Priscilla Swartz is a commanding presence. Whether she is taking centre stage with her stunning voice as the Namibian Dessert Queen, or while indulging in a heart-to-heart conversation, she oozes confidence out of every pore.
Not the kind of confidence that is intimidating and overbearing. The kind that you want to bottle up and keep for a rainy day when you aren’t feeling so great.
The natural kind of confidence that we should all have. This is what she shares with those who take part in her Love Yourself Campaign. Since its inception in 2016, the campaign has been transforming the way people love and see themselves.
Started by Swartz, this year the campaign focuses on the LGBTQI community. An often overlooked and marginalised community in Namibia.
“They are a small community. I wanted to infiltrate them with the Love Yourself concept. In 2016, I featured plus size women who look like me. In 2017, I did women of all shapes and sizes and now I wanted to accomdate the LGBTQI community because they also have insecurities and need to love themselves,” said Swartz.
“Some of them are my dearest friends.”
While today Swartz may epitomise a sense of content confidence, it was not always this way.
“Growing up, I struggled with being bullied. I developed quickly, I got my period early, breasts early and I hated it. I didn’t love my body, I didn’t love what I was becoming,” she said.
“Guys wanted to court me because I was fully devoloped but they did not understand I was still in Grade 5 or 6. I hated school. I always told my mom that I didn’t want to go to school, I didn’t want this body because of the bullying.”
When her mother was diagnosed with cancer and underwent a masectomy, Swartz’s feelings about her body began to change. Seeing the changes that her mother went through made her realise that she only had one life to live, and she was only given one body.
“My mom had this amazing way of dealing with stress and her illness. She used to sit in front of the mirror and treat her wound and tell herself ‘you are still a mom, you are still a sister, you are still beautiful’.
“That stuck in my mind. It made me realise that I was being ungrateful. Yes, I am bigger than everyone but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t embrace who I am.”
And thus began her journey to becoming the formidably confident woman she is today.
Part of the Love Yourself campaign is a photoshoot to help boost the confidence of those who take part. There are also workshops in which Swartz helps to facilitate the culture of loving oneself.
“In my family we were taught to embrace who we are no matter what. The idea is that if you love who you are, it is easier for us to love and accept who you are. So for me it is all about letting the LGBTQI community know that I love them, just the way they are .”
Walking into The Loft where the group photoshoot took place, stylish shoes, jackets and dresses hang ready to be worn, adorned and styled by members of the LGBTQI community.
Greeted by Eva Junius, the marketing coordinator, we wait for participants to take their places. One by one they each have their photographs taken by Swakopmund-based photographer Julia Hango.
With each click, one sees and feels the strength, love and confidence of participants growing.
“When I first heard about the Love Yourself campaign, I thought now what is there to love about myself, everyone is ostracising me, everybody calls me names,” said Celine Watson, a transgender woman. “If I go out the door, who will say what? What will happen to me?”
But watching her blossom as the shoot progresses, one can see her finding reasons to love herself. Her poses get progressively fiercer.
“In all the adversity that I am facing, I need to love myself in order to have a positive life. In order to move forward with whatever I want to achieve in my dreams. I will never compromise myself for anybody, never comprimise my existence for anybody.
“Nobody will tell me what to do with my life or how to live. I am a woman, and that is it. I am happy with who I am. I am a law-abiding citizen, I work, I live a normal life.”
Donovon Majiedt, who also took part in the shoot, stressed the importance of the Love Yourself campaign, especially for the LGBTQI community.
“I think it is important to reach out to people who are afraid to reach out towards us. I remember growing up there wasn’t anyone to reach out to. I feel like if there is a platform where we can welcome people and make them feel safe then why not do it? It is simple, we are all human.”
“It was something different. I have never really exposed myself to those outside of my circle. For me it was something different to let other people in. To discover who I am, who I feel to be, who I am free to be, I was just free.”
The Love Yourself campaign, ultimately, is about inclusion of those left on the periphery, and for Dannique this is key.
“I feel like a lot of people are excluded in Namibia because of who they are, because they aren’t something according to religion. For us to develop from a third world country to a first world one, everyone needs to take part in everything and be included.”
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