a SPIRITual encounter

​Meet, Bontle ‘Spirit’ Ndlovu, a henna artist and bhakti yoga practitioner.

Bontle is simply the name given to her at birth while Spirit embodies who she is. This vibrant young lady definitely embodies both her names. Spirit has a passion for media and hopes to move into social media management career wise, apart from this however, she hopes to expand a market within Jozi by establishing a platform for local creativity at affordable prices.

Spirit explains that she’s always been intrigued by the temporary skin decoration known as Mehndi which is traditionally part of the Middle East , North African and South Asian cultures but has filtered it’s way into popular culture. Being part of the Bhakti Yoga Society at the University of the Witwatersrand, Spirit began practicing the art form by copying different mehndi patterns for a year and a half. She has since evolved and is able to illustrate her own designs as well as bring to life the concepts that customers have in mind with regards to their mehndi applications. When it comes to people like me, who are afraid of needles firstly and commitment thereafter,Spirit is the go-to girl for a temporary solution to the desire for body ink.

Doing mehndi is not about the money for Spirit; instead, it is a method of alleviating stress. She explains that the same way some people paint, sing or dance in life when push becomes shoving, doing henna gives off the same effect for Spirit. In the same ‘spirit’, she is one of the best people (as I learned during our brief encounter) to simply chat to and understands that this world is a crazy place. It is for this reason that she allows people the opportunity to speak about anything and everything during the process of their mehndi application, also allowing one to blow off some steam. “ It’s more than just mehndi” , she says, “people need to speak and it’s like therapy in an informal way”.

Spirit has a passion for media and hopes to move into social media management career wise, apart from this however, she hopes to expand a market within Jozi by establishing a platform for local creativity, a space for spirituality as well as a business sphere which would allow individuals to obtain items which showcases africanism at affordable prices. Spirit mentions that it is great to finally see African people expressing and taking pride in who they are by incorporating African elements into their fashion, through their hair and in their music. In addition to this she would also like to see people better care of themselves. Physicality affects spirituality and vice versa. It is important to take care of your mind, body and soul , as said by Lailah Gifty Akita “ Renewal of mind leads to revival of spirit and revitality of soul” and if all is well on the inside it reflects on the way you treat people on the outside. This is a reason behind why Spirit practices Bhakti yoga in addition to applying Mehndi.

I’ll be joining in on one of her Bhakti yoga sessions very soon as well as challenging her mehndi skills and cannot wait to share my experience. For visuals and more information follow Spirit on instagram : @beautiful_spirit_

Stay Tuned.

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