Destined to Excel

Destined to Excel

Theresa Chinheya

ISBN 978-1-64079-864-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64079-865-6 (Digital)

Copyright © 2017 by Theresa Chinheya

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

296 Chestnut Street

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

I dedicate this book to my parents Daina and Partson Chinheya who are always available to provide support and encouragement through thick and thin.

To my children Jackie and Nigel for being my cheerleaders.

To My siblings Josephine, Peter and Phomello for believing in me even when I doubt myself.

My friends, especially Naomi who is not afraid to tell me the truth without sugar quoting.

To my dearest Chelsea and Carter for loving me unconditionally.

Chapter 1

Before the Beginning

The Chinheya family was part of a group of indigenous people that migrated from the south across the Limpopo River. They had discovered uninhabited perfectly fertile land along the Chimanimani mountain range on the foot of the Ngaone hills. This became part of a country whose northern boundary is the Zambezi River, which holds the famous Victoria Falls, also known as Mosi-oa-Tunya (meaning the smoke that thunders). At the southern border lies the Limpopo River. The country also shares its eastern and western borders with Mozambique and Botswana respectively.

Zambia lies on the northern part across the Zambezi, and South Africa is south below the Limpopo River. The whole country is mostly covered with Savannah grass land great for livestock and agriculture. The country is also rich in wildlife and temperate climate throughout the year. The Chinheyas and fellow tribesmen had settled on choicest land where the mountain slopes are lush with vegetation. There were numerous cold and hot water springs and gorges. When these native settled in the land, many generations lived in peace with neither intruders nor outside visitors. The families mainly survived on farming, hunting, and livestock (goat, sheep, cattle, chicken, etc.). The geographical location of this side of the mountains caused the land to receive just the right amount of precipitation, and the temperature was moderate throughout the year. The people in this part of the country never experienced any form of harsh weather; both the winters and summers were always mild. Many generations came and passed, the Chinheya family name continued to be carried forward.

One day as villagers went on with their daily life, there were rumors that someone had seen some unfamiliar strange-looking people on horseback looking around the mountain valleys, and many wondered who those people could be and why they were here. The villagers didn’t have to wait too long before they found out what the strangers wanted. One of the village elders called out a meeting and told everyone at the meeting that the white people would come to speak with them and already brought along a native man who could translate what was being said. Everybody came to the meeting place; women and children sat on the cool grass, and men sat on stools while the white men and their translator sat on chairs, which were usually used by the tribe leaders as they settled community disputes. The native man accompanying the strangers stood up and greeted everyone in a native dialect that was not quite like their own. He cleared his throat and said, Gentlemen, ladies, and children. These men are from the government. These two men have bought this land, and these papers that we hold are proof to that, and the government requires everyone to move to another part of the land. The tribe leader stood up and said, Who is government? And who did you say the men bought the land from? Everyone had a puzzled look on their faces, including the women and children. One of the white men also stood up, noticing that this was the custom when addressing people respectfully. He spoke to the people with the aid of his translator. This country is now being governed by Mr. Cecil John Rhodes, who got the charter from the queen of England. The country is now called Rhodesia, and the government has its base in Salisbury. He paused and looked at his translator and said with a smiling face, The government has sold land to people who came from England, and all of you will be moved to some other parts of the country. We are happy to help you relocate. There was murmuring among the crowd, and one of the tribesmen shouted, Hatibve pano! The translator whispered to the white men in translation, We will not leave this place! The white man spoke again, You will be given time to harvest your crops and get assistance to move. All those who refuse will be arrested and put in jail.This will apply to all adult males for all culprit families. Again loud murmuring was heard, and then a brave man stood up and spoke with a trembling voice full of anger, Where do you want us to go? This is our land for many generations. If any one wants to live here, you should ask our chief. We never heard of anyone requesting for farming land, not even the so-called government. Why don’t you have respect for us? As the meeting was in progress, a dog came running as if it was being pursued by a predator; everyone looked in that direction, and well-trained hunting eyes saw a leopard. In a quick flash, one of the white men pulled out a gun, and a piercing sound was heard, and the leopard was groaning as it lay dying on the ground in the nearby bushes. The white man did this in part to show the natives that there was no need to fight, for they will never win. This scared even those who thought they could gather enough courage not to comply with the government’s demands and fight to the end. They just realized that their spears, bows, and arrows were no match to the white man’s weapon. The visitors told the tribesmen of the place that was suggested as their new home. That place was far away on the other side of the mountains—rocky, semiarid land, rainless, very hot, and highly infested with killer mosquitoes. The meeting was adjourned; the visitors promised to return within a few months. They left the tribe leader with some gifts, which included candy, matches, blankets; and he gave a gun to the chief. No one was excited about the gifts, which remained at the chief’s house until the white men returned at the end of harvesttime. A few villagers were persuaded and reluctantly moved to the suggested land. The Chinheyas and other families stood their ground and refused to move. The men were willing to be jailed as long as their women and children continued to live in this land of their forefathers. After numerous unsuccessful meetings were held, a final decision was made; two options were presented to the villagers. The choices were that either the stubborn villagers be moved by force to the new land or stay and accept to be farmhands for the new property owner. Those who would stay would work for the landowner for one week and tend to their own animals and work their own field the next week. The practice was called Week by the tribesmen. The latter seemed to be a preferable choice for the Chinheyas and other families who chose to stay. They wanted to stay in familiar territory, and the landowner promised to allow them to remain in their section of the land while the villagers made a promise to never tresspass on the landowner’s compound. The white men sooner brought their families. They built a big house. Before long, people became used to this lifestyle. They continued to farm their own pieces of land; they hunted and also worked for the white men for a small stipend. Generations for both the tribesmen and white men came and passed. The new generations did not understand the original agreement between the natives and the new landowners. The farm owners’ offsprings often referred to the native people as squatters; this tremendously offended the tribesmen. The white settlers had become very rich in a very short time. This prime farmland became one of the main producers of coffee, tea, and wattle trees grown on these fertile plantations.

The displacement of native dwellers became a common pattern that was repeated and spread out to other parts of the country. Those natives who had originally settled on less desirable land were spared. The government had selected poor-quality land for the displaced natives and called it Tribal Trust Lands, also known as African Reserves. Similary, vast areas of specially selected land were set aside as game reserves to serve as future tourist attractions. Local leaders were appointed as chiefs who would oversee subjects in their areas. The chief would in turn assign kraal heads for smaller communities. This was a clever idea that allowed the government to keep track of people in each area. All chiefs were responsible for having all males over fifteen to be counted and assigned identification numbers. This practice allowed government officials to be able to collect taxes from all men of working age. The Chinheyas and their neighbors had an unusual and unique situation living on the white men’s property while they were still expected and considered to be under the chieftainship of Mutema, with Singizi as their kraal head.

As time went by, another one of the Chinheya boys Shilling married a local girl Mwausa and had planned to start a family right away. Numerous attempts to conceive and have a healthy baby failed. This was very devastating to both husband and wife until they had a child who survived even though the parents sort of waited for something wrong to happen. They had named their first surviving son Nyamadzawo. Shilling and Mawusa later had other children—four more boys and one girl. Nyamadzawo, the oldest son, grew and became part of this unusual farm life. He also participated in the Week, the one-week on-off situation, and made a few pounds. Although Shilling and Mwaosa’s son did not know any other lifestyle, he knew this was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. There had been much development in the area; Chipinge town was built in an area that was considered central for the displaced natives and white settlers. This was a small town located very far away from the Chinheyas’ village. The town had one gravel street, one store, a doctor’s office, a government office, a bank for the white farmers, and a gas station. In the outskirts of the town was a school. The distance to travel on foot to and from school was almost impossible. A few individuals had braved the long journey to school but would soon get tired and give up on education. Nyamadzawo had attempted the school journey and stopped just like everyone else. Before dropping out of school, someone had donated some old storybooks to the school. Nyamadzawo decided to change his name to Partson, a name he had read from one of the donated comic schoolbooks.

Now most of the villagers called him Partson even though his mother continued using the old name. Partson had also read and heard about a big city where the government and some of the white people came from. He told his parents about his plans to travel to the big city and was often turned down. He eventually convinced his parents that he would be all right and that his moving might benefit the whole family. Partson, by then a young teenage boy from the eastern highlands of Chipinge, embarks on an adventurous journey to the big city. His mother is reluctant to let her precious son go, but the boy has big dreams and is tired of the farm life. He starts on his journey carrying only a suitcase and £15, which he had saved up from his farm earnings. The train journey took all night, and Partson got nervous as the dawn broke, and he was reminded by the light coming through the train window that the journey was about to end and that he had no actual place to go after getting off the train. The train arrived at the Salisbury station, and Partson was amazed by the many people moving around the station in a chaos. With his heart beating fast, he wondered as to what he would do next. He picked up his suitcase from under the bench, which had served as his bed for the night. He quickly pushed his way through the crowd to an opening. Most people from the train were walking toward waiting family and friends, taxi ranks, or to the nearby bus station. Since Partson didn’t have any specific address to go to, he therefore didn’t know which bus to take. He then decided to just walk into one of the streets that seemed less crowded. Although Partson had very little education, he had learned enough to read street signs. The street sign ahead was First Street; he was fascinated by the blinking lights and neon signs that advertised products on storefronts.

Since it was very early in the morning, the street was almost deserted. No store was open for business; only a few employees would be seen preparing for the busy day ahead. First Street is mostly a shopping street; hence, no cars moved along the street. This allowed Partson to walk leisurely as a tourist, slowly taking in all the new sights before him. As he was contemplating about his next move, he gazed through a store window admiring a mannequin dressed in a fancy suit; he was startled by a female voice calling out to him. At first he thought the white lady was stopping him from looking through the store window. He looked up at the speaking lady and saw the lady beckoning at him with her hand. "Hey, boy, unofuna mysebenzo? (This is a language made up for easy communication between both European and native-speaking people.) The lady repeated in English, Boy, do you want a job? Partson was unsure if he heard right. Madam, are you talking to me? Yes, she replied, and if you want, you can start now." He followed the lady to the back of the store and told the lady that he had nowhere to put his suitcase. The lady needed someone immediately to off-load a truck full of merchandise since her employees were running late. The lady allowed the boy to put his belongings in a back office, and the boy started to work. Heavy manual labor was nothing new to the farm boy; hence, he wasted no time to clear the load off the truck. By the time the rest of the crew came, he was already working on the third truck. Initially the lady had desired to have the boy work for only a few hours while she waited for her regular workers. The boy impressed her so much that she asked if he would like a permanent position. Partson couldn’t believe his ears; he had just got his first job within thirty minutes of arriving in the big city. After he told the boss lady about his situation regarding accommodation, she then introduced him to other employees who were eager to assist him with rooming arrangements. As the day went by, Partson became comfortable talking to a mature supervisor in the store. Many people had offered to help him find a place to stay for the night. Partson took his time before accepting any offers. The mature supervisor liked Partson’s good manners and offered him to rent a room at his house. The man had extra rooms since his wife and children lived in the village while he alone worked in the city and would visit the family at month’s end. This is common practice for most of the local native residents. At the end of the day, Partson and his new landlord took a bus ride to the high density suburb were the man lived. The bus was crowded, and there was only standing room left. He had to squeeze in with his suitcase in his hand and held on tight to the rail to avoid falling on the passenger in front of him. People were speaking in numerous dialects from different parts of the country. He had listened carefully for someone who would speak a dialect similar to his own. Unfortunately, even though he understood what was being said, he noticed that most people had modified their dialects with some slang words. He was relieved when they finally arrived at their stop. When they got to the house, the man showed him to his room at the back, and they would share the kitchen and bathrooms. Partson was happy; although the room was small, he appreciated the luxury of an inside toilet, tap water in a kitchen sink, shower, and the rent was very affordable since he now had a job.

He sat on his narrow bed reflecting back on his life and everything that happened up until now. He recalled what his parents shared with him about how they felt when he was born—fearing that he would die just like all the other five babies before him. His mother had named him Nyamadzawo (meaning another one of your prey) since the family had a strong belief that there was bad omen from neighbors causing death of their infant babies. When the boy became an adolescent, he changed his name to Partson and preferred to be called by this name although this was never legally changed on his identification documents. He had already made this known to the boss lady when he completed his work papers and told all his workmates about his preferred name.

Looking around the room, he noticed one small window were he could only see the back of a building behind the house; this obstructed any view beyond that gray building. A seemingly blue-black cotton curtain hung on the window, and there was piles of dust on the windowsill. Partson fantasized about how he would eventually turn that room into a lively bright room just like he had seen in the bedroom displays of the furniture section of the store. He looked in the little wardrobe standing on one side of the room and noticed some cobwebs building around the dark edges, and he promised himself to make a thorough cleaning before he unpacked his suitcase. His family kept their home spick-and-span even though the compound consisted mostly of pole and mud huts. The family owned a treasured brick and metal-roof shingle room that served as their parents’ bedroom and living room. His father had made the bricks himself using clay soil from the nearby hill. The bricks had been partially sun-dried and later placed in an outside brick oven specially made for this purpose. His father had also made all the furniture in the room using the trees on the farm. Partson’s mother had taken lots of pride keeping the house and all the compound clean and had also instilled that practice in her children.

Although he was very tired from lack of proper sleep during the train journey, a long day’s work, and just being in a strange and unfamiliar environment, he new he neded to clean his room and shower before retiring for the night. He asked his landlord for cleaning material for temporary cleaning so he could unpack his few clothes into the wardrobe. He quickly got to work; using rugs and clean water, he soon got the room’s smooth cement floor shining and with no more cobwebs or dusty windowsills. He found old coat hangers, washed them and hung his few clothes in the small wardrobe. He then took a very desired long shower; even though the water was cold, it was a pleasure since he didn’t have to travel to the river or fetch the water from outside. This seemed like a comfortable life. He wanted to brag to his siblings back home about these newly discovered life conveniencies. He had left four younger brothers and one little sister.

As the days went by, Partson became comfortable and familiar to the bus route to and from work. He often left the house early, even leaving his landlord behind. He had excellent work ethics. He availed himself to all required tasks even though most of his workmates chose to hide to avoid additional duties. The store superiors noticed Partson’s efforts; in return, within three months of his employment, he was promoted to a section team leader position. Partson took his work seriously; he was always too tired to write to his family even though he knew his mother worried about him. He would start to write, become sleepy, and would then often postpone, promising himself to write as soon as he got a chance. His work schedule was becoming hard, especially now that he had assumed more responsibilities as team leader.

During that era, OK Bazaars was one of the country’s largest department store. Only white people, mostly Europeans, were allowed to shop in the store. The native people who came to the store would either be the store’s employees or people employed by the white shoppers. Sometimes it would be native men helping a lady to carry shopping bags to the car or women taking care of the lady’s children while their parents shopped. As Partson was taking a much needed lunch break, he noticed a middle-aged native woman who looked frustrated as the toddler in a pushchair continuously fussed. The working lady was in a nanny uniform; hence, she was obviously taking care of her employer’s child. The child’s mother was taking too long as this nanny-child struggle went on for a very long time. Partson realized the girl may not have known of a secluded space where the nannies can play with the children while their mothers shopped. He approached the lady and said his greetings. The lady responded; to Partson’s surprise, the lady spoke in the Ndau dialect, which is uniquely spoken by residences of the eastern highlands. He knew right away that the lady was from around where he came from. Are you from Chipinge? he asked. Yes. She smiled back. When did you come to the city? It has been six months now. Partson told the newly found homegirl the location to a safe baby play area. The area had toys and sitting chairs for the nannies. Partson had escorted the lady to the area, and they talked a little about back home. Although they had never met before, the lady knew Partson’s village. They exchanged names. The lady said her name was Nakai. Partson only managed to tell Nakai his parents’ names and his own name when the mother of the fussing toddler returned. She was speaking in a raised voice complaining that she had been looking for Nakai and the baby for a long time. Partson just looked and thought to himself, If anyone needed to complain, it would be Nakai, not the white lady, who had disappeared for more than four hours.

The white lady picked up her child and hugged her. She made baby sounds to her child. The white lady gave Nakai all the shopping bags and stroller. The white lady gestured to Nakai that she needed to start walking outside of the store.