COMMENT: When fathers turn killers: The mental health crisis silencing our villages

ZIMBABWE is weeping. Two babies, tiny, innocent, barely able to crawl, are gone in the most savage ways imaginable. In Fort Rixon, a father chopped his two-week-old baby into four pieces because he was served isitshwala and okra with no meat.

In Chirumhanzu, another father allegedly dashed his son’s brains on rocks in the middle of the night while the mother slept. These are not just crimes.

These are horrors born out of silence, trauma and untreated mental illness.

Let’s start with the Fort Rixon nightmare. Israel Chisago, a man described by his wife as soft-spoken and respectful, allegedly flew into a rage over food, grabbed a kitchen knife and turned it into a weapon of death.

The mother fled in terror, leaving their new-born behind. The baby girl was found dismembered in the kitchen, her remains scattered like meat in a slaughterhouse.

Just days later, another heart-shattering tragedy gripped Chirumhanzu. Tatenda Marinda, aged 24, was hailed as a romantic village hero. He had swept young Brilliant Gamuchirai off her feet when she was in Form 2.

They had a baby boy named Tanatswa, a name that means “we are comforted.” Instead of comfort, the community woke up to despair.

That fateful night, Marinda took the baby outside while his partner slept. When villagers found the child’s body in a gully the next morning, his tiny skull had been smashed on rocks.

His brains were on a stone. His father had vanished. Their once-idyllic love story had become a crime scene.

So we ask, what is going on?
These are not random outbursts. These are signs of deep-rooted emotional trauma that has long been ignored.

These men were not monsters from birth. They were boys once. Boys who perhaps grew up in broken homes, endured neglect, lacked male role models and were never taught how to express pain.

In Marinda’s case, his uncle admitted the young man had a troubled past, orphaned as a baby, poor schooling, and barely surviving on village jobs. It is clear he carried pain for years.

But here is the thing, pain ignored becomes rage unleashed. And that rage, when left unchecked, finds the weakest to punish. In both cases, it was defenceless infants who paid the price.

It is time Zimbabwe stopped pretending that everything spiritual is a curse and everything violent is “just stress.” These stories scream for action on mental health.

We must begin by recognising the red flags. A partner who gets agitated easily. A man who isolates himself. A young father who refuses to bond with the child. Someone constantly irritable or fixated on control. These are not quirks, they are alarms.

But how do we respond? Most rural clinics don’t have a single mental health professional. Most churches preach deliverance but ignore depression.

Most families hush emotional issues out of shame. Meanwhile, men are imploding silently. And when they finally explode, it’s blood on the walls and death in the cradle.

We need urgent reform. Every district must have basic counselling services. Couples must receive parenting and anger management support before and after childbirth. Schools and churches must be trained to spot distress.

Even chiefs and headmen must be taught mental health first aid.

No child should die because of a food fight. No mother should wake up to blood in the rocks. These are not normal tragedies. They are alarms from a society in crisis.

If we do not face this now, more babies will die. More women will weep. And the blood of our children will stain our silence.