24-year-old Adolatha Uwineza, aka Andersonne, is a rising artiste and songwriter whose work is mostly based on approaches and situations in society, with the aim to address them. Her recently released song dubbed “Sins” tackles vices that society continues to fight—paedophilia and rape. Based on victims who’ve remained silent because of intimidation and stigma, and perpetrators who continue to walk free, these evils, she believes, need to be addressed more enthusiastically. “Writing this song came from a broken part of me. While scrolling through Twitter, I came across a sad post of a three-year-old girl whose innocence was brutally violated when she was raped. I feared to look at the images. I felt powerless, angry, and saddened, just thinking about the pain that little girl was going through. A lot went through my mind. “I then thought about the many girls and women all over the world who are victims of rape and sexual abuse. I wanted to be a voice to those who can’t speak for themselves, through song,” Uwineza, who recorded in a studio for the first time at the age of 16, says. After writing the song, Uwineza worked with a small team of people to bring the song to life, like producer Dizo Last on the audio, and creative director Féline Ntabangana on the visuals. In the video, the singer wears a white dress with red and black stains to represent blood and dirt. The vocalist believes that if everyone uses their talent or platform, like authors, artists, musicians, poets, to shed more light on these vices, better solutions might be found. Scene photo According to her, music is a healing power like no other. Her role model and mentor is Feline Ntabangana because ‘she is a fierce artist who pushes past the boundaries’, and, Uwineza says, she was honoured to work with her when making the video. ‘Sins’, however, isn’t Uwineza’s only song; she has released others like “Easy”, “Music got you”, “Closer” and more. She says that singing and art have always been her hobbies, since childhood. She also finds solace in reciting poems as it allows her to express her feelings and thoughts. The songbird looks up to Cecile Kayirebwa, and American artistes like Alicia keys, India Arie, and Jill Scott. She says that as an independent and unsigned non-mainstream artiste in the small but competitive music industry of Rwanda, determination and a thick skin are required, because music of good quality is not easy to make. However, she doesn’t take for granted the support provided by other artistes and is currently working on a new album with collaborations that she is excited to release soon. In her free time, she puts her thoughts on paper and anticipates releasing her poems as a project and body of their own by 2022. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Law at Kigali Independent University (ULK) and aspires to venture in philanthropy and activism.
