The Sunday News
Charles Dube
“I will speak”
WHEN pushed to the wall one is bound to react. We are not surprised to hear Sofia declaring that she would “speak”.
Time for silence is gone. She has suffered a lot of pain in silence and has come to a point where she says ‘‘come what may come, I will speak.” She speaks for all women telling the story of subjugation of the mother and child.
We have seen examples of women subjugation by men in this story. Women are kept under control by men who deny them the chance to advance. Fatima tells us that she was denied the chance to advance to secondary school even after passing her Grade Seven examinations better than her brother Jerasi. Marume, Fatima’s father blocked her from going to Assisi Secondary School. He hides behind the fact that Fatima’s teacher suggested that she should be taken to Assisi. He is angry that the teacher seems to tell him where to take his own daughter.
Marume sticks to a cultural belief which is discriminatory and does not allow women to advance themselves in life.
That Fatima had passed Grade Seven was enough to make her a good wife, hence no need for her to proceed to Assisi Secondary School. Sofia shows us the negative effects of culture like keeping women inferior to men and not letting them advance. Fatima has suffered a lot from her husband Joseph Takundwa who has abused her almost every day.
She is almost tired of life and is on the verge of taking her life when we meet her today.
Fatima is devastated to hear that her husband Joseph Takundwa connived with Nyati his friend to murder her last daughter Tabitha. Takundwa has died an abominable death, hanging himself with a piece of barbed wire. Nyati had died on his way to hospital after falling headlong from a flat. Sofia, Fatima’s daughter is due to stand trial accused of causing Nyati’s death. Fatima cannot say out her problems. She is contemplating to commit suicide. Only one thing remains, the little bottle of pills she is holding in her palms.
She glances at the range of black dresses inside her wardrobe. She ponders, “Which one of these black dresses will they wrap me in when the time comes?” It is quite obvious to her that there is nothing to live for. All hope is lost for Fatima and the only alternative is death hence she makes these dire preparations. All this is driven by the fear of what might happen to her daughter Sofia. She is apprehensive that the worst might befall her daughter. She says if they hang her Sofia she too will die.
Her mind tells her that it might not be painful after all. But, the question is why is she so much frightened? She confesses that she is terribly frightened. However, she tells herself that she should be brave as she tries to fortify her shivering soul. A cloud of loneliness engulfs her mind. Fatima feels weak as she makes an attempt to stand on her feet.
Her emaciated legs are now too weak to carry all the burdens that have been heaped upon her shoulders.
As Fatima walks out of the door, rock hard silence prevails around her. She says this is silence of death. Not even a single sound prevails there. But, the silence is only external, just like the dry skin that hides the blood and all the other fluids in the flesh. Inside, she can hear screams of children burning in gigantic flames of fire. She says she can hear Lovemore’s burning cries. She also hears people singing and dancing to freedom songs as they celebrate her son’s pain.
All this comes to Fatima as a dream. She has been silent for too long. Even at the death of her son Lovemore she never said anything. All her emotions are bottled up inside her. She now realises the vanity of all she has lived for. She realises the emptiness of life. There is no one to talk to. There is nothing to lean on. There is only death and broken things. Dead bricks. Dead wood. Broken window panes signifying broken dreams and scars of pain in her heart. Broken dreams. Dreams sweet and bitter.
These are the realities of life, made up of ups and downs. She remembers that she too laughed once. For weeks Fatima says she talked to no one else but herself, asking herself questions fire, pain and death; living with nothing else but ghosts of dead children as if they were born with death in their veins instead of life. Flirting images of Lovemore and Tabitha pass through her mind. Lovemore, the one they hacked and cooked as they sang and danced. Tabitha, murdered and mutilated. Burnt, her bones are now scattered in the wind.
Fatima, just like many other women, has suffered in silence. However, Sofia is of a different view. She is fed up about the whole thing and stands up to tell her story. She says, “I will speak.” She says she will tell a story of tears and blood. Women have cried a lot in this story. Fatima cries over the loss of her children through death, that is Lovemore and Fatima. Sofia has been arrested for the death of Nyati and her mother is unsure of her fate.
Sofia still stands for the truth. We remember that she refused to tell lies on the circumstances leading to Nyati’s death when Jeremiah and the lawyer were trying to influence her otherwise. She is clear that she was there when Nyati fell out of the flat. Yes, she had a knife in her hands, she will not deny that. But she asks whether it is wrong for her to go out into the forest to hunt for justice with a kitchen knife in her hands when justice has become such a fugitive?
Sofia has gone out to hunt for justice for the sake of all women. She says: “My own little innocent sister was raped, murdered and mutilated in silence. If you look at my mother’s eyes you will know what pain looks like. As to whether I had intended to stab Nyati with the kitchen knife that I cannot tell! Anything could have happened at that moment.
I have been buried in silence’s coffin for too long. I have been silence’s beast for too long; but today I am going to speak!”
Indeed, Sofia intended to speak against women abuse well-armed with evidence from her own family. She lived and experienced both emotional and physical abuse. Let her speak and let those who have ears hear what she says.
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