THE marchers to the peaceful demo in town continued to snowball into a madding crowd before leaving the neighbourhood.

A worried Mother said to her teenage daughter: “Nhasi hapana anobuda mugedhi. Mese muri kuswera pano ndakakutarisai.”

The daughter said: “You are too late Mama. Ralph has already left. His friends came by when you were still in bed and they went to join the march. I heard them talking about it last night.”

“Nhai amaiwe! Does he not know that these things never end well?”

“They were promised some beer and other things. I heard them vachisimbisana kuti week-end yavo yanga yatonaka. And they were planning on just getting the beers and the other things and sneaking back before things heated up. I tried to warn them kuti the planners of the peaceful demo would have thought about that too but they thought they were clever.”

“And do you know the ‘other things’ they were promised ?

“Drugs Mama! Musombodhiya, mutoriro netwumbwa.

The Mother wailed: “Ko ndakagorasika papiko nhai wedenga?”

A Woman wemusika who had escaped the peaceful march to the peaceful demo in town reached home drenched in sweat and almost collapsed from exhaustion on her doorstep.

A concerned neighbour asked kuti: “Ko chiiko nhai Mai Bhule?”

‘They took everything. Everything! And I don’t know pekutangira. They broke my basket, scattered my vegetables on the road and they ate my bananas, avocados and oranges. And they also stole my purse and my phone. Ndazongoona ndichisina. Their stomachs are now filled and they now have the energy to demonstrate for their own ‘human rights’. What about my own rights? They want employment and they are destroying the employment of others. Ndaona Ralph wekuraini rekuseri uko achidya mabanana angu. Vachandipa zvavo amai vacho. I am going to report them kumapurisa.”

Meanwhile, far from the madding crowd, a police highway patrol traffic motor bike coming from the direction of town waived down a kombi lettered ‘MURIDZI WENYAYA’ going the direction of town.

It was without number plates.

The kombi stopped 50 meters away and the kombi driver asked the Hwindi to go and talk to the bikers.

The Hwindi ran to the bikers and gave them some folded bills.

One biker said something and the hwindi said: “Mahwani mudhara. See you time, time.”

A passenger said: “Ya-a-a pakaipa?”

Another passenger asked no one in particular: “Is this thing ever going to end?”

A talkative passenger recounted how when quizzed about police corruption, former police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri had put the blame on the whole society.

He had said something like: “Ndivo vana vamakandipa. We recruit from 18 to 22 years of age. You had over 18 years to turn them into good citizens and you failed. I only have 9 months to turn them into what you failed to do in 18 years. Just nine months to undo the irresponsible permissiveness you inculcated for two decades!”

An older man interrupted the talkative passenger: “You are acquitting him more easily than he deserves.”

He wanted to add some unforgiving sarcasm but the wisdom of age got the better of him and he traded the violence for a smile instead.

The talkative passenger smiled back not knowing the amount of damage to pride that he had been spared.

They continued the journey on good terms.

Not far ahead of them, in another vehicle, two graduates going to the peaceful demo in their graduation gowns were not so lucky … in the vehicle driven by the Man whose wife had refused to be touched; the wife who wanted her rights not to be touched even by her husband respected; the wife who thought her house maid was not entitled to demand entitlement to payment for services rendered.

The Man who had paid the Maid defrauded by his wife, casually asked the ‘Peace and Governance’ graduate if the programme had covered the history of Zimbabwe.

 The graduate replied: “No.”

“Then, without the historical background of the peace and governance you are trying to address are you sure you are interpreting the situation in Zimbabwe correctly? Do you think the European experience that informed your programme is the right instrument with which to dissect the peace and governance in Zimbabwe?”

The graduate of ‘Peace and Governance’ immediately felt the weight of his gown around his shoulders.

The husband of the woman who had been beaten-up by her friend’s house maid and was not angry that his wife had been beaten up surfed through TV channels until he settled on Al Jazeera where African leaders were demanding equal representation in the United Nations Security Council to make it more democratic. 

They were arguing that its constitution and operations were undemocratic.

In other related news, at the United Nations, a group of black Zimbabwean opposition activists where demanding sanctions against black Zimbabwe for alleged human rights abuses.

African-Americans of the Black Lives Matter Movement were protesting the extra judiciary killing of black people by the US government. 

The Zimbabwean opposition activists did not show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement.

They wanted American white supremacists who were killing descendants of enslaved Africans in America to come to Africa to punish descendants of Africans who had escaped slavery and survived Western colonisation.

While Black Lives Matter activists wanted reparations from those who benefited from slavery of their African ancestors, black Zimbabwean opposition activists who were also generational victims of colonial dispossession wanted fellow black victims of colonisation to pay European generational beneficiaries of colonisation compensation for loss of colonial capital.

For the first time, the husband of the woman who had been beaten-up by her friend’s house maid and was not angry that his wife had been beaten-up understood what ‘ideological bankruptcy’ meant.

All along, it had just been high-sounding academic terminology one could use to sound intelligent in political arguments.

He thought he now understood the African problem.

How many more terminologies were being carelessly used to complicate simple matters?

Democracy … human rights … governance … rule of law … truth and reconciliation … transparency … justice … accountability?

How many people had the functional literacy to use these terms without harmful results?

At the permanent road block on the road to town, the traffic queue was already growing.

When it was the turn ye‘MURIDZI WENYAYA’ without number plates, the kombi driver gave the traffic officer a thumbs-up sign and said: ‘Done.’

The traffic officer smiled and said: ‘Kahwani,’ peered inside and said: ‘Mangwanani vabereki. Kana paine vane rekeni, matombo kana zvinokuvadza zvisiyei pano.’

He grinned at the passengers.

The passengers laughed nervously.

The traffic officer let MURIDZI WENYAYA pass without number plates.

Two truckloads of police in riot gear sped away from the city centre.

A woman said: ‘I think I have made a mistake. I should have stayed at home.’

A confident man assured her: ‘I promise you nothing will happen. Have you seen anything strange?’

‘Seven o’clock is still too early to tell. I thought I heard noises of people toi-toing kumaraini ekuseri kwedu and decided to travel early. But I can’t say that I saw anyone.’

One of four youths occupying one bench said: ‘We are going to the Demo. I assure you it will be peaceful.’

The Older Man asked him: ‘How do you know that? How can you be so sure?’

The youth replied: ‘I just know. Why would anyone want to be violent? This is a peaceful demonstration against ‘human rights’ abuses and an ailing economy.’

A pious woman supported the youth: ‘Endai zvenyu vanangu. There is nothing to fear because God is in it. Did you not see from the social media how churches, civic society organisations and the opposition leadership have all been praying for divine intervention.’

She scrolled through her phone and said: ‘Bhaibheri rangu, shoko raMwari muna-Isaiah 54 verses 14-17 rinoti: In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth the instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

The Older Man pitted the piety of the evangelist but said nothing.

In 1977 kuNyamaropa, during the liberation struggle, he would have asked her kuti: ‘Mhaiyo munoziva AK 47 here?’

To be continued…