There is more to me than vitiligo

Rumbidzai Mugabe has vitiligo, a condition in which light coloured patches appear on the skin. Her story is one that illustrates the difficulties that one encounters, not from having a medical condition, but from the ignorance and insensitivity of other people.

Dear darlings

How do people expect me to react when they look at me and call me Winnie Harlow or say "oh, you look like Winnie Harlow?"
"What did you do so you looked like her? Please tell me?"



In case you haven't heard of her, Winnie Harlow is a Canadian fashion model. Like me, she has vitiligo.
But if I supposedly look like Winnie, you may as well say that I look like Michael Jackson or any other random person who has similar skin, because it's the same condition.
It is extremely offensive.

Have you walked across and met someone who has Lupus, for example, and gone "oh you have that Selena Gomez thing" or "hey you have Psoriasis like Kim Kardashian?"

Do you do that to every individual that is different?
So how am I supposed to feel, because I am not going to pretend it does not irritate me to the core, it really does.
Is this a common human thing, because I don't do this, and neither does my family. Please make me understand because I don't get it.



If you don't understand vitiligo

Better you ask me and I will explain to you what it is, if you are failing to understand. Folks that say, "oh you should be a model like Winnie," is that a Zimbabwean copy cat mentality?

So by that logic, everyone with vitiligo should be a model right? If you have never ever heard of career guidance, it assists you to pick an industry for which you have a deep passion. There is a reason for that. Google it!

Stupid people - not vitiligo - annoy me

Do you want to know why we often look so tense and end up being rude? It's because of people like this and folks that stare. Oh yes and those that think they know more about what we go through, we actually go through something:
severe irritation from the sun and stupid human beings.

Enough with the prayers

If you believe in your so called prophet, good for you. But before you tell me that he can "heal me", I have a few questions:
Why hasn't he healed you of your bad attitude, or the demon that you have sitting on you that causes you to step out on your spouse? Why has he not removed your gold-diggerish character? Please fix yourself. I will wait on Jesus to come and lay his hand on me if he feels I need fixing. Until then, bhasopo ibva kuseri kwangu please. Get off my back.


Before vitiligo

When you have vitiligo, everyone is a doctor

And no the medication that's been introduced in Cuba, as far as I know, is still on trials and I don't want to take it. Will I change my mind? I don't know, but as off now I am not particularly interested in being anybody's lab rat, especially when the dangers of using this drug are still not known. What I do know is I am fully aware of my condition because I have it and you do not. I didn't say I don't want help, but sending me the same thing six times in my inbox is not going to make me do it. If you personally have an itch in your eye by looking or seeing me, I suggest you go poke your eyes out because I am not going anywhere. If anything, my patches will only increase and you might have a stroke if you see my patchy up panda ass in a bikini this summer.