Akaenda Kunoshandirwa

Nguva yakanga yareba zvinhu zvake zvisingamufambire.

Kutaura chokwadi akange aneta.

Akange aneta nekurara nenzara,

Nekuseva usavi pasina nyama.

Nekukwereta kwereta kuti zvibatane.

Izvo zvikwereti zvakange zvawanda.

Kana iko kumaraini aitonyara kufamba,

Aiti pada ndingaonekwe naTendai kana naJessy oro Sekuru Thomas.

Akaenda kunoshandirwa.

Mudzimai akange ave nemwedzi mitatu adzokera,

Adzokera zvese nevana vavo kuvabereki vake.

Ko ndaivapei?

Nzara!

Ko iko kunetsana kwacho,

Zuva nezuva kupopotedzana.

Nzara!

Ko uri murume pakuti chii usingakwanise kuriritira mhuri yako?

Akaenda kunoshandirwa.

Kuti pada angawane mhinduro,

Mhinduro kuti nei mushanyi akasvika mumba make aramba kuoneka,

Nhamo!

Kuti nei yamumomotera ikamumbundikira,

Ikamusaidzira pasi kusvika otadza kusimuka,

Otadza kubuda mairi,

Nhamo!

Akaenda kunoshandirwa.

xoxo

Chido Dziva Chikwari

Sometimes when we are down to the last straw we search for answers in unorthodox places. Desperation makes you do things you otherwise wouldn't. Desperation makes you do things that onlookers view as madness. 

This piece is about a man whose life has hit rock bottom. It speaks of how he is tired of sleeping on an empty stomach. How he owes so many people money and is now afraid to be seen in his neighborhood. It narrates how his wife, together with their children, left him because he couldn't take care of them anymore. He speaks of how the hunger in the home made them fight so much and how his wife began to question his manhood, " How can you call yourself a man when you cannot even take care of your own family?" It talks about how poverty is a visitor who came into his home and refused to leave. How poverty beat him up and wrapped itself around him until he could not get away. 

The thread that runs through the narration is that "akaenda kunoshandirwa". A direct translation to English would be that "he went to get worked on" i.e. deliverance from evil spirits. There are different meanings to that because kunoshandirwa can be in the Christian form where you go to a faith healer or a prophet but it can also be the traditional sense where you go to a n'anga (witch doctor) or spirit medium. In this "story" he goes kunoshandirwa in search of answers. He asks why poverty will not leave him.

It was inspired by a friends lived experience and I believe in rings true to the times. Zvinhu zvaoma (times are tough) particularly in the Zimbabwean context. Families have been torn apart and for some hunger has become the norm, it has gripped their lives. Many are riddled with debt and are literally on their knees making it through each day as it comes and for some this has pushed them to seek answers and refuge in the spiritual.

"When you do everything humanly possible you leave it to God to take over" is what he said to me then akaenda kunoshandirwa.