Book advocates child protection

ISBN: 978-1-77926-029-1
An author has come up with a partial solution to the problem of missing children which has gripped Zimbabwe. Clive Samuriwo shows what people should do in the event of a child going missing or dying under a cloud.
His book, Nhembe Chena Inhema, is premised on the philosophy that a child belongs to all families making up the community.
The message he puts across should hold the attention of all people who love to see children receiving justice.
All people without exception should get involved when something unexpected happens to a child. Anybody standing aloof becomes suspect until he or she clears their intention to the contrary.
Nyaradzai has a child with her husband, who dies.
She goes back to her parents and falls in love with Nhewa, who has children with his wife. He tells her that, if she wants him to marry her, she should kill her child.
The two of them kill the child in cold blood. The young brother of Nhewa, Munzungu, sees them concealing the body.
The two of them manage to escape before he can identify them.
Munzungu has to do something about the gruesome torso. He wants to go home and tell the chief to gather people who will look for the murderers.
However, he fears that people can accuse him of having killed the infant. He decides not to tell anybody about what he has seen.
Nhewa goes back to conceal the body and sees the spear that Munzungu dropped. He sticks the weapon into the body to incriminate his young brother.
The chief brings his people together and they map out the strategy to get to the bottom of the scandal.
This plot is quite plausible.
Nhewa and Nyaradzai are beneficiaries of free primary education. This should have inculcated in them the moral values that uphold the sanctity of human life.
Munzungu is a buffoon who swoons at the sight of the dead body. He lacks initiative and is incapable of taking decisive action.
His practical wife runs their home with a firm hand.
Nyaradzai is a clever woman who knows her rights and can stand her ground if she is challenged.
She is so ambitious that she wants to possess the man of her heart’s desire at any cost. The English would say Nhewa isn’t that type of salesman from whom you can buy a second-hand car.
He lacks seriousness of purpose about life and everything he does is full of guile. A family man who encourages another parent to take the life of a child can’t rate much as a caring father.
His mercenary side comes out when he tells Nyaradzai to inform her parents that a man looking like Munzungu chased her away from the scene where wild beasts devoured her baby. His suggestion troubles Nyaradzai’s conscience.
“I won’t know,” she says “what to say if my parents ask me to give them the full description of the man I saw chasing me.”
“You describe what my brother looks like in a round about way,” he says. “This should leave your parents thinking that the man you saw was Munzungu.”
“Ah Nhewa!” she exclaims, “but we’ll have put the son of your mother in a tight spot. This scandal is of our own making.”
“You talk too much,” he says.
“I know why I’m doing this. You want to feel pity for him. But you don’t know what he’s plotting against us.”
On the note the two of them pass the death sentence on the innocent man.
The book is available at the time when the nation is shocked with the disappearance of a child from the Exhibition Park, Harare, in August when thousand of people were attending the premier Agricultural Show.
The remains suspected to be those of the child were found in the park four months later. Many other children have since been reported as having gone missing throughout the country.
The Press is trying to play its role, without trying hard, to highlight the plight of families whose children go missing.
If the truth were told, reporters are failing to give a full account of what happens.