Ghetto Blast: Of rural teachers and village girls

wiser to run away with his life.
His pursuers, who cut across almost all age groups, were armed with all sorts of weapons from sticks to stones, knives and catapults.
The group was baying for the young man’s blood and showed determination.
The hairy and light-skinned teacher with a furrowed brow was between a rock and a hard place.
He was in a real veduwee, veduwee situation.
Luckily for him, his pursuers were not fighting from the same corner. Some were in the group just to make up numbers and glean whatever information they could.
But another handful hurled obscenities at Joshua whose image appeared to be fading with distance.
“Tiza hako. Tichakubata chete. Mwana akazvarwa chembere dzaenda kudoro,” one of the guys who were giving chase shouted.
What had this youthful teacher done to deserve this?
“We do not want him here anymore. He is a wicked fellow. He deserves to die,” quipped a young woman whose reasons for hating Joshua seemed personal.
She accused him of being untrustworthy and given to prostitution.
“He wasted my time, all these years. I thought I had found a soulmate,” another young lady said.
“That’s a sign of being a man. He cannot be forced to do what he does not wish to do,” a young guy who was part of this crowd said, showing support for the fellow who had taken to his heels.
Pupils who were part of the chasing group were doing so for the fun of it and to see how their teacher would fare.
Weird as this sounds, these are some of the challenges young rural teachers are facing at their work stations. Everyone there has his expectations.
Unmarried village spinsters battle to stay close by per chance they may land the honour of graduating the bachelor into manhood and perhaps get to stew his beef.
Jobless school drop-outs who thrive on their nimble feet fight to befriend the teacher because being among the most respected in the village, their chances of quaffing lagers will be high.
Village elders are also not to be outdone.
They want to be close to the teacher so that they won’t pay for extra lessons and just to be in the league of the educated.
“Takangwara isu tinomwa nematicha,” elderly people often brag at beerhalls and even in church.
So, gentle reader falling in love with a teacher is the highest of honours in rural Zimbabwe.
But if that teacher keeps to himself or impregnates someone’s daughter and deny responsibility, he falls foul of the community.
Priests at rural churches do not make the situation any better. These men of the cloth see every young teacher as a suitable candidate to marry spinsters within their parishes and this is where the problem begins.
A good number of people who once served as rural school teachers have long tales to tell about what they went through at the hands of bishops.
“When I attended a church service, I was surprised to see people offering me so many wifely favours that include doing my laundry, cleaning the house and even cooking.
“The chief culprit was the bishop’s wife. Amai mufundisi would send unmarried girls to my house to fetch water and clean the house. Some of these girls would even borrow large sums of money they could not afford to pay back.
“These girls would also be of the opinion that starting a relationship with a teacher is the only way out of poverty. And they will seize this opportunity to ensure they do not lose out. What they did to me in Chihota communal lands, zvikunda ngoma kurira,” a former rural school teacher confided in this writer.
But he is not the only one who seemed to have a problem with the school’s bishop and his wife.
“For those people’s carrier to be adjudged successful, they should be able to join so many hands in marriage. And to achieve this, they end up using blackmail. Being a rural teacher can be risky if you are not able to stand your ground,” another teacher told Ghetto Blast last weekend.
Gentle reader, the issue is not confined to the bishop and his wife. If the school is headed by an unmarried headmistress, it can also be a great challenge.
Such headmistresses will award you good marks if you yield to their plots and subplots.
At times, said a rural teacher, the headmistress demand sex in cases similar to that of Joseph and Portipher’s wife.
Should the teacher decline the love offer, he will be made to regret or be caused to be booted out of service.
Ukaramba mukuru wechikoro, unolumila.
Female rural teachers are also in the same predicament. Some headmasters will craftily offer them responsibilities that require the lady teacher to liase with the school head regularly just to boost their chances of meeting and discuss so many issues including love.
Scores of female rural teachers have been sent packing by their city-based lovers because they end up relying on the headmaster for entirely everything.
Even if the boyfriend intends to pay a visit, some lady teachers will refuse.
“Kwakaipa kumamisha. Rumwe rwakarambwa rwati mukuru wechikoro haadi mavisitors for fear of thieves who might stray into the school yard,” James Mukore said while drinking beer at Glen Norah Liquor Centre last weekend.
He said some headmasters were actually laws unto themselves. They dictate who their female teachers should date when, where, why and how.
Unmarried rural teachers in general get pressure from almost everywhere. Their colleagues have the cheek to invite their divorced sisters-in-law and foist them on this hapless chaps.
“If you are not strong, you end up marrying someone you do not love. Some teachers will invite female relatives knowing they have no space for them to sleep and end up asking you to accommodate them, wherein problems being,” Norman Makazo said.
He said for fear of embarrassing colleagues, some rural teachers are having women foisted on them to “protect the image of the school”.