The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
TWENTY-eight-year-old Ms Amanda Nyoni has been honored with a 24-metre-high mural in Tullamore, Ireland which aims to highlight the integration of races.
The mural, which towers over the town’s train station, features the Solusi University graduate who has been heavily involved in human rights advocacy in the town.
The mural was created by street artist and activist Joe Caslin, as part of the ‘In the Open/Faoin Spéir’ arts programme developed in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
Speaking to Sunday News from her base in Ireland, Ms Nyoni, who has been living in Direct Provision, said: “Firstly I am honoured and humbled. It’s not every day that your face goes up on a Mural in a foreign land. It can only be the hand of GOD. This is following up on a number of projects and campaigns I have coordinated since coming to Ireland such as the organising a Black Lives Matter protest, running a Migrant Minds Matter campaign, a “Putting down roots” campaign to raise funds for those looking to further their education and most recently a Project called “Crowned” which is conversations around women of colour and their hair journeys”
Amanda graduated with a BBA in Accounting at Solusi University and was part of a delegation that represented Zimbabwe at an African Union Summit in 2015.
The giant artwork was developed through a collaboration between Offaly Arts Office, Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, Birr Festivals Collective, Iarnród Éireann and the arts group Museum of Everyone. -@nyeve14
