We All Need to See Victor

By Mpundu Valerie

We all watched a child being abused on ZTV in 2004 and thought it was a love song. That's the sin. Black shirt. No lights. No effects. Just a little girl in a red top, holding a doll, looking down, lost, and a man with his eyes closed singing "Maidarirei" like his heart was breaking. We sang along in the kombi. We requested it on Power FM. We thought Victor Kunonga was heartbroken over a woman.

He wasn't. He was singing about that girl. Maidarirei was never about love. It was about child sexual abuse how it happens inside the house, how the family knows and says nothing, how that doll becomes the only friend a traumatized child has left. Victor put it on national TV at the peak of Urban Grooves, and we were too young, too naive, too distracted to get it.

That video produced by Marian "Chihera" Kunonga had no gimmicks. No fake rain. The rain you see now on Facebook reposts is an edit added by Zim Rewind pages. The original was raw. Dark background. Victor singing. A woman in a headwrap. That child in red. That was enough.

That is Victor's whole career in one shot: telling us the ugliest truth in the most beautiful melody, and us missing it because it was too well sung.

His debut album "Such Is Life: Ndanyengetedzwa (2004) blew up on that truth "Maidarirei", Ndanyengetedzwa namai, Tigere selling big and topping ZTV charts. Victor had come from nothing denied entry to Bulawayo College of Music in 1999 because he didn't own an instrument, worked as a graphic designer in Harare, taught himself guitar at workshops at Harare College of Music in 2001. It was then he used that guitar to sing what no one wanted to say.

The man never went silent. We just stopped listening where truth lives.

While Urban Grooves chased club bangers, Victor formed his live band Peace in 2004. Peace became his church, a regular at every major festival that mattered: HIFA, Zimbabwe Jazz Festival, premium jazz clubs, sharing stages with Oliver Mtukudzi, Hugh Masekela, Chiwoniso Maraire, Louis Mhlanga, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Judith Sephuma.

For his second album "Uyo" (2006), he called in an Afro-jazz dream team celebrated drummer Sam Mataure, vocalist Prudence Katomeni, bassist Kelly Rusike, keyboardist Manasa Mujawo, guitarist Zivanai Masango, percussionist Adam Chisvo, and Richie Lopez on sax. That album is still popular today because it was built by masters.

While everyone chased endorsement deals, Victor walked into NGOs and community halls to fight gender-based violence and drug abuse not as a celebrity for photos, but as a man who had already written "Maidarirei" and meant it.

So yes, he disappeared from TV. Because TV couldn't hold him.

I found him again where he was always meant to be found at Bira reMbira. No LED screens. No hype man. Just a giant mbira named "Zvavahera" and a man in a red-black-white patterned shirt. He touched that guitar and the whole bira went quiet.

Solid? That's an understatement. Eloquent? No. The man was "anointed". Every chord clean, every Shona word placed like a stone. When he sang "Maidarirei" again, now as a grown man with nieces at home, I finally heard the line I missed as a kid. I had to ask for more. Everyone did.

Victor Kunonga is not underrated because he lacks talent. He is underrated because he never insulted his talent to stay relevant. The man is not done. After "Handinete" (2010), after years of live stages, Victor & Peace are back with a brand new album, "Double Identity," Launching 23 October 2026, 6 pm at Zimbabwe German Society, 51 Lawson Ave, Milton Park, Harare, with Daniel Ngwira and Mwenje Mathole.

That title fits him perfectly. One identity is the soft-spoken graphic designer who was once turned away for not owning a guitar. The other identity is the prophet who has been singing about our daughters since 2004, hoping we would finally hear.

You need to see Victor.

Not on a Reel. Live. Before the guitar goes quiet.

Carry your sister. Carry your daughter. Let her hear a Zimbabwean man sing that her body is not to be touched. Let them experience a Zimbabwean musician who understands that art can do more than entertain. It can question, challenge, educate, and give a voice to those society would rather silence.

And let the message of Maidarirei travel beyond the concert hall.

Children deserve protection. Abuse must never be hidden to preserve a family's reputation. A child who speaks about abuse deserves to be heard, believed, and connected to appropriate protection and support.

We cannot sing along to a song about suffering and then remain silent when suffering happens in our own communities.

Victor gave us the song in 2004.

Perhaps it is time we finally understood it.

Victor is gold. Let's give him his flowers and his strums while he can still hear them.

We all need to see Victor.

Victor Kunonga