About Jona

Jona Wakeling is a Canadian Artist, Psychologist and Writer living in Africa.

I have a Canadian born elder sibling and a Zimbabwean born younger sibling. I was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1980 – the same year that Zimbabwe gained its independence. Being a middle child was one thing, however being born into the middle of an international “indaba” was quite another. Zimbabwe became independent on the 18th of April 1980 – just a few short months after I was born on the 6th of January – so technically I was not “born free” as many of my later schoolmates were. With apartheid on the one side of the archetypal Zimbabwe Dollar and the American Civil War on the other (as I would come to understand the facts in my adult years) – playing heads and tails would be the full extent of my “voice” as a youngster growing up north of the Limpopo. To say I was the black sheep of the family would be an understatement. On the outside I was a fairly normal child – but inside I was a pot about to boil over.

I’ve become philosophical in middle age having recently vented my internal frustrations both at the US and South Africa, via the online world – and into my art and writing. It has been a cathartic process and hopefully a productive one for everyone involved in the years to come.

I have moralized and agonized over my origins all my short life. On which side of the Mason-Dixon or the colour bar am I really on? On which side of the Limpopo or the 49th parallel? However. And it is an important “but”. I have come to understand that being a “good person” despite real or imagined conflicts of interest is far more justifiable morally and in a wider sense.

I state it on the cover, to be sure. Speak-a-little-French is my Native American name. I am not an artist or psychologist but both – and a writer to boot. I remain far from my home on the prairie, however perhaps the African savannah will ultimately provide a better vantage point from with to mull over personal worries and global inaccuracies as I evolve into a 40-something gentleman and international oddball.