Black Joy Theory

Hello, Beloveds 🌻

It's been so long. How have you been? How is your heart?

It feels right for me to start by introducing myself. My name is Khethiwe Mbongwa (she/they), I am the Founder, Lead R&D Product Formulator, Creative Director and Healer behind Black Joy Theory. I am also a recovering perfectionist and overachiever and I suffer from chronic hyper-independence.

Now that you know who I am let's get into it.

I've written and rewritten this post several times because announcing I'm back without addressing my absence feels disrespectful to you and the time and money you’ve invested in BJT’s growth.

I've always tried to be open and honest with you about what it takes to create, manage and dream for Black Joy Theory as a one-person team. I've always endeavoured to showcase my products as a love letter to Black Skin, Hair, Culture, Love, Joy, Wellness, Care, Rest, Thought, Queerness and most recently Healing.

It’s taken me a year to openly acknowledge the type of exhaustion, depression, burnout and loss I’ve experienced since I last posted. I left suddenly last year because I couldn't continue giving others what I couldn't give myself, healing and care.

I'm so sorry for disappearing the way I did for as long as I have. The hardest part about coming back and asking for forgiveness is asking you to trust me again and acknowledging that I not only ghosted you but, ghosted my dreams.

During my absence I took a step back and got my house in order to make sure that when I came back i’d be back to stay. So what you can expect to look forward to in the coming days and weeks is:

* A streamlined shopping and delivery experience
* Improved product formulas and three new exciting products
* A new page dedicated to Our New Heritage Project care space, to make room on here for BJT exclusive content 🌻

What will stay the same:
* The warmth and representation you've all grown to love and care for over the past 2 years
* Information and greater transparency about formulation, raw materials
* The tenderness and care taken to craft every product

So here I am asking you (again) to follow me on this Journey to (re)discover, (re)define and cultivate Black Joy.

It’s so good to finally be able to say you.

Welcome Wellness
Welcome Joy
Welcome Home
🌻💛

Link to the episodes https://msha.ke/blackjoytheory/

We are live!

Thank you all for patience, support and kindness you have no idea how affirming it has all been.

Firstly I’d like to welcome all the new followers. I hope that this space will come to feel like a place where you can rest, feel whole, be seen and feel nurtured. 🌻

Our very first ep. of our very first podcast is up on podbean 🥺🥂
The podcast will be available on other streaming services soon and the accompanying videos with captions will follow.

For now please click here https://msha.ke/blackjoytheory and scroll to Our New Heritage, there you can click on the first episode, download the app and you’re ready to start listening.

Episode 1 Reflections-

The language in which information is disseminated and the hierarchy of knowledge is an incredibly interesting topic to me. The balance between the need for information to be instant and our responsibility to learn things from hand to hand, from ear to ear and from word to word via our elders is a delicate one.

It’s a balance that I certainly have not been great at and I have been too afraid to ‘participate’ as Gogo has said we should because of the language barrier. I can understand my language but I am too afraid or maybe too ashamed to speak speak it with an accent.

I agree that we have a responsibility to learn, to participate, to heal and to remember but what happens to those who have never learned their language or are too afraid to speak it? What happens to those of us who are q***r and hiding or those who have been cut off from their families? What happens if our elders have lost the information they were supposed to pass down to hand to hand, ear to ear and word to word? Where do we go? Where do we start?

What if they only way we know how to speak through our pain and to recognise it, is through remembering in our colonisers language?

Let me know where you go to connect or how you participate.