Kwa-Thema – Author and motivational speaker Gloria Mnguni recently published her book, Gathering The Broken Pieces, inspired by her past marriage and childhood. She married at 19 and encountered many challenges in her marriage.
“My book is titled Gathering The Broken Pieces because I had to gather myself and leave that marriage because it had become toxic.
“I was married to a well-known pastor who abused me emotionally and physically. I think I was not ready to get married when I married my ex-husband. I married for all the wrong reasons. One was that I sought consolidation, love, affection and comfort. I grew up in a dysfunctional family, and it gave me a lot of childhood scars,” she explained.
“I was an orphan growing up. I grew up angry and bitter because I was treated differently. I felt abused, but as I grew older, I realised it was me seeking attention. Apart from that, there were things my aunts and family members did to me.
“They would say painful things like, ‘You are ugly’, ’You will never make it in life’ and other hurtful things,” detailed Mnguni.
She grew up insecure and, as a result, neglected herself until she met her ex-husband, who at the time filled her void of seeking love and validation.
She said her book also talks about the childhood scars she had to overcome and how she had to gather pieces of her lost soul, her failures, rejection, divorce and loss.
“I detail how all these traumas started. I thought that getting married would bandage my childhood scars and that I would receive the love I had longed for.
“Instead of gaining that, I was further broken. He became abusive. I was quiet about it because I had no one to talk to about my experiences,” she said.
