(21 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe – 14 June 2025
1. Wide of Chitungwiza township
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Action Winya, Yoga instructor: ++ PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 3 & 4++
“Yoga is well known to be done by the rich guys to participate in the yoga classes. It does not necessarily mean that those guys are human. We have humans in the ghetto, we also have humans in our community, this is why we are trying to introduce it. Why? Because they need mental wellness.”
3. Wide of yoga practice
4. Various of yoga practice
5. SOUNDBITE (Shona) Edinah Makosa, Yoga participant: ++PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 6++
“I used to be a person that suffers from depression a lot. Ever since I took up yoga I’m no longer depressed, my body balance and strength has vastly improved. I’m now a happy person, stress and strength has vastly improved. Yoga helps me mentally and physically.”
6. Various of yoga practice
STORYLINE:
Before sunrise on a Saturday, the Socialite Bar, a lively hangout in a township on the outskirts of Harare, is already a hive of activity. But instead of patrons nursing hangovers, a small group gathered, eyes closed, bodies still in meditative poses on a bare floor.
It’s an unlikely setting for a yoga class. In Zimbabwe, the practice is rare and mostly found in wealthy suburbs. Yet it is quietly taking root here in a beer tavern in Chitungwiza, a low-income town 30 kilometers (18 miles) outside the Zimbabwe’s capital .
The initiative is led by Action Winya, a yoga instructor who saw how economic hardship and social pressures were damaging the mental health of people in his hometown.
“Yoga is well known to be done by the rich guys,” he says, ”but we also got humans in the ghetto. They need mental wellness,” Winya adds.
He usually teaches in affluent areas, charging between $30 and $100 a month. That’s an impossible cost for most, especially in a country where many survive through informal jobs.
Winya now offers free weekend classes to some of those hardest hit by Zimbabwe’s economic problems.
The sessions have become a source of relief for people navigating Zimbabwe’s relentless challenges. Authorities acknowledge a growing societal crisis worsened by drug abuse, domestic violence and poverty, compounded by a shortage of public health services and therapists.
Yoga, an ancient Indian practice, has become a multibillion-dollar industry and a daily ritual for millions around the world. The United Nations over a decade ago designated June 21 as International Day of Yoga.
In Africa, other countries like Kenya and South Africa are introducing yoga to poorer communities, with the Indian government promoting its spread across the continent.
Inside the tavern in Zimbabwe, mellow music played as about a dozen participants moved through poses. They had no mats, just a cold brick floor, but plenty of determination for inner peace.
Edinah Makosa, 24, joined the class earlier this year and said it gave her hope. ”Ever since I took up yoga I’m no longer depressed, my body balance and strength has vastly improved,” she says. ”I’m now a happy person.”
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