ALONG THE HIGHWAY
This is contrary to the curse that she would die like a brute animal with no one to close her eyes. I see a young girl, tears trickling down her chicks and her whole body shaking, her left hand covers her crying but muted mouth and her chest rises in short spurts and falls in the same pattern as she tries to breath and control herself not to cry aloud. She has to be strong to do what I think she wants to do.
She gets on her knees to the left side besides a motionless body of Mzati. She extends her right hand towards eyelids and with a thumb on the right eyelid and the forefinger on the left eyelid she moves them down to cover the eyes of Mzati that were staring blankly to the rising sun as if waiting for the light she wanted to bring in her community. She lifts her hand and clenched a fist, I guess summoning more strength for the most difficult part.
She looks at a still and open mouth of Mzati. “What were your last words?”, she pleads under her breath. She can only guess. She pursed the lips of Mzati. She rises and embraces another girl who is standing there along other three girls.
These girls were going to fetch water from a creek at the edge of our village, Muphunzira, when they found the body of Mzati. She must have been murdered during last night.
Until her death she stood strong against any undue removal of private physical womanhood. It is unfortunate that her only support, her only surviving parent, her father, died two months ago on whose funeral curses were poured on her. She was alone in this fight. From the evil I have seen of removing some parts of us women, I wanted to support her but I am old and frail.
I want to tell them all that she would never know the last words of Mzati. That the silence of the body of Mzati has turned her into a charismatic leader she was not and beckons their voices to rise like a morning sun to dispel the darkness of senseless tradition. I want to remind them that unfortunate things along the highway to freedom awaken people to reality and hope of victory as the light is just beyond that sharp turn.
-
Bosco Kaliza
18 Responses
The voice must be louder than the silence although it shouldn’t take a tragedy to amplify the voice.
Yeah we need to be more proactive.
Exactly
Fabulous
I mean the more we talk about it the more the belief in the practice would weaken
It will wear out pretty soon and young girls will be free
It takes courage, strength, unity, determination, and persistent to end evil things like FGM, creative and forceful voice my brother.
we should use our talents and skills to noble causes like this fight
Dynamic suspense which get one thinking and thinking until resolves to do something in fighting FMG
that’s the intention of the narrative, to move us into action
Thought provoking, yes, it’s true we need to fight together
together we will get as far as the end of undue FGM
It’s sad that those who fight this senseless tradition are segregated and targeted especially when they fight it all alone while others are looking the other way.
Religious adherence and observance of tradition devoid of reason is barbaric but with such voices come the hope for girl child
FMG is evil
Oh boy! you really know how to weave a story and grab the hold of us who have short span of attention as we want to know what happened and why before we go to another piece of voice against oppressing practice. keep it up fam
the right use of creativity and craft to serve the greater good of liberating women to enjoy life without deprivation and endangering their health and well-being.
thought provoking writing the perfect catalyst to the advocacy and real action against oppressive tradition of fgm…thumbs up