Jah Prayzah defends Eriza Video after attack from legislator Jessie Majome

Jah Prayzah

HIGH-FLYING musician, Jah Prayzah has defended his Eriza video, following a debate sparked by Harare West legislator Jessie Majome, who raised concern in Parliament that the video would incite men to view school girls as sexual objects.

Majome recently accused Jah Prayzah of using a “sexfied” school uniform in the video for his popular song, during a child marriage debate in Parliament.

She urged artistes and the media to play a part and stop promoting images that seem to condone sexual intercourse with under-age girls.

 “Indeed, I must say one of my favourite musicians has a brilliant, good song, but unfortunately, he produced a video that shows very suggestive and sex dances being done by girls in uniform,” Majome said.

“While that is entertainment, unfortunately, those things send messages that say it is alright for girls to wear little dresses and to dance in a sexy manner and titillate men.

“It also sends signals to some perverted men to actually start drooling over school girls.”

However, Jah Prayzah’s manager Keen Mushapaidze told NewsDay that it was unfortunate that the video had been misinterpreted.

He said they considered the sensitivity surrounding the issue as they shot the video, but at the same time, they wanted to portray reality in a creative way.

“As entertainers, we try our best to entertain everyone by being creative in our work, but it’s unfortunate that when we thought we were being creative, which is essential in art, some people view the work differently and misinterpret the intended message,” Mushapaidze said.

He said their video could not be used as a scapegoat for perverts’ deviant ways.

“I do not consider normal, a person, who would actually say he was prompted by the video to commit a crime, of maybe, dating young school girls,” Jah Prayzah’s manager said.

“If someone is mischievous, he is just ill-behaved.”

Mushapaidze said it was regrettable that, while they had done their best on the video to excite their fans, it had been interpreted negatively.

“Sometimes we might be thinking as artistes that we have done our best with our script for our fans, but not knowing how they will interpret it and when such cases arise, like in this case, as professionals, we stand to be guided and we take advice and criticism for our future projects.”

Source: Newsday