adminCharles Dube
“MONEY is the root of all evil.” We confirmed the truth of this statement in the last episodes when we saw the gullible Joseph Takundwa led by Nyati to commit horrible acts. The former forced his older daughter, Sofia, to marry Nyati even though she did not love him because he wanted money from Nyati. Nyati used Takundwa to rape and kill Tabitha in cold blood for ritual purposes.
Joseph Takundwa gives us a graphical description of how Tabitha met her fate through a vision he claims he has failed to run away from even by dying. He says it is the nightmare that has haunted him to the grave. His master, that is, Nyati, barks harsh commandments. Takundwa is threatened by Nyati when he asks any questions. When he asks how he could do such a thing Nyati rubbishes that as a stupid question.
When Takundwa says he cannot go ahead and kill Tabitha, Nyati immediately draws out a gun from his pocket and says: “You are playing with faeces where there is no water, Takundwa my friend. If you don’t do as I tell you, I will shoot you and your little daughter right now. That way I will even get more parts for my medicines. Now do it!” That is how Joseph Takundwa became so much steeped in blood.
Sofia has been forced by her father to marry Nyati and her childhood sweetheart Jeremiah has also married Matilda.
Coincidentally these two meet when their marriages are going through worst patches. All is not going well for Jeremiah. We find him in a little room he describes as reeking with odours of decay. A dead dog has been rotting away by the roadside a stone’s throw away from the house. The unfortunate dog was run over by a driver a few days away.
Jeremiah comments about the situation in the country during the days of Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap). The drivers of this country can no longer find the patience to give way to a passing dog. No one cared to bury the dog. In those days of Esap everyone was too busy trying to out-deal their neighbour to find time to waste burying a dead dog. The sight of dead dogs and cats was no longer strange those days.
Jeremiah asks: “Is this the sign of the changing times? I wonder why there are so many free dogs wandering throughout the city these days. Maybe the retrenched owners after discovering that they could no longer afford to feed an extra mouth simple unleashed the dogs and let them wander in the streets. Surely if times were changing they were changing for the worst. We are at that time again when we hear Jeremiah saying he has to be in the courtroom in two hours’ time for Sofia’s trial.
He says he knows very well that Sofia’s trial is going to be decisive as to the direction his life will take from then on. Jeremiah was there when Nyati died after falling from the flat as Sofia was advancing towards him with a knife. He has all the facts as he says if Sofia had not taken a stubborn stance about the so called “truth”, then she would have been assured of winning the case. After all it was up to the prosecution to prove that she had caused Nyati’s death.
Jeremiah ponders: “Is this trial going to mark the break of a new dawn in my life, I wonder? The unfolding of this tragic saga has in fact helped deepen my love for Sofia. I am prepared to do anything within my reach to help Sofia get out of her plight. This is why I tried to hire a lawyer for her. It is very clear that Sofia does not need the services of a lawyer. All she wants is the chance to tell the truth, and then the world is free to judge after that.”
Call it predestination or what; Jeremiah cannot help but marvel at his timely reunion with Sofia. They could not have met at a better time. Both their marriages were already on the rocks. As Jeremiah reflects on this whole thing, it looks as though there is some hidden force somewhere out there that has pre-arranged things such that they would meet again at that appropriate moment in their lives. Is this not fate? A force over which human beings have no control.
Jeremiah and Sofia met again after four years. Jeremiah was waving down town-bound cars for a lift. Suddenly a posh car he had not waved down stopped for him. It was Sofia driving and had seen Jeremiah hence offered him a lift. That was when their affair was rekindled after the exchange of addresses. Jeremiah says that is how the fire of love was rekindled in his heart. A cursed fire that resulted in the tragic death of Sofia’s husband and father and her own subsequent arrest.
He wonders whether this is the love that poets describe as “sweet and innocent” He says maybe the gods have better things in store for us tomorrow. It has become such an important day for him. His mind has so many questions about tomorrow. What will it contain? Will she be sitting by his side tomorrow? Then he goes poetic telling us that the treasures of tomorrow are unknown, but still the treasures of tomorrow are worth waiting for. A life without a tomorrow is not worth living.
Even people in desperate situations remain hopeful. He gives examples of children in desolate and desperate situations at the time like in Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia who were all waiting for a better tomorrow that was better than then. All that they were waiting for was hope. He says it is just like blood, if you do not have it in you, you cannot survive.
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derick.khumalo
Online Reporter