60 seconds with Dr Kudzai Kanhutu

Kudzai Kanhutu

Doctor, stargazer and pop lover

What are you enjoying doing at the moment?
Brushing up on my tennis game and learning to stargaze with our brand new telescope.

If you were a super-heroine, what powers would you like to have?
I would like to have the ability to speak every language on the planet both current, ancient and extinct. Every part of my day would be easier and I would use the skill to communicate and better understand all those around me. I’d also like to be able to teleport in order to get myself to places faster.

What’s your favourite word  in any language? Why?
My favourite word is “Svutugadzike” which is the Shona word for tea. I love it because it speaks not only to the physical act of drinking tea but also of contemplation, mindfulness and reflection. Beautiful…

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a woman from an immigrant or refugee background?
Learning to comfortably assert your value and worth in an environment where there is often very little acknowledgement of women let alone women from diverse cultural backgrounds.

For you, what’s the best thing about being a woman from an immigrant refugee/ background? 
Once you accept that so much is possible if you commit to it and persevere it allows you so much freedom. Culturally you have very much free reign because people often don’t know how to place you so you can fairly well do and be whatever you choose to be.

Tell me about an amazing woman you know.
Amazing women?! I know way too many! To name just one would seem a huge injustice!

What are you reading right now?
The washing instructions tag on a pair of new boxer shorts…. Do they REALLY have to tell you not to dry clean these?

Do you have a song/ music that inspires and motivates you?
Guilty pop pleasures here….. Beyonce’s “Run The World, Girls” always gets me fired up. The original sampled track Major Lazer’s “Pon de Floor” is astonishingly good.

If you could meet the Prime Minister tomorrow, what would you like to tell him?
Probably nothing he doesn’t already know…