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Veronica Gwaze
WOMEN are vital cogs in any society.
For that reason, Zimbabwe today joins the rest of the world in celebrating the start of the International Women’s Month.
The Sunday Mail will be running a series of articles during the course of March to celebrate Women’s Month, in recognition of women’s milestone achievements in various capacities.
Women’s Month came into existence after March 8, the International Women’s Day. It seeks to understand the power of women in their individual and collective leadership positions.
One such woman who easily comes to mind is the versatile and philanthropic Loveness Mainato.
Mainato is founder of the Albino Charity Organisation of Zimbabwe (Alcoz). She also happens to be an actress and founder of the Shooting Stars band, whose members are mostly people living with albinism.
The lady whose heart appears to be made of steel has overcome a number of challenges in her 48-year-old journey on mother earth. Her life could probably best be described by the late American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur’s in his poetry collection “The Rose That Grew From Concrete”.
For you to get a full appreciation of the woman, we will rewind to the early ’90s.
This happens to be her high school days enrolled at Zengeza 3 High School, a time she met a man who was to be her husband years later. The jovial but highly emotional Mainato recounts the circumstances that turned her marriage from sweet to sour.
“We were secret admirers for a long time. With time we got talking and it culminated in marriage,” narrated the mother of four.
In 1996 the couple had their first born child — a girl. Mainato had a good rapport with her in-laws. They would often visit each other and communicate.
However, things took a downturn three years later when she gave birth to another baby girl, but with albinism. Then, she did not know much about albinism. Medical practitioners at Chitungwiza General Hospital also made her predicament worse as they lied to her that the child’s skin would turn dark in a fortnight or so.
She remembers how she waited for the “skin turning” moment that never came. She later learnt more about albinism from a relative, which prompted her to do further research.
“The baby was born ‘weirdly’ light and that changed relations at home. My in-laws became hostile but I would turn a blind eye, I still loved them,” recounted Mainato, tearfully.
Her life became that of a tormented mother who would even be verbally attacked for her daughter’s condition. Mainato was accused of prostitution and witchcraft while others came up with various cultural explanations for her giving birth to a child with albinism.
Medical experts define albinism as a disorder that is characterised by lack of or little production of colour pigment melanin. The amount of melanin that one’s body produces determines hair, eyes and skin colour.
For years, apart from learning more about albinism and struggling to give the best care for her children, Mainato battled to keep her marriage intact.
In 2002, she gave birth to the couple’s third born, a dark-skinned boy, and her marriage stabilised for a moment.
Now being a mother of three with a teaching career on the other hand, Mainato had to rope in the services of a housemaid.
And that proved to be a mistake!
In 2007, she fell pregnant with their fourth child but around that same time, their housemaid also fell pregnant.
“I asked her about the pregnancy and she said the man who was responsible had fled and that she neither knew his whereabouts nor any of his relatives. Since I had stayed with her for some time, I sympathised and assisted her with all I could,” she narrated.
The maid gave birth in June and Mainato delivered her last born son two months later and quit her job. Again, her new baby had albinism, triggering renewed and acrimonious hostilities. She slipped into depression that very same year.
Early in January 2008 her husband left for Botswana in “search of greener pastures”. And it was around that time that she was to discover that her husband had fathered her maid’s baby.
“That was my worst moment in life and I remember contemplating suicide. I called him (husband) and he acknowledged that the child was his and that he no love for me anymore because of our children with albinism.
“What hurt me the most was him saying – ‘if you know what is best for you, do not chase her (maid) away because she has actually been asking me to stay with you all this while because I do not love you anymore’,” she said before breaking into tears.
Nonetheless, Mainato fired the housemaid. She never heard from her husband afterwards. Equally, her in-laws stopped visiting her or even checking on the children. Fortunately, she received support from well-wishers.
For two years, she frequented the hospital due to depression and later was diagnosed with a heart condition. But the best was yet to come for her.
In 2010, she established an organisation to cater for people with albinism. That same year, she set up Alcoz. Recognised by United Nations, the organisation has grown to cater for thousands of people with albinism across the country.
The following year she established the Shooting Stars band as a pastime. The sungura ensemble group has released three albums namely “Ziva Wekuudza”, “Mirira Nguva” and “Vaziviseiwo”. She is doing so well in music that her song “Toita Basa” was on sixth position in the 2019 Coca-Cola Radio Zimbabwe Top 50.
And as part of celebrating the International Women’s Month, the band will be releasing their fourth album titled “Tovazivisa” later this month. Mainato has not only managed to fend for her family, she is also taking care of other disadvantaged children living with albinism.
When she is not in the studio, she spends time with people with disabilities and life coaching has become her new found love.
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter