The Botswana Wrestling Federation (BWF) president, Moagi Sharp, has joined the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) that is causing havoc in the country through a musical offering.
Sharp has released a reggae album titled, Stop Gender Based Violence. He said GBV is a huge challenge in the country, especially looking at the statistics recorded by the Botswana Police Service (BPS) over the festive season. He also said this is an indication that there is a need to advocate for change. He said women and children are the most affected groups when it comes to issues of GBV. The eight-track album contains tracks such as Stop Alcohol Abuse, and Stop Drug abuse amongst others.
“I worked with my friends from outside Botswana and I am the one who wrote all the songs and I helped to produce them because I am not new to the music industry. In 2010, I released my debut album titled, Re A Fela, which had a track called Wrestling e teng mo Botswana. It helped me a lot to change the mindsets of Batswana by then and wrestling grew because they listened to the track and enjoyed it. I used to play and perform it when we had wrestling events,” he said. Sharp said music can be a tool used in the fight against GBV, because music spreads the message quicker than word of mouth or other campaigns. He said music was previously used to reach out to many people in disseminating information about wrestling. Sharp explained that he chose the roots reggae genre because it has an African background and many people can relate to it. “BWF acknowledges the immediate need for action and we are using this album to leverage wrestling as a means to foster gender equality and deter violence hence I wrote the song, Stop Gender-Based Violence. Lives have been lost, some people have been left with permanent scars, some children have lost their mothers, it is a crisis,” he said.
Sharp added that the death of a parent during childhood has been linked with to wide range of serious and enduring health consequences ranging from schizophrenia to major depression and suicide. “By raising awareness and educating the community about the detrimental effects of GBV, my federation aims to instigate positive change and cultivate a safe environment for everyone. I will be spearheading a project called Wrestling Gender-Based Violence and we will be using music to motivate people to redirect their energies towards constructive endeavours rather than violence, like taking part in wrestling activities,” Sharp said.