⚠️ This episode discusses childhood trauma, emotional wounds, cultural conditioning, generational trauma, and childhood sexual abuse. Please listen with care and at a time that feels right for you. You are not alone.

How do African women heal childhood trauma while honouring culture, identity, and ancestry?

In this deeply personal episode of Woman Unboxed, Chido Victoria explores inner child healing through the lens of growing up in Zimbabwe, navigating colourism, cultural expectations, and inherited emotional silence.

This episode speaks directly to African women seeking healing, nervous system regulation, and freedom from generational trauma patterns.

Chido shares reflections on:

• Inner child healing and why joy often feels unsafe after trauma
• Cultural conditioning and colonial inheritance — how they shaped which emotions were acceptable for us as girls
• The long-term impact of childhood sexual abuse in African communities and the silence surrounding it
• Epigenetics and inherited trauma — how experiences before our birth can shape our stress responses
• Nervous system healing and why trauma lives in the body before it lives in memory
• Reparenting practices that allow African women to heal without rejecting culture or community

This episode includes a guided inner child meditation for emotional healing and reconnection.

Featured in this episode:

A poem by Najwa Zebian from Welcome HomeMusic: “Healed Wrong” by Xania Monet

Key ideas explored:

“Joy is the matriarch of a family of emotions. She won’t enter your house if her children are not welcome.”
Ubuntu — I am because we are
Musha mukadzi — The home is the woman
Pfunda mvura — Keep water in your mouth

If you are working through childhood trauma, generational pain, identity struggles, or emotional suppression, this episode offers reflection, validation, and a path toward healing.

Resources & Support:

If this conversation brings up difficult feelings, please consider reaching out to a trusted person or a trauma-informed therapist. Seeking support is strength.

Find links, resources, and community here:
https://linktr.ee/Woman_Unboxed_wildtruthstudio

If this episode resonated, share it with a woman who may need it. Leave a review and subscribe for more conversations on healing, womanhood, culture, and self-discovery.

She has been waiting for you. Go meet her.

In this episode, we’re digging deep into the "default settings" we’ve inherited from society, culture, and family. Chido Victoria shares her personal journey through a "dark night of the soul" and reveals how she began the messy, beautiful process of de-programming and reclaiming her worth. If you’ve ever felt like you’re living in a box that was never meant for you, this conversation is your permission slip to break free. In this episode, we discuss:

• ​ The "Perfect Life Façade" and the pressure on African women.
• ​ Tools for self-discovery: From journaling to Human Design and Astrology.
• ​ The power of "Micro-Rebellions" in daily life.
• ​ Navigating internal and external resistance as you grow.

✨ FREE RESOURCE: THE UNBOXED DISCOVERY GUIDE

Don’t just listen—take action! Download your free companion workbook to help you audit your influences, silence your inner critic, and plan your own micro-rebellions.

👉 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nqNYh4842eYJKIJh-oBFhhZLK6LxFlAk/view?usp=drivesdk

Connect with us: • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_wild_truth_studio?igsh=NXVid2MydHo1OWFq&utm_source=qr

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• ​Share the Love: If this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and share it with a sister who needs to hear this today! “Self-discovery isn’t about becoming someone new; it’s the journey back home to the woman you were always meant to be.”

In this episode of Woman Unboxed, we unpack the Shona phrase ‘Musha Mukadzi’—the woman is the home, and also 'Varume Vana'- 'men are children'.

I share my personal experience of becoming a wife and mother at 17 and how cultural expectations shape both women and men.

Together, we reflect on how we can rewrite these narratives to foster shared responsibility, respect, and healing.

The Cultural Lies Women Are Taught About Marriage, Identity, worth I’m not here as an expert. I’m not here with a master plan or a list of answers. I’m here as a woman who has been paying attention. To her life. To other women’s lives. To the things we’re taught, and the things we quietly endure. And eventually, I realised I needed a space to say the things I’ve been thinking out loud — honestly, imperfectly, and without packaging them to be palatable. Woman Unboxed is about the gap between what we were told and what turned out to be true. The gap between the promises we inherited and the realities we live with. Especially as women. I’ve spent a long time noticing something: how many of us are living inside boxes that we didn’t build…but were expected to stay in. Boxes labelled “good woman.” Strong woman. Wife material. Good Wife Respectable. Enduring. And the thing about boxes is — they only work if we don’t question them, or notice them. This podcast is about questioning them, and moving ourselves out When I say “unboxed,” I’m not talking about rebellion for the sake of it. I’m talking about awareness, awakening. That moment when you realise: “Oh… this rule I’ve been following — who actually made it? And why?”

Because many of the things we were taught weren’t neutral. They were cultural scripts. Survival strategies. Gendered expectations. Misrepresentations And some of them no longer serve us. Most of them never did. We just weren’t aware of it. So let’s start with one of the biggest lies we were told. That marriage is the ultimate goal of a woman’s life.

Growing up, marriage wasn’t presented as a choice. It was presented as the outcome. You study, you behave, you endure — and eventually, you are chosen. And once you are chosen, the story says you should be grateful. Fulfilled. Complete. But marriage, on its own, doesn’t guarantee safety, happiness, partnership, respect, or even love. And yet women are still encouraged to stay, pray. To adjust, endure, try harder, pray harder. cook the food he loves. Lose weight, gain weight, dress different. Keep the house spotless, and yourself beautiful. Even when the marriage has become emotionally empty. Even when the woman has disappeared inside it. We were never really told that choosing yourself might cost you approval. Or that staying might cost you yourself. That part was conveniently left out. This lie works because it’s wrapped in morality. In culture and religion. In fear. Fear of being alone. Fear of being judged. Fear of being seen as difficult, ungrateful, or broken. And for immigrant women especially, marriage can also be tied to: • stability, legality, respectability, survival So leaving isn’t just emotional — it’s structural. That’s why I don’t judge women who stay. And I don’t glorify women who leave. I’m interested in truth, not performance. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not advocating for women to leave their marriages. On the contrary, my hope is that every woman will look into the mirror and get curious about the person she sees reflected back. Curious enough to want to know who she is, what she likes, what makes her tick. Curious enough to recognise thatshe does not belong in any box, and slowly start the process Of unboxing herself. So she can fall in love with herself, and recognise what a precious jewel she is. I know some of what I’ll say on this podcast will make people uncomfortable. Including me. I’ll get things wrong sometimes. I’ll change my mind sometimes. I’ll speak from my perspective — as a Zimbabwean woman, a mother, a psychology student, someone navigating multiple cultural worlds. But I believe we need these conversations more than we need comfort. Because silence doesn’t protect us. It isolates us. And every time one woman names something out loud, another woman realises she’s not alone. The box only works if we never question it. And the moment we start questioning… it starts to crack

where we talk about the things that shape women’s lives — especially Black women, African women, immigrant women — that often go unspoken. It’s about the gap between what we were taught and what we experienced.
About cultural scripts, gender expectations, silence, endurance, and the quiet ways women are taught to disappear.

Some episodes will be just me — thinking outloud, noticing patterns, naming truths that don’t always have neat endings. Other episodes will include conversations withwomen who have lived through something and are willing to reflect on it honestly.

This podcast is not about outrage.
It’s about awareness.

WHAT THIS PODCAST ISN’T

This is not a self-help podcast.
I’m not here to give advice, fixes, or five-step solutions. It’s also not a debate show.
I’m not interested in defending women’s humanity or arguing about whether our experiences are valid.

And it’s not about men-bashing, culture-bashing, or blame. It’s about telling the truth — carefully, thoughtfully, and without shouting.

HOW TO LISTEN

I encourage you to listen slowly. You don’t have to agree with everything I say. You don’t have to share it immediately.
You don’t even have to know what you feel straight away.

If something makes you uncomfortable, sit withthat.
If something resonates, notice where it lands in your body.
This podcast isn’t here to tell you who to be.
It’s here to help you hear yourself more clearly.

WHY I’M DOING THIS
I’m doing this because I’ve watched too many women (including myself) questionthemselves instead of the scripts they were given.
Because I’ve seen how silence isolates, and how naming creates relief.
And because I believe that when one woman speaks honestly, another womanrealises she’s not alone.
If you’ve ever felt like you were living inside a box someone else built for you — you’re in the right place.
This is Woman Unboxed.
And this is the space we’ll be unboxing truth together.