – decided to sink her teeth into it. Since she knew very little about the publishing world, she spent a great deal of time researching. The more she learned, the more she felt drawn to writing and publishing, and realized that diversity was lacking in children’s books in her neighborhood.
“When you start to connect with your passion, you can’t stop. You have to keep feeding it. And that’s what I do. I am now,more than ever, driven by the need to represent Africa and Africans in a truer light.”
– Christine Mapondera-Talley
As she explored her options, she quickly realized that she wanted to self-publish.
This wasn’t her first time exploring entrepreneurship. Years earlier, Mapondera-Talley had embarked on her first entrepreneurial venture in fashion.
“I always had lots of ideas, but I always allowed negative voices in my head talk me out of it. I would tell myself that I am not good enough or worthy to be in certain positions. When I started venturing out into entrepreneurship in 2008 – which I didn’t realize I was doing at the time – it was exciting because it reconnected me with the thing I loved, which was sewing.” – Christine Mapondera-Talley
Sewing was something she and her mother had bonded over before Mapondera-Talley moved to the US in 1999.
The gift of an old sewing machine from a patient one day was the beginning of her fashion line Sireka Design. Sireka is in honor of her grandparents, Simeon & Rebecca Kaseke, who played a pivotal in her childhood.
“A patient gave me an old sewing machine because I told her how much I used to sew when I was younger,” she said. “One day I decided to make a handbag as a test and it turned out pretty good. I made it from African print. From that point I began looking into what I needed to do sell bags at events.”
After mastering handbags, Mapondera-Talley decided to expand her collection to clothes. It was a stretch, but she was determined to teach herself how to sew clothes. So, she took some classes and watched a ton of videos.
“As an entrepreneur, your biggest challenge is probably capital and identifying your tribe. You have to surround yourself with people who are like-minded, who are pursuing similar goals.”
– Christine Mapondera-Talley
“There was a lot of trial and error, but I got better each time,” she said. “Then finally I made a pair of pants. And when I was done with it, and it was pressed, I thought, ‘Wow, this could be on the rack at Macy’s.’ I could see it! For the first time I could really see something I constructed hanging in Macy’s. I never thought I could be good enough to make something that great.”
Over the next four years, Mapondera-Talley honed her skills as a fashion designer and learned valuable lessons about running a business.
“Consistency is everything. I gave myself time to keep on learning. There were many times when I made stuff that wasn’t that great, but I kept trying and it worked.”
– Christine Mapondera-Talley
She adopted a similar approach when she began developing Makanaka’s character. As her vision for Makanaka’s World took shape, Mapondera-Talley made the difficult decision to let go of Sireka Design.
“I had poured so much time and money into my fashion business and I was making custom orders and taking steps towards getting noticed by boutiques. But I realized that I couldn’t commit to two start-ups at the same time,” she said. “I strongly felt that my creative energy needed to stay in one place. When I look back, I’m happy I did that.”
“You must take the time to find the talent that will help develop your vision. I could see Makanaka’s World not just as a children’s book, but as a brand – a brand that is bringing educational content and someday an animated character. Makanaka is such a big part of my life now. I will never forget the day when my daughter realized that she was Makanaka. She said, ‘I’m brown and she’s brown!’ and I realized that it does matter after all. It was a touching moment.”
– Christine Mapondera-Talley
It was a good decision, she said, because she was able to apply key lessons from her fashion business to writing and publishing Makanaka’s World.
“It was a needed step because from that I learned the importance of really focusing on where my skill sets are the strongest, and then delegating the rest,” she said.
“Entrepreneurship is a lonely path. You have a vision but nobody else can see it. It’s in your head. And you have to understand that no matter how exciting it is, nobody can love it nearly as much as you love it. There are a handful of people who may very well understand and get it, but they still can’t connect with it the way that you connect with it. It’s a difficult thing to relay, so you’ve got to keep believing.” – Christine Mapondera-Talley
In addition to being an author, Mapondera-Talley co-founded a nonprofit organization called KidLit Nation.
“The idea was to bring opportunities and resources to people of colour who want to get published – whether they are writers or illustrators – because of the disparities and lack of opportunities in the industry,” she said.
The team raises funds to send people of colour to conferences in Illinois, and also hosts monthly webinars. They hope to provide scholarships to conferences nationwide as time goes on.
“Our webinars are so popular and people are getting a lot out of them. I agreed to host our webinars because I know this will prepare me for something else, and it forces me to have conversations with different people every month,” she said.
Through Makanaka’s World and KidLit Nation, Mapondera-Talley is inspiring young minds to think beyond their communities and embrace the world around them, knowing that they hold a special place in the universe.
“This journey is forcing me to let go of insecurities. Nothing will ever be 100 percent perfect, so every day I’m learning to let go of some type of insecurity. Everyday I’m reminding myself that I deserve to be here.”
– Christine Mapondera-Talley
To order your copy of Makanaka’s World, visit www.makanakasworld.com.
Vimbai E. is a content marketer, ghostwriter, and the founder of The Weight She Carries. With hundreds of articles and stories publishing online, in print and for broadcast, her love of language and storytelling shines through every piece of writing that bears her name.