Sweetest Taboo2 pt7

‘So I was thinking that since we have all the time in the world to our selves, please let us make sure that we use it wisely. Now you can think I am being evil but really I am not. I just think that if you do something to someone you should be able to take it. So this week, we shall have some suggestion from every woman in this neighbourhood who has been through this ordeal and even if you haven’t, you can still be sending a message to anyone who thinks it is OK to do this to our children’ Towela stands there confidently in our little sitting room. The ladies who had come here to support Bana Kulu Themba quickly change their minds and exonerate me from all wrong doing after hearing the real reason she received such a greeting. They all lean towards teaching my sister …… cannot even call her that anymore, and her demon son a lesson that fits the crime. One woman, Mrs Adeleke who has recently joined our community is not one to talk lightly. She has moved here from Nigeria with her husband and two teenage daughters as her husband is an accountant. She is flashy, mouthy and no nonsense.

‘My dear friends I greet you. It is a disgrace that this excuse of a mother could even be sitting here and expecting us to have mercy on her!’ she says pointing threateningly at my sister. ‘I cannot begn to understand how this woman can know that her 11 year old niece is being attacked by her own blood and turns to look away! If he was my own….’ She pauses for dramatic effect by looking around the room at the ladies, her face scowled in disgust at the prospect that this twat of a boy could even be used as an analogy for her own spawn. For my looking at him only, it was enough to see that he was indeed the devils spawn. ‘If he was my own (beats her chest with a hand, her breasts bounce in agreement) he would not have been able to live to tell the tale!’ yes!! The women agree in unison. ‘My sisters, this boy right here will only go ahead to rape one child after another. I will tell you what we shall do. Our sister towela has shown us the pictures of the abomination these two have caused. If he had even as much as given an apology for his actions maybe we would have listened!’ she says tugging at her earlobe ‘but instead these two wicked cockroaches decided to sit at that your meeting, deny everyting and then blame the poor baby for something she does not even understand! Madam hell is waiting to receive you well well! Inyama! Maybe even hell will fail to accept such cruelty because you surpass the devil ooo! My own suggestion is that, she lies down here on this carpet, pass me a razor blade, we are going to make cuts on her own vagina eh, and then make the son wash her in the hot water that the poor child had to endure! My sister Towela take more pictures. Mrs Mwanza here is a fantastic journalist!’

There is an uproar of agreement and with that the women grab hold of Chanda my sister and Mrs Adeleke is quick to spread her legs and whilst slapping and spitting on Trevor, orders him to cut lines on his mother. She screams out in pain but the ladies bid her mouth with a cloth. This is literally like being in a house of horror. I am definitely going to move house after this. I have no mercy for Chanda because everything that Towela has decided to do is to re-enact the rape with the two as the actors. The more I see it the more angry I feel. Chanda lays on the floor sobbing whilst the women get the water ready.

‘My sisters, the child told us that when this boy thought the aunty was coming home, he quickly rushed the two girls into the bathroom and dipped them one by one into the Shomeka. When I checked Sheys bruised vagina, mmm mmm mmm mawe….you will not believe that she was burnt because the water must have been too hot but did he care? No. he wanted to get away with his crime. May I repeat that this was not once, not twice, but repeatedly for one whole week. Whilst we were thinking this trusted boy, not even a friend of the family but family himself was minding the store and taking care of our children, he was having brutal sex with them and then dipping them in hot water like chickens whose feathers need to be plucked!’ Towela’s words fade away as I disappear into a world of pain and horror. Each description feels like a thousand knifes being stuck into my body with the intention of a slow death. No there is no escaping this horror. If anyone believed in mercy, after hearing this, the word mercy was thrown out the window in an instant. For what could mercy achieve in this situation? If I cannot stomach just hearing the events what more the children who were involved? For goodness sake poor little Janet was driven mad by it to the point of taking her own life. The only child of Khetiwe for after Janet, she could not bear children anymore. There had been complications with her womb and she was declared barren. So one child is all she had in this world. One child through whom you see your eyes and your dreams and your pride. One child to unite her family. Now her family which was once perfect has begun to fall apart. The constant fights and arguments that have ensued have led her to come and seek refuge at our sanctuary in Towela’s home.

And so the women grab hold of a screaming Chanda and dump her into the hot bath. Trevor is given a big bottle of vinegar and salt and forced to soak it in. It does not matter how many time they both cry and beg for mercy. Each woman is out to defend her own. The salt soaks into the cuts ruthlessly and when they are satisfied, they hurl her out of the water.

It is decided that the next fun thing to do would be to distribute the t-shirts that have been printed by Towela. I cannot believe how she gets things done so quickly but she is beyond help with her devious mind. She knows any and every contact necessary to keep this shit wrapped right around her little finger. The police care not. After all, this is one less expense for them. They are just interested in us finishing the job and handing him to them… if we hand him to them.

The T-shirts have Trevor kissing his mother after licking my vomit and are marked in big bold letters:

‘SWEETEST TABOO- MOTHER AND RAPIST SON’

The back of the T-shirts are covered with the following words:

Five minutes too much

Stop!

A small word four + exclamation mark, scream piercing through the night

deafening the ears of the minds who should sleep but this

child alone screams Stop! To a silent world

Five minutes too much to tear the hymen of the young virgin

to cleanse you, you kill the soul in me crying

stop!

all together five, five minutes is too much

for the little fingers on each hand to

fight off the five six seven times you

strike thrust break tear hurt

in five quick minutes

you

change the life and the dream and the courage of a child of five crying in the dark for her mother

you stand there victorious

sweaty and smelly reeking of blood

that you spilled on her sheets before heading back to your wife/mother/girlfriend/lover

All in five minutes un raveled her world

when you should have been her hero

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN YOUR CHILD- DESTROYED IN FIVE MINUTES

R.I.P JANET

The women then instruct only 3 out of the group to take a trembling Trevor and his mother wearing the T-shirts and parade in the heart of Ndola where you find the famous street vendors. Now Trevor is only wearing boxers and this feminine T-shirt. The vultures await them! They cannot run from anyone not with this vicious mob of women. Mrs Adeleke is not a woman you want to mess with.

'We are all just going to have fun with the Kabova's (vendors)' Towela says with the sweetest smile on her face. 'As you all know, there is no punishment worse than that accorded by the vendors. I have my loudspeaker with I kept during public meetings my husband attended, so I will announce what little present we have for the vendors  before releasing these to the pack of wolves.'

' When they have been disciplined, please, bring them back here still breathing abeg so we can finish em well well' Adeleke orders and with that it is bye bye Trevor, hello street vendors.