Prudence Katomeni Mbofana says she is making her w...

Prudence Katomeni Mbofana says she is making her way back to the stage

**Prudence Kamtomeni-Mbofana and hubby, Comfort**

Career not derailed by jealous hubby

Took time out to look after her two youngest

New challenge at Music Crossroads

Takawira Photoveteran Dapi

Prudence Mbofana, nee Katomeni, said bringing up her two youngest children forced her to temporarily leave the stage and now she making a comeback while balancing with her role at Music Crossroads.

"I did not retire from the stage. I got in this Music Cross Academy project thinking it was going to be a very temporary thing, but because of what was going on in my life at that time, which is to bring up the last two boys in our family because they were young.”

She said the situation was made worse by the helper who had looked after the boys while she performed being no longer around.

“So, I had to find something that grounds me, and that was Music Crossroads.

"When I got there (Music Crossroads), I had to study the curriculum, met the guys who were developing this curriculum, they finally took me on board and asked me to develop it together.”

She says although she was not on local stages, she was going around our Africa training music teachers in our various African countries.

“And whenever options arose, I had performances out there.

“It is just a pity that I did not put much emphasis on marketing those performances.

“Then, of course, coming back to Zimbabwe, my responsibilities at the academy kept increasing, and I had to stabilise myself there.

“So, I am really trying, I am coming back, but really my heart is in this academy, and that is where I have been behind quite a number of these young artists that we were churning out,” out she said.

She dismissed the perception that her husband, Comfort Mbofana, finally stopped her from doing live performances permanently because he is highly conscious of her beauty and angelic voice and fears that she can be snatched.

“Nobody has asked or forced me to quit being on stage, I actually miss being on the stage, because of that, I am now working on getting back but right now the academy is taking a lot of my time, and I am enjoying it,” said Prudence.

Prue, as she is fondly called by her fans became a known face when she acted in the multiple award-winning film More Time in 1993.

Performing poet Albert Nyathi later featured Prue when she was only in Form Four in his classic song, Senzeni Na! Although Prue could not feature on the video, because she was writing her exams at the time of recording her powerful voice launched her to instant stardom.

Born 46 years ago and bred in Harare, the mother, wife, entertainer, tutor and girl child guide who once said that she is a gym fanatic says she would have joined the medical field if music had not turned out to be her career path.

Prue’s maternal grandmother is her best role model. As a teenager, the older woman told Prue to always be open to learning from others, advice that she uses everyday as she inspires others.

“Whether they become teachers locally or internationally or to go on stage, that is what I have been doing quietly,” she says of the students who have passed through Music Crossroads.