“Incubate Your Hope” is the debut book by Cleopatra Shamiso Mutetwa and she describes it as her “entering into the beauty of publishing”. Launched at a glitzy event in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2023 the twenty-two-year-old author, spoken word artist, humanitarian and Architecture student by the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), gives her advice on connecting and holding on to hope in times of adversity.

Designed as a self-help book, the book is rooted in Christian faith as her readers are encouraged to pray and use it as a “weapon”. As the book opens the book places readers in the feet of a parent who has a child who is prematurely born and must pay close attention and care to their child for the child to survive; the child is a symbol of hope. In chapter 2, to make an illustration of hope, Mutetwa points out the biblical story of Noah who had to secure his hope in God as he built his ark.

She encourages readers to be selective of the voices they choose to listen to and how not to limit ourselves in the vision of our lives. The next chapter discusses the enveloping power that negativity has over our lives and encourages readers to use positive thought to overcome this phenomenon. Mutetwa goes further to discuss the effect social media and digitization has had on the youth.

In the fourth chapter titled “Your Circle” the author she goes further to caution us on the company that we keep. In Chapter 5 “Control Your Mind” she shares with her readers, “I pray that beautiful flowers grow in your mind and that no thorns will ever grow in your mind,” the chapter. Among the topics she discusses are positive thinking and fighting depression. Chapter 6 titled “Starve Your Fears” is a call to avoid giving into our fears and insecurities.

Chapter 7 is titled “Birthing your dreams” she takes us back to seeing our premature child (our dreams) and bringing it into existence. Chapter 8 is titled “Nurturing Your Hope” she writes on the importance of discipline, consistency, and resourcefulness among others in order to build upon reader’s hope. The final chapter is a letter of encouragement from the author to her readers.

The book is a quick read and the author shares anecdotes from her own journey such as when a teacher once labeled her “Timid Cleo” and how she still remembers this occurrence much later in life and how she came out of that thinking. This book is an enlightening, filled with biblical scriptures and very encouraging body of work told from the perspective of a youth.

Mutetwa’s writing is easy to read and very relatable to youth and the young at heart. A very welcome debut.