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Sidanisile Handa loves drawing

Roselyne Sachiti Features Editor
She was born with no hands and had partial legs. Her speech is impaired yet when she talks she captures one’s attention as easily as she expresses herself. In Mkoba 15, Gweru, some 275km from Harare, Sidanisile Handa (26) has lived like this all her life, depending on other people for mobility yet all she wants is to dance and draw. She is confident and in front of her is an A4 piece of paper, with a drawing of a woman with similar physical appearance as herself.

“I am that woman in the picture. I drew myself. I love drawing,” she says as she asks for a pen and paper to prove her claims. She uses both her left and right partial arms to hold the pen, leans over and starts drawing. She is patient and careful and she works on her piece of art. This time she does not draw a picture of herself, but one of a man. She says the man in the picture will change her life for the better as he has promised to buy her prosthetic legs and hands. And when she gets the prosthetic legs and hands, she wants to dance, this time on her feet. Handa is already a great dancer, one who leaves many green with envy. She says since she is always in her wheelchair, dances helps her exercise and stay fit, but above all it makes her happy. At family gatherings, she dances to any music, from the sungura beat, to ZimDancehall artists like Soul Jah Love. She dances with skill and precision and does not miss a rhythm.

“I just love dancing. My dream has always been to dance so I always pushed myself to perform better. When Prophet Walter Magaya gives me prosthetic legs and hands, the first thing I want to do is draw a picture of him. After that, I want to dance. I also want to walk until I get tired. I also want to come to Harare alone, and leave my wheelchair in Gweru,” she told The Herald recently. She says in 2016, her brother Leonard taught her to draw.

“I love art. I would watch him draw and said I also wanted to learn despite not having hands to hold a pen or pencil. I was patient enough to learn how to hold the pen using my limbs. It takes me two to three hours to draw,” she adds. Born in a family where two other of her siblings were also born with a condition similar to hers, she has never been to a formal school. Her hopes are now pinned on the prosthetic legs and arms donation that she will receive soon. If she gets an opportunity, she wants to become a professional artist and draw as many pictures as her new prosthetic hands will allow.