Durban - GENDER-BASED violence and being a mother of two daughters was the driving force behind a financial manager writing and recording a song about the abuse.
Sindi Ngongoma, 45, is a mother of two daughters, 21 and 15, and the rape and murder of UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana last year pushed her to complete the project she had started while she worked for an NGO.
Ngongoma, originally from Embo in KwaZulu-Natal, said the first line of her song, Sanctuary, said: I’m born in a war that is not fought with guns.
“The song is looking at the various challenges females face, such as being raped, killed or kidnapped. The question is then asked if there is a sanctuary for females who are born facing all these challenges.”
She came home one day and her eldest daughter told her that Mrwetyana was missing. The next day she found her daughter curled up on the couch. Mrwetyana was found murdered.
“Ma, she just went to the post office, how innocent is that?” Ngongoma’s daughter said to her.
“As a parent you lose faith and you are at a loss for words. You comfort your child but what else do you do? What else do you say?”
She decided she wanted to record the song and she wanted it to be a wailing song. A woman’s cry.
“If I put it in a song and the song is played over and over, and it’s heard, then there’s a message.
“There’s hope that people will stand up and do something.”
The song was a message of awareness.
“Maybe the song brings hope to someone. The song is for women, children, my children and victims.”
Sanctuary is available on YouTube, Spotify and iTunes.
Daily News
