When Prudence was born, her paternal
grandmother wanted her dead.
In Zimbabwe,
disabled children are believed to be the
result of witchcraft.
In extreme cases,
families (remove/abandon or) kill them, to
remove the 'curse' from their family.
Prudence’s mother kept her & fed her. Cast out of
her husband’s (Prudence’s father’s) home, she
brought the baby to her own mother’s rural home. 4
years later, she left...
The child was (then) raised by Rachel Ncube, her
maternal grandmother. Grandmother Ncube taught her
to sing. A working farmer, she would strap the
little girl to her back as she worked the fields.
But when Prudence turned 7, she knew she couldn’t
school her. So she sent her to live with her father
and his new family."
At 18 she had her legs
amputated, to facilitate her medical care.