Nnana

By Gaone Mothobi

Having grown up in a low-income and crime-ridden area, Nnana is determined to work hard to ensure that her future, as well as her loved ones', is solidified. The challenges and life changing events she encounters along the way test her tenacity and character. Nnana is a story of family dynamics, crime, success and redemption.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gaone Mothobi
• Release date: Jun 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463077559

Book preview

NNANA

CHAPTER 1

‘You are barely here! And when you are around all you do is suck the life out of the room!" yelled Fifi as she glared fiercely at her husband who had just sat down on the couch no more than fifteen minutes ago. It amazed Nnana how such a tiny woman standing no taller than 155cm could muster up such a piercing roar of a voice.

Fifi was 38 years old and had been with the father of her two kids for twenty of her good years, as she frequently explained to anyone who cared to listen. They had met in Palapye; where they were both born and raised, at two opposite ends of the village, and had had their first child when she was 19 and Thabo was 20. The two married soon after that and moved to the city to join the multitudes of young Batswana who migrated there, as was aspired by most of the youth in a country that is mostly rural. Gaborone City was financially challenging to them for the first few years. Their marriage was however fulfilling, mostly up until they gave birth to their second child, Eddie.

Gaborone West (Phase One), snuggly located close to all the city’s industrial centres, housed a lot of low-class and a few middle-class households. Most families settled in the area because the rental rates were affordable and it was easier and cheaper to get to places, most even walked to work daily. Like any other low-income area, crime was rife in ‘G-West’, as avidly called by locals. Most unemployed youth spent their days stealing and making all kinds of bad decisions. Despite the adversities, the area was a lively place to live in, the streets never slept. You could walk out of your house at 2 a.m. and still see people walking about the dimly lit gravel streets. Most of the city frequently gathered there to have a good time before the construction of business districts and malls which came with posh nightclubs and fancy restaurants. Thabo, Fifi and Nnana settled here as soon as they arrived from Palapye, they never lived anywhere else.

When they first arrived, Thabo was a construction worker and Fifi was in and out of temporary jobs, mostly as a retail assistant. She had dropped out of school thrice trying to re-write her high school examination which she had initially failed because of her severe unceasing morning sickness, again, as she explained to anyone who would listen. Nnana had probably heard this excuse a million times since she was the antagonist of this theatrical morning sickness story. As Nnana watched her mother yell at her seemingly unbothered father, she couldn’t help but think, ‘this lady was exactly my age when she and Thabo made me’.

She watched the pint-sized woman yell and constantly make aggressive gestures towards Thabo as if her point cannot be understood if she dare sat calmly. At this point Nnana had her earphones on and the volume was as high as it could go, probably intentionally. She observed this couple without bothering to read their lips to find out what the fuss was about, she had seen this too many times to even be shaken by it. Eddie was outside marinating himself in dust as he played with the other ten year olds in his street. At that moment that was her only comfort, knowing her little brother wasn’t around to witness the argument.

Nnana rose from the single couch next to where her parents were seated and made for the door. She stopped briefly by the emerald fruit container on the stand that stood oddly by the entrance, Nnana picked up her set of house keys from the container and opened the door to step outside. Before her second foot touched the ‘welcome’ mat, a turquoise couch cushion flew past her and landed outside on a shrub that stood alone, threatening the existence of the only ecological system in the yard. She yanked the earphones from her ears and swiftly turned around to find her mother standing in the middle of the room staring intently at her. ‘Can’t you hear me!? I asked you a question!’ roared Fifi once again, this time to her daughter. ‘huh?’ said Nnana nonchalantly as if she didn’t just have a cushion thrown at her. ‘Why are you taking the key!? What time are you possibly planning on coming back here!? Do you know what happens to disobedient girls that roam the night like prostitutes around here!?’ emphasised Fifi with a tone that made it impossible to tell if it was a loving warning or a mocking ‘you’ll get what is coming to you’. Nnana, walked back into the house and stopped mere centimetres from Fifi, she glared back at her, standing at the same height and serenely said ‘whatever evil is happening outside that gate is surely better than any good that happens in