African Sim - Tumblr Posts

Okay. This is about to be a LONG post because I’m hella passionate about this project. Let’s go.

This was my heartfelt attempt at recreating the average Zimbabwean rural compound/homestead, complete with the new house that usually accompanies the traditional huts.

To clarify: nowadays, most of the Zimbabwean population lives in modern cities with modern homes. Had to put this out there to shut down the silly misconception that we still live in mud huts and that we’re stuck in the past or whatever. We keep these rural homes and communities as a way to honour and cherish our roots.

Moving on,

I used a minimal amount of cc (which is why the decorations are a bit sparse in some places) because I found most of what I needed in the vanilla game, plus I just didn’t want to spend too long looking for extra props. I needed to get this done while I still had the vision.

This lot is going to be part of my custom vacation world that I named Kumusha, which is what we say to refer to our ancestral homeland in Shona, my native language. It’s all part of an even bigger hood that I want to model after what I grew up around in Harare. They won’t be exact replicas but they’ll be heavily inspired.

I’ve always adored my identity as a Zimbabwean girl. Moving abroad has deepened my desire to represent my culture and my nation as best as I can, because I don’t see a lot of that positive representation going for us on a more global front. I know for a fact that I’m not the only Zimbabwean who enjoys the Sims thoroughly, so I hope that eventually these efforts will call others who are like me and provide a sense of kinship and familiarity.

I hope to soon share my vision through gameplay videos, but for now I’m just happy to do that here. Of course any non-Zimbabwean simmers who like this sort of thing are welcome to embrace the vision too :)