This archive report was first published on 25 October 2019.
On October 23, 2019, Burundi's First Lady Denise Nkurunziza released a powerful song titled Umukenyezi Arengeye Kuvyara Gusa (A Woman is More than Just Giving Birth), which aims to raise awareness about gender-based violence.
The four-minute song and video, shared on social media, features the First Lady playing the role of a counselor to a man who is shown physically and verbally abusing his wife for failing to bear him a child.
Denise Nkurunziza sings in the chorus, 'Women are not created just to be called mothers. They are capable of much more.'
She also stresses in the song that infertility affects both men and women and that only through a medical examination can the truth about one's fertility or lack thereof be established.
Denise Nkurunziza, an ordained pastor, has been featured on several religious tracks and has won praise from many on social media for the message in her music video.