The circumstances under which Jato Sonita got pregnant will likely leave a scar on her. But as a young lady with greater future ambitions, she won’t let that slow her.
At about 3 pm in Yaounde on Wednesday, August 28, the hall of Ma Case Eden in Bastos was jampacked with media personalities, including prominent journalists and bloggers.
They were so eager to get answers as allegations had usurped the cyberspace that Bayong Emmanuel Che, Manager of Jato Sonita, had impregnated her.
It did not take long, and the story had taken on a different dimension.
However, one thing was established. Jato Sonita, lead singer of the Forest Children’s Band, has a two-year-old child. Contrary to wide-flame allegations, her manager was not the father.
How did she get pregnant?
The year was 2021, and Jato was 14 years old then. After school one day, Jato and her fellow friends—all students of CCAST Bambili—went swimming.
According to her, while they were swimming, armed men stormed the water and wanted to swim too but asked them to go away.
While Jato and her friends were changing their dresses to leave, the unknown gun-wielding men stopped them. The result, she said was rape. She became ashamed of what happened and did not tell her parents when she got home that day.
But after some time, the effects of that action could no longer be hidden. She was already seven months pregnant when laboratory tests were conducted on her after a different manifestation started showing on her body.
“I was so devastated and traumatised and did not know what to do. I was afraid I was going to be expelled from the music group,” Jato said while breaking down into tears.
Double Victim of the Anglophone Armed Conflict
Before the rape incident, Jato and other forest kids’ band had already experienced the devastation of the ongoing Anglhone Armed conflict. Their education had been affected, and music inside the forest was their source of hope.
Singing songs that uplift and take their sorrows away. Yet the talking guns did not only end at damaging her educational career.
As a result of it, she has become a teenage mother under challenging circumstances.
Her management managed and kept this a secret until recently when her manager’s former colleague, Clement Toh, now resident in the UK, revealed that she gave birth.
For the past two years, she has been trying to put that side of her life behind her. But for how long?
“Clement Toh reminded me of what I am trying to forget. He is not only ruining my life and that of the other children who sing with me, but my management,” she said.
Before the presser was over, Jato, who was overwhelmed with tears, had turned the story around and had sympathies showering her. She could be seen smiling and granting interviews with confidence.
How was the pregnancy, not public knowledge?
When her mother and her manager noticed something was wrong with her, especially as her colour was changing, they suspected pregnancy.
Jato in 2021 was “Cameroon’s next big thing.” She was a household name. That fame and other projects she had in the pipeline could not have been dashed away because of pregnancy.
Her manager and her family took her to different hospitals. They moved from one hospital to another because they were looking for a hospital that could do the test and would not blow the alarm of the result owing to Jato’s personality.
“We did not take her to a public hospital because we wanted it kept private,” said her manager, Emmanuel Bayong.
Rape Case not reported to law enforcement agencies
“We found it when it was already six to seven months, and she was left only with two months to give birth,” her manager Bayong Emmanuel Che tried to explain why they never reported. Even Jato Sonita said her fame at the time could not allow the whole thing to be blown off.
That is how they kept and transferred her from Bamenda in the Northwest Region to Limbe in the Southwest Region.
She lived with her family member until she gave birth to a boy. She was then separated from the child so that the memories would not weigh her down.
Taking advantage of the trend
When Clement Toh went online and confidently relayed the information he said it came from Jato’s uncle, and many immediately started bashing Bayong Emmanuel Che.
Bayong said the gravity of the allegations was too much.
“That is why we never bothered responding to a Facebooker because the accusations were false.”
“We called this press conference to explain to the national and international community and to also let them know about the forest children and the various projects they do,” he said.
They allowed the buzz, saying it was an “opportunity for us.”.
He said they took it to their advantage. “I even tried and made it sound like I was apologising. It was a strategy to give this press conference attention,” he said.
According to Bayong, Clement Toh’s accusations have caused some harm but have also given them an opportunity.
“The world knows about us now,” he said. And they chose to organise the conference again on Jato’s birthday, as she turned 16.
Bayong Emmanuel came with other parents whose children are part of his Talent Kids Hall Foundation. Aside from Jato as part of the band, Swiri Prenuel, 7, and Ngang Precious, 12, were also there, dressed in banana leaves.
Band’s numbers surge despite damning allegations.
There are over 25 children that make up the forest. Many had thought parents were going to pull out their kids from there, as the majority are girls. Instead, the numbers are growing. Bayong Emmanuel said he is having more parents register their children.
Nde Achu Maxcellus, a lecturer in Bamenda, has just re-registered his daughter in the academy. According to him, his daughter loved to sing, and when she started going there, he saw a major improvement.
“I believe in Bayong Emmanuel; he is a man of integrity. Forest Children is a place to be. My daughter can sing and fish,” Nde Achu said during the Yaounde Press conference.
Just like Nde Achu, Akwo Naomi Nsen has her five children in the music group. Despite all that people are saying, she will not allow that to affect her judgement.
Pressing charges against Clement Toh
Clement Toh might be thousands of miles away in the UK, but that would not stop the legal battle Bayong is planning. During the presser, Bayong’s lawyer said a serious defamation case was committed, and as such, they are pressing charges.
Bayong said Clement and his ex-fiancee have been working to bring his image down, and he won’t let that happen.
“I am here to debunk all the accusations levied on me. All Clement Toh said was a lie except for the fact that Jato has a child,” he added.
“I am ready for a legal battle,” he stressed.
He, however, urged people to continue to promote their new release, Ndoro, which has gathered millions of views already.
