LOCAL author Catherine Magodo-Mutukwa has penned a book titled Silent Cries: The Violated Speak, in which she chronicles tales about girls who survive rape.
BY ROPAFADZO MAPIMHIDZE
Magodo-Mutukwa published the 65-page book in partnership with Shamwari Yemwanasikana (SYS), a non-governmental organisation that assists sexually abused girls.
SYS director Ekenia Chifamba-Chidodo said the book was the first of its kind as it captured girls speaking about their experiences with abusers.
“These are not fictitious stories because we dealt with the cases and we have their files… We hope this will give hope to other victims out there, that they are not alone and there is life after abuse,” she said.
Magodo-Mutukwa, who is based in South Africa where she lives with her husband and two daughters, said she was touched by the brutality that rape survivors experienced as well as the hopelessness they went through.
“I felt I had to do something to bring awareness so that these cases won’t die together with the innocence of the girls which they lost at the hands of merciless men who prey on young girls for selfish reasons,” she said.
“The stories tugged at my heart as a mother to two girls myself, it came naturally to want to protect any girl not yet faced with similar circumstances and to those already affected by such ordeals… a source of hope, knowing that they too could rise above any experience gone through giving hope and encouragement.”
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Magodo–Mutukwa was born in Mutare in 1983 and attended Frank Johnson Primary School and Lord Malvern High School in Waterfalls, Harare.
She holds a BA degree in English and Communication Studies from the Zimbabwe Open University.
Her first publication, Back to the Hills: Short Stories and Poems, was published by Diaspora Publishers (UK) in 2011 followed by an HIV and Aids anthology: We are One With or Without in 2013 which was a compilation by several poets.
In 2014, she joined hands with other poets in another anthology, Black Stars the Beginning: Sons and Daughters, which was published by Tatenda Charles Munyuki Publishing.
In the same year, she did another anthology, Reflections, with the same publisher.
