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Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf
It is refreshing to note that the new crop of Zimbabwean writers is not sticking to fiction only but diversifying genres in which to express their views on society.

A new writer writing under the pseudonym CJ Mylton (real name Milton Chitsime) has published a booklet titled “Pride of a Girl Child” (2015, Forteworx Press) which appeals to teenage girls to value their bodies. What makes this small book relevant and empowering is its simple language and profound deliberations on forces that put the girl child at risk of sexual violation.

“Pride of a Girl Child” is mainly about virginity and why it is important to protect it until the appropriate time of marriage.

While acknowledging exceptional cases when a girl loses virginity due to forces such as rape or cultural rituals beyond their control, the book largely inspires girls to evade wrong turns in their lives.

Zimbabwe is one of the outspoken African countries when it comes to the protection of girl child rights and yet the battle against teenage marriages and pregnancies is gradually being lost.

Long ago, we used to have cultural aunts or uncles who played a big role in inspiring girls and boys to value their bodies. Responsibility was a virtue. Today, this generation of advisors is fast dwindling but it is a great relief that young men like Mylton, who have embraced the written word as their call, are filling in the gap.

In other words, Mylton has shown that only if men start to think about and respect the rights that girls have and only if the girls are empowered in advance with information about “jackals” out in the woods ready to pounce on them, there would be less trouble for humanity in terms of building healthy, happy and proud women of tomorrow.

In an interview with Bookshelf, author Mylton opened up on why he is passionate about empowering girl children through publishing informative booklets which are free from technical verbiage.

He said girls carry a heavy burden than boys due to their biological make-up and societal biases.

“Premarital sex is more damaging to girls than boys because the girls carry pregnancies and there are social stigmas attached to having become pregnant before and outside marriage. In such cases, girls are likely to be labelled prostitutes but such a label is not put on boys. Victims of statutory rape are mainly girls, not boys. Girls are at risk of sexual exploitation because men take pleasure in deflowering them. They take pride in it,” said Mylton.

Part of “Pride of a Girl Child” gives reasons why boys/men are after virgin girls. The author makes reference to the biblical story of Tamar and her lustful brother Amnon. It is said that Amnon got “sick” over his sister Tamar, “for she was a virgin”. His lust or sickness drove him to device ways to hoodwink Tamar into sleeping with him. When he fails, he rapes her.

The sense of “pride” which boys/men have after they deflower a girl and the girl’s eventual loss of pride are facts well illustrated in this chosen story and it augments the author’s observation that men feel that “leaving a mark” in a girl’s memory by deflowering her before the right time and/or outside marriage is heroic.

Mylton sees culture and a certain section of the church as having failed to stand for morality.

Culture, he said, is no longer influential these days due to Westernisation and some religious beliefs based on misinterpretations of the Bible have also contributed to the abuse of girls by “rationalising” early marriages.

“As it is, the true word of God is the only answer,” he said.

In this age of technology, especially the internet, children are easily exposed to dangerous sites that psychologically affect them.

Watching their “role models” behaving in weird ways, boys and girls tend to then lose themselves in imitation, said Mylton.

“Pornographic scenes are inserted into movies which are being sold to teenagers in the streets. The law enforcements agents may do their best but still a lot needs to be done,” he said.

He added that to some extent poverty also leads to the exploitation of the girl child as she is forced to share the same room with parents.

However, Mylton believes that inviting God into these matters remains the solution.

“Pride of a Girl Child” was inspired by the author’s close experience with girls he met at Mashambanzou Care Trust in Harare where he worked for two years after graduating with a Bachelor of Social Work honours degree from the University of Zimbabwe. Here were girls who had been abused, some of them infected with HIV and AIDS.

“While working at Mashambanzou I dealt with cases of statutory rape in which more than 10 girls had been sexually abused. These were primary school kids at one of the schools in Hopley.

“Some of them had once married while others were in relationships with teachers.

“From this experience, I learnt that the girls lacked empowerment to reject sexual exploitation. I discovered that campaigns against child abuse are ineffective when they aim to inform adults only, leaving out the girls.

“In my book I take a biblical stance that any girl who falls prey to statutory rape commits a sin. This is where the issue of virginity comes in,” said Mylton.

After working at Mashambanzou, Mylton went to work with an organisation running a project dubbed “Youths Sexual and Reproductive Health”.

The author hopes to publish a book for boys titled “Virtues of a Boy Child” in order to send a balanced message to both sexes.

“The book for boys is expected to deal with virtues that boys should have for them to grow into responsible men in society. It will touch on virginity as well,” he said.

The two booklets, according to the author, will be marketed across Zimbabwe to empower teenage boys and girls to value their bodies and their future.

Born in 1988 in Zaka, Mylton published his first book “Mbona Mbona”, a Shona comic novel, in 2012. He has also written Shona poems with some appearing in anthologies “Zviri Mugapu” (2014) and “Tsuro Ndisunge” (2015).

He is one of the contributing authors in a short story anthology “True Lies” which is set to be published shortly.