Violence begets violence

08 Jun, 2014 - 00:06 0 Views

The Sunday News

Highway to Success
THERE is a lot of gender based violence in this text, violence perpetrated by men on women. However, that does not mean that the writer sidelines other issues connected to humanity, for example, matters of tradition. All this comes in later in this discussion.
Fatima, Joseph Takundwa’s widow, is tired of life. She is prepared to commit suicide if her daughter Sofia is heavily sentenced for killing her elderly husband, Nyati. Possibilities are high that if Sofia is found guilty she could be hanged. Fatima is determined to suffer together with her daughter whatever the sentence. She is going to take her two most precious possessions to court that afternoon; her bible and her bottle of pills.

We come face to face with a contradiction here. How does the bible go hand in hand with suicide? The pills she was taking along were for killing herself if Sofia were to be sentenced to death. On the other hand, people who believe in the bible would not commit suicide. Suicide is against the biblical teachings. Fatima is well versed in the bible.

She says she is convinced that her first born son, Lovemore’s death was as violent as his conception. She cites a verse which reads: “The sins of the fathers shall be brought to bear on the shoulders of their sons.”

All this is so because Joseph Takundwa had used violence on her. This resulted in Fatima being accused of prostitution by her mother. Violence against women is evident again when we meet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was Sofia’s boyfriend before her forced marriage to a rich old man, we later learn that he was called Nyati. Jeremiah was to later on walk out on his wife for infidelity. Jeremiah walks out on his wife Matilda after catching her in bed with another man.

This is an unpardonable act to Jeremiah who ironically goes on to re-unite with his childhood sweetheart Sofia who is now married to Nyati. Matilda warns Jeremiah of going with Sophia because she is married to a very influential man, a very big man indeed. She informs her husband that Sofia is the wife of a councillor and she is sure and educated enough to know what a councillor is. She repeats the warning that she is married to a very influential and very dangerous man.

How are influential men and those in the office of councillor dangerous? Matilda fears that tampering with such influential people could result in them losing their flat. How was this flat acquired? Matilda reminds Jeremiah that she had to press a lot of buttons in order for them to get that flat. What buttons did she press? This is a hint of corruption. Big men and influential men do not brook nonsense from people of low class. Influential people run the show while the poor watch from the terraces.

More details emerge that the woman going out with Jeremiah is married to a councillor who is a friend of the Minister of Housing and Construction. When Jeremiah demands to know who is telling his wife that, she tells him that, that information is unimportant, what is more important is that he comes to his senses and stops fooling around with something far bigger than himself. Jeremiah ends up accepting that he is a poor teacher and does not need constant reminders that he is a failure. He accepts that he is an epitome of failure.

Jeremiah has to be at Rotten Row magistrate’s to attend Sofia’s trial. He is the only witness who was present the day Sofia’s husband died. He blames himself for all the unfolding drama revealing that he had no reason for him to keep on chasing after a married woman. No matter how unhappily married she was, he had no right to keep on pursuing her. Impulsively, he suddenly finds himself staring at the lines inside his palm. He has heard that some people can tell a lot of things about a person’s destiny by merely looking at their palms. Do you subscribe to such superstitious beliefs, or you are like Jeremiah who was sceptical about it?

He says: “Very strange indeed. How can an inert line on a palm influence such unpredictable things like events. I do not believe in this thing called ‘fate’. I have always argued that man must be more able to influence his own destiny than that. Events are man-made, all these tragedies that are so common in our lives are a simple reflection of our folly.” Jeremiah grew up with a male chauvinistic view of the girl child.

He remembers that as a young boy, he never worried about the washing of plates, cups, pots and clothes. Such minor chores had always been the sole responsibility of his sisters. He remembers being taught that such things were too trivial to be done by a man. There were more important jobs that required brains and energy. By implication this means that women cannot do jobs that require brains and energy. Such is the negative view of women shown in this text.

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