Eglet Mtengwa-Nyabvure, the founder and managing director of the Pfeka clothing brand, says she was driven by the desire to have fashion that speaks to being a Zimbabwean and an African.
Mtengwa-Nyabvure (EN), who is also an audio-visual consultant based in the Netherlands, shared her story on the platform In Conversation with Trevor UK series hosted by Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN).
Below are excerpts from the interview.
TN: Today, I'm in conversation with Eglet Mtengwa-Nyabvure, the founder, fashion designer and managing director of Pfeka and an audio-visual consultant.
Welcome to In Conversation with Trevor UK series brought to you by the Nyaradzo Group.
Let's get down to some work. Eglet Mtengwa-Nyabvure, welcome to In Conversation with Trevor.
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EN: Thank you very much. It's an honour to be here, really.
TN: The honour is ours. We are delighted to have this opportunity to share your absolutely amazing story with our global audience.
So you are, like I said, a fashion designer. You founded Pfeka. You are the managing director, you are an audio visual consultant because you have an engine telecommunications engineering background.
Why do you do what you do?
EN: It stems from passion. It comes from a place where I understand where I need to go.
And for me, it's the question of identity. So when I got into engineering, which I was studying, actually, it was a second choice in high school.
After finishing school, I actually studied arts. I did Shona. I was just looking for, you know, subjects with easy points. I did arts. I did literature. I did religion.
So when it was time to go to the University of Zimbabwe, I was then told I'm going to be doing political administration. And I was like ‘no, this is not speaking anything to me.’
Then I didn't think through what I wanted to do.
But I got to a point when I was like, what do I want? I really like to touch things, to open up stuff.
TN: So you finished your arts degree, did you?
EN: Not the arts degree. So it was just the arts subjects in high school before going to university.
So it was supposed to be political administration, but I didn't go for that.
So then I changed. Then I went for a college to do telecommunication, electronics engineering.
TN: Which college was this?
EN: PTC, the TelOne. So it was actually difficult for me because that was not university. It was a college.
And people were like, yeah, you're not going to use it. So people would ask me, they were like, you know, you are doing college.
But for me, the passion was like, yeah, it's actually by Guilds of London. It has a good accreditation.
So it was really something that I was like, 'I have to do it.'
So for me, change and passion is something that I have seen since, you know, from school that you have to follow what you want.
TN: So from where did you see that?
It's just not representing who you want to be. And you look at the future like you don't see yourself in a certain space.
EN: So for me, that's not what I want. And I'm grateful for the family because I mean, telling my mom that I'm changing, I'm not going to the university.
They understood and they knew it anyway. I think as long as you're going to do your best with this one, that's all right.
TN: So you then finished? So that's your first pivot. Instead of going to university, you make a bold decision of going to a City and Guilds of London to do telecommunications.
EN: Yeah.
TN: How long did that degree take?
EN: That was three years.
TN: Then you finished?
EN: So when I finished, also the interesting part, I used to pass by Philips in Msasa, I think now it's called Destiny in Msasa.
And then I was like, I really want to do something with gadgets, with TVs and, you know, X-rays and this kind of interesting things.
And so before I finished my second year, I was to look for an attachment. So I went to Philips.
That was also one bold move that I did. I always tell myself I'm just like one bold person. I went to them, no appointment. I went there and I saw Mr Easterbrook.
He was the MD then. I was like, I'm studying at PTC, but I would love to work here, for this company here. And they were like, do you have any experience?
'No, I'll start from wherever.'
And then from that time, they disliked the fact that I came there and asked for what I wanted. And then they offered me the attachment.
TN: And then you grow from there. That's bold, isn't it? It is. You just walk into his office and say, I want to work here. I really would love to do this.
EN: I don't know how it's going to be like. So for me, all this, when I look at it now, actually in retrospect, you see like you can tell when you need something and you can go for it.
And it's all up to you. It's your desire. And also it’s just the boldness, the courage, this is what I want.
Maybe it's not exactly how it's planned or what my parents are expecting or the society is expecting, but this is what I want.
And I think it also pushes you to do more because you've put it yourself to say you want this.
TN: You think you're going to do it?
EN: I had to do maths in college together with telecommunications because I didn't do maths at A Level. So it's extra work, but you have to work because I said I want it.
TN: So you work with, Phillips?
EN: Yeah. Philips took me in as an intern. So then I was on attachment there and then I worked there for like six years.
TN: Six years with Philips? And then after that?
EN: I left Philips to start my own company, Tele-electrical then. It was more also like when I was at Philips, I was doing the telephone systems.
So I was a technician installing telephone systems for companies. And I saw that there was this opportunity to just do your own thing as a person.
You can go and buy telephone sets, install them in houses. I started even to do like the electricals, like the ballasts and plugs you buy in South Africa. You install it for yourself.
TN: So there's the courage, there's being adventurous, there's being bold. Where do you think you get this from? From your parents? Has anyone in the family done that?
EN: My parents, they owned a business. So we also kind of grew up as a family running the business and trying new things.
My father's shop had alcohol, bread and slippers. It was a grocery store.
TN: So you have experienced entrepreneurship hand at home? I give it to them. And then you do your own little thing, your own company. For how long did you do that?
EN: It was for 2005, 2006, for like two years. And then we moved to South Africa. My husband got a job offer in South Africa.
So we moved to Cape Town for a year. And that stopped. I also discovered when I moved to South Africa that I was pregnant.
So that's also changed the shift of, you know, from career to a mom. And you're also in a new place. It’s a new dynamic altogether.
TN: So talk to me now about the big pivot from telecommunications to starting Pfeka. What was the thinking process?
EN: So when we came from South Africa, my husband, again, got another job offer in the Netherlands where we're based now.
And when we got there, we came as expats. So I had an opportunity to go back to whatever work in an industry I would have wanted.
So I went to engineering. I managed to find a company that was doing telecommunications and also audio-visual equipment manufacturing.
So I joined that company. And as an engineer, I realised that women engineers, black women engineers of African heritage were really scarce.
So identity also came to me as an engineer.
Still, when I was back in Zimbabwe, I didn't want to be just like the boys. You know, you are a girl, though I would dress maybe like the boys, but I always felt like I have to be different.
So when I moved to the Netherlands, it was important to identify myself as an African, a woman, and not to be scared about the projects or about the different culture that I was now exposed to.
So then I decided to dress in a way that spoke my identity. So first of all, I was just buying stuff from Nigerian shops.
We all do, you know, West African stuff.
But then when you look at the dashiki, it's like, it's not speaking to me. I don't even know.
And in the Netherlands, Vlisco, the biggest company that produces African prints, I'll put it in quotes, "African prints," is in the Netherlands.
It's a Dutch company. So they produce in the Netherlands and then they send it to West Africa, to Africa, you know, and that story didn't sit well with me.
I was like, this is not the African that I know.
I know mashingo. I know the animals I don't see in the African print. I didn't find that quality that I wanted.
So I was like, come on, I'm an engineer. I design, I make drawings.
So then that's where the journey actually started, creating the fabric or the patterns that represent who I am.
This United Kingdom series of “In Conversation With Trevor” is brought to you in partnership with Nyaradzo Group. “In Conversation With Trevor” is a weekly show broadcast on YouTube.com//InConversationWithTrevor.