By Fidelis Manyange

GIFT CASE AMULI, a talented musician, and the late legendary Andy Brown shared not only a love for music but also a sad past.
Despite finding fame in the cutthroat music industry and some sort of satisfaction from unleashing monster hits, in their moments of solitude it appears the musicians have been, and were, haunted by the circumstances surrounding their birth.
These two musicians bear, and bore, the brunt of the harsh colonial regime.
The two are of mixed race, not out of the power of love, but because of lust and cruelty of white men who took what they wanted with impunity.
The colour of their skin is testimony to the brutality of the whiteman against black women.
Amuli opened up to this writer and revealed how his mother, like Brown’s, was among the unfortunate women abused by white men in Rhodesia.
What pains the musician the most, just like Muzukuru, as Brown was affectionately called by his legion of fans, was their rejection by the men who fathered them.
Brown found it difficult to talk about his past with regards to his unknown father; at one time he beat up a friend who had called him ‘mwana waSmith’ as they downed the wise-waters.
But Amuli opened up to this writer.
“I want Zimbabweans to know the cruelty of the Rhodesian regime, how it was cruel to our women, our mothers and sisters,” he said.
The musician’s mother is still alive but this is one chapter in her life she prefers not to talk about.
Amuli’s mother, Jane Dube, who stayed with her parents like any other girl during that time, decided to look for employment in Gweru’s low density suburbs of Southdowns and Lundi Park.
She got the job.
But she fell victim to the predators who pounced on innocent black girls with impunity.
These girls had no recourse to justice.
The police or the courts never addressed their grievances; they were not human enough to be protected by the state.
After being abused and impregnated by her white employer, she was dismissed from ‘work’.
She did not even notify her parents about what had happened to her.
And like Andy’s mother, Zvondiwe Shoko, who was barely 16 when she was impregnated, she left for her rural home, Zhombe.
Andy was born and raised in Mudavanhu Village in the then Belingwe (Mberengwa) Tribal Trust Lands.
Life was difficult for her in the village.
Both the mothers, Brown and Amuli’s, returned to their villages and were shamed for falling pregnant out of wedlock.
It was only when Amuli’s mother gave birth that her parents got to know their daughter had been abused.
“My grandparents learnt about me from villagers who visited Gweru and informed them that back in the village their daughter had given birth to a white child. The word was ‘mwanasikana wekwaAmuli aane mwana murungu’,” he narrated.
“My grandmother told me that my mother suffered a lot while bringing me up in the rural areas as resources were scarce and the white man was never interested in my welfare. They doubted he even knew of my existence.”
The musician assumed his mother’s surname, Amuli.
When he began primary school education, he was taken in by his grandparents in Gweru.
He said he was fortunate his mother’s family decided to take the sad situation as a gift hence the name Gift and brought him up like any other boy in the community.
“By the time I went to school, the whole community, Mkoba, was used to me but still I stood out because of my light complexion,” he said.
Just like Brown’s mother, Amuli’s mum would not reveal who his father was.
“Who knows the threats that were issued against these unfortunate women who fell victim to these callous white men,” said Amuli.
White men during this period, when skin colour was more important than justice, literally got away with murder.
In fact, black girls and women were threatened never to reveal the rapes and abuses not because the white men feared the law, but they were more afraid of their (white) families’ responses.
It is fortunate that these two men rose above their sad circumstances and made a name for themselves.