The Sunday News
LAST week we left Sofia in court, standing accused of having killed her husband Nyati. Followers of this story were left guessing as to what would happen to Sofia. We have earlier seen Jeremiah, her boyfriend, trying to influence her to tell lies to the court. Jeremiah was also prepared to get a lawyer for her. But Sofia was prepared to stand for the truth and the world was free to judge after that.
Jeremiah had to be in the courtroom as well. He knew very well that Sofia’s trial was going to be decisive as to the direction his life would take after that. He was concerned about the stubborn stance about the “truth” Sofia had taken. In fact he calls it the so-called truth. In his view if Sofia had not taken that stance she would be sure of winning her case. After all it was up to the prosecution to prove that she had caused Nyati’s death. The stubborn stance she took in fact provided the prosecution with ammunition.
Remember Jeremiah was found together with Sofia in the flat Nyati claimed to have bought for her. They could have met the same fate if Nyati had not forgotten his pistol in his office drawer. Unfortunately for Nyati when he discovered that he did not have the gun he had already revealed his crime, that he was responsible for Tabitha’ s death together with Joseph Takundwa. Jeremiah was brought in as a State witness soon after Sofia’s testimony.
Sofia has been in custody for the past six months. Just like us readers, she has been waiting for the day she would stand trial and learn of her fate. She is now mature as she says that she is too wise to try to come up with any feeble predictions of what the day that now confronted her had in store for her. She therefore cannot tell whether the judges are going to set her free or convict her. The judges should be prepared to hear her side of the story.
She was now prepared to speak. She says: “Today I am going to turn the silence into a battle song. Today I am going to break the bricks of silence.” These are words of determination, when one is prepared to break bricks. This is determination from somebody who have bottled up emotions. She represents people who have been suffering in silence just waiting for something to stir them to action. We shall hear more of this when Sofia opens up and tells her story.
At this point in time Sofia is feeling unease. To her the jail guard is taking too long to arrive. She is not sure whether time is playing tricks with her mind again. She tells us that in prison a minute and an hour are just the same. As the jail guard’s steps draw nearer Sofia feels uneasy in her heart. Her fingers are shaking. Sofia says she can still remember that the last time she trembled in that manner was the moment when Nyati confessed that he washed in Tabitha’s blood.
The earth had shaken at that moment. “I will wash in your blood just as I washed in your little sister’s blood . . . So you see, there is nothing so special about you. After all you are just another little daughter of a murderer. Get ready to die!” The rest of what happened next has been stated before. Today we listen to Sofia telling her story. Her story is pregnant with meaning as it also carries a lot of lessons concerning the girl child.
Sofia says: “I therefore plead to you judges of mankind to at least afford me the chance to tell my story . . . I will tell a story of tears and blood. Listen while I tell the story of the pain of silence. I will tell you the story of rape and plunder . . .” She goes on revealing the story of the pain of silence suffered by women and the girl child. Those of you who have been following this story from the beginning can bear witness of the abuse meted on Fatima, Sofia’s mother by her husband Joseph Takundwa. He used to come home drunk every evening and would threaten to beat her up or go to the extent of carrying out the threat. There is a broken window pane in Fatima’s room which brings her painful memories. One day Takundwa threatened to kill his wife and she could clearly see what was about to happen. She ducked in time to see Joseph’s firmly clenched fist smashing through the window pane.
Fatima was drugged and raped by the old man Nyati. Nyati together with Sofia’s father kidnapped and killed Tabitha. Sofia tells the story of hope and decay. Her hopes of furthering her studies were dashed when her father refused to send her to a high school and sent her to Nyati who dashed all her hopes. She wants to tell the story of subjugation of the mother and child.
There is more to follow on the story of Sofia.
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