One of Zimbabwe’s budding writers Rudo Bingepinge-Dzenga has just published her second novel CONQUER. The story balances two major themes, the stigma around albinism and the sexual abuse of the boy child. While a lot of work has been done to educate the girl child and empowering the girl child to speak out, a lot more needs to be done for the boy child to speak out against abuse. Boys tend to ” take it like man “ yet the destructive effects later on in life may be life threatening.
On the other society does not seem to make an effort to understand the genetics behind albinism as a result stigma is still very high besides being a more educated and exposed generation. Will an abused young man and a badly stigmatized albino make it work? It’s for you the reader to find out?
“I am so grateful to Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust, I was one of the first grant beneficiaries. My novel The Return which focuses on the challenges women face after doing time in prison was translated in to Shona and Ndebele and adopted in to a radio drama with funds from Culture Fund. In 2007 the short film version of The Return was screened at the Zimbabwe International Film Festival. The support form Culture Fund made me confident in the arts, I have buried the term “I can’t”, I have just agreed to write a children’s book. My children have great concepts they want to see in book form. I am working on it and hope to publish a kids series so that even my children can contribute their stories to it. I hope to launch the first adventures series for kids by the end of this year.”
The Culture Fund envisions a thriving Zimbabwe that is confident in its innovation and creativity that is nurtured through a culture of open dialogue and creation of knowledge accessible to all its citizens. The Culture Fund with programme support funds from the Swedish International Development Agency(Sida) plays a leading role in gearing the country towards becoming a creative society benefiting from a creative economy. It supports the cultural sphere through results-based programming.
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