Artists add voice to end child rape

GWERU – Touched by the plight of the girl child being married off or raped at a tender age, two local
artists – sungura icon Silas Carter Muchemwa and Dinno Mudondo collaborated and produced a
single Yamaronga Haiite, calling for an end to the vice.
The song was recorded at Diva Size Studio in Johannesburg, South Africa where Muchemwa is based.
It was produced by Diva Size. He said they have plans to come up with a video for the song.
Muchemwa said they were adding their voice to growing calls for an end to child rape and marriages
now prevalent in Zimbabwe.
He said as artists they were appealing to parents and guardians not to marry off the girl child but to
give her a good upbringing so that she can decide who to marry when she is mature enough.
“Let them choose for themselves. Just guide them to do right things in life and follow protocols of
marriage and dignify it as parents.
“We have many cases of young girls who are being impregnated by their uncles. Ndiyo nyaya yatiri
kuti isu sanagwenyambira, aiwa ka kwete vakomana regai vana vaite sarudzo dzavo vapei mazano
chete,” said Muchemwa.
He said they decided to come up with the song “Yamaronga Haiite” after discovering that there are a
lot of child marriages owing to poverty and cruelty.
“We decided to come up with a song that campaigns against such act of selfishness. What is
happening is that some parents, due to poverty, they choose husbands for their children and at the
end day, these kids will not fulfil their dreams,” he said.
Muchemwa noted that some girls who are forced into early marriages do not enjoy them as they will
be abused, dumped and left to suffer.
“Let’s fight against child marriages in our societies as artists. Let the young girls fulfil their dreams in
life,” he said.
Last week, just as the country was yet to come to terms with the rape and impregnating of a nine-
year-old Tsholotsho girl, another nine-year-old minor was raped and fell pregnant in Bindura.
The Tsholotsho girl last week delivered the baby through caesarean section.