Online Reporter
IT was a perfectly normal memorial service in Chegutu.
The mood was sombre.
Among the guests at the solemn occasion was 30-year-old Benard Nguwo, whose passion for percussion could not be contained.
When he heard the rhythmic call of the drum, he seemed to have been struck by a divine and utterly inconvenient inspiration.
However, there was an obstacle.
A 13-year-old boy who was on drum duty saw no reason to hand over the sticks to a random, rhythm-obsessed adult.
An altercation ensued.
What followed next could have only been a script from a horror movie.
The unamused Benard did not throw a punch. He did not shove. Oh no!
He went full “salad fingers” and chomped down on the boy’s right middle finger, severing it with the precision of a person who had clearly skipped all the chapters on “conflict resolution” in the human manual.
The music stopped.
The mood was, arguably, even more sombre than before, but now with a side of sheer bewilderment.
For his uncontrolled passion, Benard found himself before the Chegutu Magistrates’ Court.
The court sentenced him to five months in the slammer, with three months suspended on condition he does not bite anyone else’s fingers off.
He is now performing a solo in jail, with no drum required.
