BEING A WOMAN..: ROSEWITTA WAS NOW WORKING ......

A few months had passed and Rosewitta got accustomed to doing her job and using elevators. She was now confident negotiating her way round the capital and avoiding some of the crazy drivers in the city. At first she hated passing close to speeding cars as she feared for her life. She had to adjust quickly and soon she enjoyed going to work, doing her job and in no time had adjusted well to her new job. 

One cold morning, the phone rang and at the end of the line was a male voice. Rosewitta quickly recognised that it was her head of department where she worked. “Come to my office immediately” the voice said with a sense of authority and urgency. Rosewitta panicked but abandoned everything that she was doing and rushed for the head’s office. “Office protocol,” she reminded herself.

She went past the boss’ secretary and went into the office which had self locking doors. “Sit down, sit down,” Mr Jona said in a calm, smooth and seductive voice. “Sit on the sofa Rosewitta, and relax” as he motioned the sofa, “I know these sofas are more comfortable than those you have at home.” Rosewitta sheepishly sat on the sofa not sure of what was going on. She sat herself uneasily on the edge of the sofa. 

“Rosewitta, you know you are a beautiful young woman. How about you and I go out together for a candle lit dinner and later satisfy our needs. I know a beautiful girl like you got needs” Mr Jona said lifting his eyebrows and drawing himself close to Rosewitta and playfully stroking Rosewitta’s shoulder. Rosewitta became confused. Mr Jona chuckled and continued “I will give you all you need, I’ve got lots of money to spare, Rosewitta, and all I need is you to be by my side. I'm really starved of  …... of …. you know what I mean, Rosewitta. I will give you all you need, money, a quick promotion, what do you say hey sweet, sweet, Rosewitta” he continued in his seductive manner and went ahead to explore and undress Rosewitta’s body with his eyes, not giving her any chance to respond. Just as she turned her head, Rosewitta saw a bank statement in Mr Jona's name on the sofa where she was sitting. She was not sure of what she saw, Rosewitta stole another look to confirm what she had seen. The statement showed a lot of money. 

“You won’t have to work hard ever again in this department if you say 'yes'. Look at the famous couple in this department, the Ibwe's, they’ve been married for a couple of years now but the wife used to be a junior officer.” Mr Jona paused.

“How about that, how about booking a posh hotel tonight, so that we have a night of passion? I need you tonight” the man said licking his lips with burning desire. Mr Jona was now pacing up and down in the office. Rosewitta looked at Mr Jona and could not see anything likeable or attractive about him. “If he was the last man on earth, I would not fall for him, he is ugly, and has the features of a hippo. How on earth can he even suggest this?” Rosewitta looked lost in thought for a moment but realised that she had to think of something quickly. She quickly came back to her consciousness. 

Rosewitta could see that Mr Jona was now uncomfortable in his trousers and that made her uneasy. An incident about her rape ordeal years back flashed back into her memory. She remembered how long back Goliath had raped her in full view of her sister Melissa. She remembered how Goliath had at that time pushed her to the ground with so much strength so that he would rape her. Such an incident did not easily come off her mind. “Are all men like this?” she wondered, painfully reflecting on what had happened years back, with a teary eye. Rosewitta recalled what her childhood friend Hannah had gone through all those years with Mr Chokunyanya. She felt a lump in her throat.

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Thanks everyone (from around the world) for your readership! I have a story to tell and I hope you will keep reading!

PINK ROSE

Chief Tula- just for laughs, still under construction

Chief Tula became so powerful, he became proud of his conquest. He began to oppress his own people and treat them harshly. His people disliked him further and complained a lot behind his back. Chief Tula discovered from informers that he was becoming very unpopular among his own people, and with those whom he ruled. This made him very angry against his own people - that they were not grateful. Chief Tula wanted his people to be forever grateful that he had taken the land from the animals for them. “They are an ungrateful lot, after all the fighting we did for the land,” said Chief Tula shaking visibly in anger. “They will regret that they ever complained against me,” Chief Tula declared. He severely flogged and tortured anyone who wronged him. He took over wives and children, and pieces of land from men who committed serious offences. Women who committed offences were forced to work in the fields and flogged at the same time. Tula forced young boys and girls who committed offences to marry at an early age. No one was allowed to speak against Chief Tula. Chief Tula had changed.

Chief Tula spent most of the wealth in the country in fortifying his position of authority so that no-one would ever approach him without being screened heavily. He did not want his subjects to see the luxurious mansion he had built for himself and his family, a mansion which commanded a good view of the kingdom. His subjects had to pass through five fortified walls before reaching the chief and were stripped naked to ensure they did not smuggle anything dangerous near the chief and his wives. Male aides strip searched women and detained them for long hours before letting them in, even if the women worked for the chief. Some of the aides occasionally raped the women before releasing them. Chief Tula held a ceremony every year to choose a beautiful young bride. Any woman who refused to be his wife was raped by the Chief aides first then killed. Just like Lion and Tortoise had done, Chief Tula took a wife every year and from any tribe that he wanted. His estate was big enough to accommodate all the women he wanted to marry. His cruelty and greediness increased day by day. He continued to grab some of his own people's wealth to add on to what he had.

Chief Tula bore several hundred children with his many wives. His male children did as he did and married many wives. Chief Tula 's eldest son called Gubba was known to have a fiery temper just like his father and had five wives. He was as cruel as his father and he was the one who executed his father's cruel tasks.

BEING A WOMAN - extract 3

“Pssst, pssst, young lady, what is your name, could I take you for a drink tonight?” they heard a male voice  from behind them. The girls stopped and turned but did not know which of the young women he was referring to. “You young lady, what is your name?” the man asked, gently touching Mary on the shoulder. When Hannah and Rosewitta turned they recognised that it was Mr Dune. “Hello Mr Dune?  We hadn't noticed  it's you. What can we do for you? How is Grace?” Mr Dune stood back as he heard his name being mentioned. He stood near the four young women shocked that someone recognised him. For a moment he did not know what to say. “So you want one of us? You might not know us but we know who you are because you used to pick one of my classmates, Grace, from Santa Maria.” 

“Please ladies, do not tell my daughter Grace that you saw me here,” Mr Dune pleaded. 

“Do you want advice for free? Go and look after your wife and children, they need you more at home, more than we need you here.” They moved closer to Mr Dune almost surrounding him in an intimidating manner, then they left giggling away and laughing at that man's behaviour. Rosewitta had been at the University for about 6 months now.

The scholarship which Rosewitta got took her to the University where she enrolled for an accounting degree. She did not pursue a law degree as she had planned, but Hannah did. At the university she learnt that a lot of female students had got there through affirmative action to encourage girls to get an education, but fortunately Rosewitta had adequate passes and did not need any affirmative action. The male counterparts at University thought most women had gone that far through affirmative action. Due to this widely held view, they did not view female students with much respect. A lot of those female students looked modest and some of the male counterparts thought they were products of affirmative action. Rosewitta knew she was not the only one who came from humble beginnings. 

BEING A WOMAN- extracts

Hattie stood in the middle of the road when she spotted the yellow and brown coloured bus from a distance. She stood in the middle of the road to ensure that the bus stopped. She was nearly run over had the driver not swerved to the left road verge. The driver missed her by inches. “Muchatsikwa! Mugoti kuonda kunge tsono, musoro senge demo!” the bus driver shouted. The bus had stopped on the roadside anyway as Hattie had intended. Hattie saw Rosewitta off on the tatty and puffing Birds-view Bus on the long trip to the central station in the capital city. As the bus left the road verge lifting a whirlwind of dust and taking with it Hattie’s waist wrapper, Hattie shed a tear and kept waving her thin cracked hands to Rosewitta until the bus disappeared on the bend, and engulfed in the thick fumes which it left behind. As Hattie was waving goodbye, she reminded Rosewitta to study hard, to write letters, to remember her background and behave well at school. She kept repeating this to herself and smiling long after the bus had disappeared. A group of cattle herders wearing torn clothes who were passing by stood to stare at Hattie and wondered whether she had lost her marbles. Anyway, they remembered that she came from a rather strange family. Hattie saw them staring, she plucked a whip from a nearby bush and shooed the boys off. “Voetsek” she said to them. Hattie had always been the village spectacle.

The Birds-view Bus was the only bus that Rosewitta could take en-route to her new school. The bus was so slow, Rosewitta thought it would never reach its destination. She only imagined what would happen to her for the first time at that notorious station. A school bus would collect all the students to her new school. The thought of going to that Central bus station on her own made her shiver. She was particularly worried about the pickpockets who plied that bus station and took advantage of people who looked rural and lost. Her mother had tied the few dollars that she was to use for pocket money in a piece of dirty cloth. She made a long string out of several pieces of cloths to make a string long enough to go around her waist. Hattie tied that string around Rosewitta’s hip, and told Rosewitta to tuck the knot with money under her groin where she was sure no-one would reach. The cloths were so dirty that Rosewitta left a trail of foul smell as she walked. Rosewitta felt embarrassed by this, but Hattie had insisted so she had no choice but to comply. Rosewitta did not have a purse to keep her money safe. She could not afford one. At Harare Central Bus Station, a very polite man approached Rosewitta and offered to help her with her suitcase. Rosewitta was grateful for the help. She did not even bother to look at the man closely. She was shy to look at him that close. A well mannered African girl never looked a man in the eye. Rosewitta remembered her manners. The man helped to carry the suitcase and accompanied her to her school coach. He was so kind she even saw him handing over the bag to another man on the roof of the school bus. Rosewitta smiled at such kindness on such a busy place and among such a hive of activity at the Station. She clapped her hands respectfully, thanking the man for his help. She was satisfied that she was now safe. Rosewitta then showed her vouchers to the driver's assistant and quickly boarded the bus to get herself a comfortable seat. She was happy that her journey had been comfortably safe and did not believe that the station was a haven for pickpockets.

BEING A WOMAN - extract

As Majozi had planned, Hattie became grounded at home because of the eleven children that she had borne literally year after year. If he was not drinking opaque beer, Majozi's other form of entertainment was having babies with Hattie. On the birth of their eleventh child, Hattie had experienced unusual pain during child birth. After she had given birth to Gumie, she felt different and vowed to stop having children ever again after that birth almost cost her life. When Gumie was delivered, the doctors noticed unusually large clots of blood coming from Hattie's uterus. The inexperienced junior doctors who were attending to her did not exactly know what was wrong. They could not clearly establish Hattie's problem as most of the good equipment had broken down and the hospital had exhausted its allocated meagre budget. Dr Davies one of the senior doctors was the one who came to Hattie's rescue at the last minute. When Hattie had lost all hope of living and was saying what she thought were her last words, Dr Davies discovered that Hattie’s uterus had developed a tear. He carried out emergency procedures to remove the uterus. This is how Hattie’s life was saved.

Majozi knew that even if his marriage to Hattie became rocky, Hattie would never leave him. Marriage was never meant to be a bed of roses and African women hung on to their marriages for the sake of the children anyway. Majozi knew the flame had gone but Hattie was a very cultured woman, who stuck to her ideals and would stick to her man no matter what. She was the sort of person who knelt for her husband as a show of respect, and made sure he took precedence over any other family member. In any case, Majozi had paid 8 head of cattle and $800 to Hattie’s parents as bride price for her. According to African custom, she in turn had a duty to cook for him, do his laundry and fulfil the conjugal rights albeit in the right manner. At the time of marriage a woman was supposed to be well trained and to know how to please her husband in bed. At the local beer garden, Majozi boasted that although Hattie was of a slim stature, she had all the assets that he wanted in a woman to fulfill his conjugal needs. “Tete vake vakamuraira,” he was often overheard speaking in this way at the local beer garden. Hattie had been trained well to be active in all respects. She had been coached well before marriage on how to be a good wife. According to African custom, she had used traditional herbs to tighten her private parts and make them attractive. She tied traditional beads round her waist to compliment this. A woman had to be right for her husband. Hattie would never leave Majozi and in any case, even if she left him, no man wanted a woman with eleven children. Despite performing her duties well, Hattie had been worn out. Her sapless breasts were now sagging. They had become unattractive and lacked the suppleness that Majozi had known when Hattie was still as tender as a spring chicken.