“My mother dumped my twin brother and I as babies and left my dad to look after us and her last words when leaving were “Teti ulenfyalisha ifimbuma (you can’t be making me birth midgets).”
This is the story of Super Kena AKA Abatalali who came on the music scene through Y Celeb a few years ago.
Many are the times that mothers are depicted as angels as they are known to be more human than the other gender but in Super Kena’s story, you realise that bad mothers actually do exist.
It’s also rare that we hear of mothers abandoning their own babies and unfortunately, this was the case for 14 year old Kenan Kaunda popularly known as Super Kena.
In the highly anticipated debut album “Man of the Match” with 15 tracks, the 14 year old boy opens with the song “True Story” where he tells us how he has always lacked motherly love since childhood.
Kenan disclosed in the song that he was born in 2010 with his twin brother who later died in Kitwe on the Copperbelt and suffered from Hydrocephalus (having excess fluids in the brain).
This, he cited, led the mother to two new babies leave her husband because he was only making her birth utumbuma (midgets).
“Afterward, My father remarried so he could be helped. It was my step mother who at that time helped me come back to life after taking me to the hospital by having the excess fluids from my brain removed of which my twin brother couldn’t make it,” he sings in Bemba.
“My stepmother was abusive, she often could whip me even when I had done nothing wrong. My father was never around to intervene.”
The little boy was then forced into Scrap Metal dealings just for survival as he was being denied food by his step mother.
“Ubwali bantana, but imbale nasuka (they could stinge me food but let me wash the dishes). When she discovered I started dealing in metals, She punished me harshly and grounded me for weeks of which my father never came to my aid.”
Super Kena who could dance to Y Celeb’s songs then got noticed by the artiste who got interested in knowing more about him.
“Y Celeb would visit us occasionally and I would have to endure my stepmother’s wrath once he left. If my father wasn’t home, I would sleep outside and sleep on an empty stomach.
“Everyone around me treated me like an outcast, the only person who recognised my worth was Y Celeb. He took an interest in helping me of which my stepmother disapproved of and would attack me whenever he brought me back home,” shares Super Kena in Bemba.
He sings that after the step mother noticed that the little boy’s life would change for the better because of Y Celeb, she accused Celeb of being a satanist.
“She claimed Y Celeb was a bad influence and warned me never to associate with him. In the words of my step mother (Y Celeb is a Satanist, I won’t have what to tell your father when he decides to sell and put you in his Music business),” sang Super Kena.
“When Y Celeb saw my wound, I hesitated to explain out of fear of my stepmother’s attacks thinking she was going to do worse if I told him, but eventually, I opened up to him about everything. This led to Y Celeb taking me from my father’s house to his own, providing me with the safety I desperately needed.”
“True Story” is part of Super Kena’s debut album, a 16 track album dubbed “Man of the Match” released yesterday, attracting many to his work and his story.
By Catherine Pule
Kalemba, November 2, 2024
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Dear Editor,
I am writing to request if you can publish my little article below as a follow up to Catherine Pule’s article on Super Kena’s story and as a way of adding a voice to advocating for ending violence against children:
A billion Super Kenas
When Super Kena unveiled his moving “True Story” hit on November 1, I doubt it whether he had any idea how timely the release of his debut album was. It is just a few days away from the first ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children.
On November 7 and 8, country delegations from the 193 Member States of the United Nations and a myriad of partners concerned with the plight of children will convene in Bogota, Colombia to focus the spotlight on the ugly scourge of Violence Against Children (VAC) and to make commitments towards eliminating it.
Super Kena’s story is intensely touching to listen to. In the most creative ‘Kopala rap’, he narrates how he suffered abandonment, physical and emotional abuse and utter neglect from those who should have cared for him the most. He is only 14 and it’s hard to fathom how he managed to endure such cruelty.
But Super Kena is only one out of a billion children worldwide suffering from one form of violence or the other. According to the CDC “Global Prevalence of Past-Year Violence Against Children” estimates (2016), there are two billion children in the world and 1 in 2 children under 18 experienced violence in the past year.
While some among us may want to look at these figures through our socio-cultural, geopolitical and religious lens and immediately dismiss them as exaggerated, remember that numbers don’t lie. The prevalence of violence against children is extremely alarming and it’s happening in many spaces – homes, schools, marketplaces, on the streets, online, everywhere!
In 2018, Zambia conducted its own Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS) and the report attested to the fact that both girls and boys under the age of 18 experience unacceptably high rates of sexual and physical violence.
Now, everyone has a role to play in addressing this vice. Governments must ensure that strong legal and institutional frameworks are put in place to deter would-be offenders and speedily bring to justice those that perpetuate child abuse and neglect. Our religious and traditional leadership must teach us how to parent better, while our schools must ensure safety and protect learners from bullying by teachers and peers.
Back to Super Kena. His song is hot! If you haven’t heard “True Story” yet, what are you waiting for? I am voting it the ‘Best song of the year’ in support of all efforts to end violence against children.
By Dr. Andrew Silumesii
(The author is the Head of Family Health and Infectious Diseases Cluster at the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community in Arusha, Tanzania).
Its sad in this era to see guardian abusing there own children regardless of status in society… credit goes to super kena for his true story