Read on Twitter
Previously we learnt of Uncle Temba’s death at the hands of hectic Uncle Hector.
It is important that you see this thread from yesterday.
https://twitter.com/davidwamambo/status/1251991350964346882?s=21 https://twitter.com/davidwamambo/status/1251991350964346882
It is important that you see this thread from yesterday.
https://twitter.com/davidwamambo/status/1251991350964346882?s=21 https://twitter.com/davidwamambo/status/1251991350964346882
Today the story is about Uncle Simba and the Elevator
Now here it goes...
Now here it goes...
Before we go any further thesis story that was narrated to me by immediate elderly relatives close to me and confirmed by my parents.
So Uncle Simba *not his real name was again a cousin of my father. This story took place in the 1980’s till 1984.
Uncle Simba grew up with my dad them in Nyatate but was about a decade older than my father. He went to Marist brothers and was a very smart student apparently.
He eventually had an opportunity to study abroad and when he returned to Zimbabwe after independence he got a good job at a factory in Zimbabwe as a bookkeeper. What was phenomenal about his story is how he quickly rose through the ranks.
After all he was smart, many questions were later to be asked surrounding his love life, he was not yet married in 1980. He was in his 40s. Seeing that he was an ideal bachelor and was apparently tall and well built and had a good sense of style.
Quick commercial break
The Aunties, seeing that there would not be any progresses if they let him be, they arranged a marriage with a “family friend” in ChiShona this is refreshing to as Kuroorana Kwematongo PachiSahwira. The idea was that his wealth would be within beloveds.
The story is already heading south if you know how shona arrange marriages are designed.
The wife was much basically a teenager. But back then the people did shocking things. Let no one tell you lies that our generation is wild. These folks yeah no.
People say she lived a good married life since Simba was a charming gentleman. He took care of her & apparently facilitated for her to get home schooled so she could continue with school. She did a course, if you remember those Rapid Results Distance education courses in Zim.
In this entire time of their marriage Uncle Simba had not gone to the village. So this was deemed as mockery by the family of the wife. Mind you arrange marriages are meant to yield some form of wealth for the brides family. So now she also had cut them off.
They probably were toxic at a witchery lovely.
So in 1982 thibgs took a turn when Simba’s wife found out she was expecting twins & with over excitement she told those aunties, she had not talked to infers. Probably for validation since they had been nagging her to bear a child for their nephew for a couple of years.
These aunties pretended to be happy for her. One of the ring elders was Uncle Hector’s sister. I will call her Tazvi. Aunty avi I personally met her thrice. At my namsake’s funeral, my father’s funeral and cousin’s funeral…apparently she never misses those.
Ah now, this aunt decides she would come and perform this ritual called “kusungira” this is done to women prior to the birth of their first child. (My mom and dad refused for this to happen to my sisters)
Usually the wife’s family does the procedures and they slaughter a goat at some point. What was bizarre is the husbands family took a lead in this case.
Technicalities:
Masungiro or kusungira is a practice/ceremony where a newly married woman who has fallen pregnant for the first time, is taken back to her parents to live with them from six months to until she gives birth.
Masungiro or kusungira is a practice/ceremony where a newly married woman who has fallen pregnant for the first time, is taken back to her parents to live with them from six months to until she gives birth.
So the wife’s family was probably in the plan too. After a week my mo recalls that there was a supposed family meeting that my dad had to go to at Simba’s house.
He went with other male cousins that stayed in the city. Simba told them that his wife had been acting different and she was behaving as if she was in sync with the land of the dead. “Kusvikirwa”
