Getting your PhD is a huge accomplishment for anyone, but for those dealing ADHD it can be an even bigger challenge. Tumi, a South African theatre-maker, is dancing her way through her studies, work and life.
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00:00As a performer and director, Madumisang Mutisi challenges norms and stereotypes with her
00:07controversial dance and theatre performances.
00:15Like her groundbreaking piece, Seeing Red, on Periods in 2018.
00:21I do believe that certain regimes and certain ways of thinking need to be challenged and
00:27need to be disrupted.
00:29I also understand that there's a learning process in that, a learning that I can take
00:35from those spaces and a learning I can give to those spaces.
00:40And now she has set her sights on the next step.
00:44Dumi is about to become a doctor of dance and movement.
00:48But why is it so important for her to change dance?
00:51And make viewers and dancers confront their prejudices and preconceptions.
00:58I think I count myself very lucky to be able to do movement and physical theatre.
01:04Because I truly believe, and I'm still trying to articulate it, but I truly believe that
01:09the arts and theatre is able to do something that not many other disciplines or fields
01:15can do, in terms of bringing people together that are different.
01:20And to acknowledge difference, not to ignore it, not to say, you know, we're all the same.
01:25But rather to say, okay, we are different, different skin colours, different bodies,
01:30different abilities, but we can come together and make something meaningful.
01:35Dumi belongs to a small group of black South African women who make it to the academies
01:40at all.
01:41The challenges on the way are still too many.
01:43There's a lack of opportunities, money, support.
01:48But when there is also mental disposition, how do you manage that?
01:54I fell in love with theatre.
01:56I fell in love with performance.
01:58And I spoke to my parents about that.
02:00But they were supportive.
02:02They knew that I wasn't going to be like my brothers, who are very business-minded people,
02:07always scared me, very numbers people.
02:10But it's not just an area of interest that sets Dumi apart from her brothers.
02:15At 28 years old, she's diagnosed with ADHD, another major obstacle on the way to a PhD.
02:22How does that work?
02:23I have an advocate for being in the therapeutic process.
02:28And I have been in multiple therapeutic processes.
02:31But when I decided to get a PhD, I knew that I would need help.
02:36I'd been in therapy for a while.
02:38And we obviously talked about the PhD.
02:41And it was really, really hard for me.
02:45Being African, it's not normal to open up about your feelings or mental issues.
02:50Many families don't agree to seeing therapists.
02:53How did her family support her during her diagnosis?
02:56My parents and my family mean a lot to me.
02:59And they have made very many sacrifices so that I can pursue this.
03:04Because it is not a normal way about it.
03:06And they did.
03:07They supported me.
03:08And they support my siblings in the journey to pursue knowledge.
03:13They are learned people in their own way.
03:16They may not have degrees and all of that, but learning, curiosity, people have always
03:22been a focus for us as a family.
03:26And yeah, and I think they have been and continue to be incredibly supportive of my work and
03:32of me.
03:34So when she, in fact, just so recently, like a month or two ago, when she explained the
03:40ADHD, when she explained the medication, then so many things started making sense.
03:47How did she manage mentally, physically, and emotionally while juggling her job, studies,
03:53lecturing overseas, and her relationship with friends and family?
03:58I realized in my undergrad that I had a lot of anger.
04:03And it was during the time of protest action at universities.
04:08And so there was a lot that I became conscious of about my identity.
04:13And I knew that I had felt discrimination, I had felt prejudice in different spaces,
04:20but it became very, very visible to me during my undergrad years.
04:25And I needed an outlet for this anger.
04:27And my art became that.
04:29And then I got to teach, and there was a softness that came into my world.
04:36And for me, that was the healing.
04:38I think that part of it, you must feel the anger, and you must be allowed to express
04:41the anger.
04:43Because out of that, something beautiful can arise.
04:47And teaching is that for me.
04:48Dumi's main aim is to break prejudices.
04:51Because in post-apartheid South Africa, it should simply be possible for everyone to
04:56continue their education.
04:59It's not normal to struggle sometimes as much as we are struggling.
05:05And so to be okay to ask for help and support, but to be agentic about one's health, mental
05:15and otherwise, is important when you want to pursue something like a PhD.
05:22Find people who are your people that can support you through it.
05:27But do it.
05:28At the end of the day, do it.