Dark Clouds Hanging & Other Stories

By THOMAS MUTONONO

This collection of short stories is more or less a reflection of the life experiences of the people of Zimbabwe who live in Mbare (formerly Harare)—a high-density suburb where the poor people live. In their own ways, the residents of Mbare always find success and happiness in everyday life. It’s a mystery that no one can understand unless you have lived there.
I would like to thank my wife and three children for being patient when I am furiously writing and being grumpy whenever I had a writer’s block.
Thank you to all the family and friends for all the support.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Mar 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728385280

THOMAS MUTONONO

Thomas A. M. Mutonono was born and raised in Mbare, formerly Harare (the rest of the city was called 'Salisbury', then) before Zimbabwe’s independence. He was interested in reading and writing so much that in 1969 he began to write short stories in ChiShona, one of the local languages in Zimbabwe and English. Despite a number of rejections from publishers Thomas persisted with his writing and eventually saw his work published in some magazines in the 1970’s and the Sunday Mail, the main national weekly in the early 1980’s. In 2001 Thomas moved to UK and in 2010 his first book of short stories, A Means to Survive was published by Lion Press Limited. At present Thomas is working on a third book to be published in the near future, looking at the peoples’ politics as fiction based on the realities of everyday life. He lives in the Bedfordshire town of Luton

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© 2019 Thomas Mutonono. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  03/01/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8529-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8528-0 (e)

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Dedication

THIS COLLECTION OF SHORT stories is more or less a reflection of the life experiences of the people of Zimbabwe who live in Mbare, (Formerly Harare) a high density suburb where the poor people live. In their own ways the residents of Mbare always find success and happiness in everyday life. It’s a mystery which no-one can understand unless you have lived there.

I would like to thank my wife and three children for being patient when I am furiously writing and being grumpy whenever I had a writer’s block.

Thank you to all the family and friends for all the support.

Contents

The Boycott

Dark Clouds Hanging

Davison

Elia

How Do You Explain?

My Brother, My Nephews

Please Forgive Me

Small House

Soured Relations

Special Branch

The Stone Thrower

Tough Decisions

What Do You Want?

William Busandi

The Boycott

IT WAS 1964, THE year Tom’s education should have gone down the drain, but instead he came out better than his parents expected. It was January just two weeks before Tom was to start Standard three when he had some pain in his left leg. They were in Honde Valley, a village in the Manicaland area near Mutare. They were to travel back to Salisbury, now Harare, Tom, his mother and seven other siblings. They got up in the morning, about 5.am, they got a bus to Mutare, got a train at 8 .pm for an over-night journey to Harare. The whole night Tom did not sleep, he was in pain and his leg was now swollen at the knee.

Next day, a Saturday the train arrived in Harare; the family got a bus to Mbare, previously Harare Township. Tom could not be able to walk, his mother left him by the gate at Chitsere School. His elder brother, Moses and his fiancée came to pick him up to take him home in Mwamuka Street. When they got home it was decided to take Tom to Harare Hospital instead of the local clinics. For two days the doctors deliberated about the cause of Tom’s swollen leg. The junior doctors said Tom’s leg was broken beyond repair and should be amputated at the knee, others said the amputation should be at the hip. On Monday the senior doctor examined Tom and looked at the x-rays. The bone was not broken, instead it was a boil and it was passing out puss which was now affecting the bones. They had to operate immediately, Monday night around 8 pm. It was successful and Tom had to spend a month in hospital. His school mates were one month ahead with the lessons.

Tom’s parents were down hearted but they were grateful their son had not lost his leg. They believed he would catch up. He was just eleven years old and had all the time to catch up.

At the beginning of March Tom started school. He got notes from his friends to catch up on the subjects the others had done the whole month of February. He studied hard, and was soon up to date with the others. Things were going well until the nationalist politicians ordered all the school children to boycott studies. The idea was for Zanu to prove that they had a mass following and therefore was the only party to negotiate with in the struggle for independence for Zimbabwe.

At first a few children failed to go to school. Tom went to school the second week of the boycott. The whole school had not turned up for lessons except Tom, two girls and another boy. This was out of the 300 plus students at Chitsere School, only four were there for lessons.

The teachers were very angry with Tom and the other three students.

Why did you come to school? The teachers asked. You are supposed to stay at home like the other children. You will get killed if you keep coming to school. Anyway, here are some books to read until lunch time. When you go home do not come to school again until the boycott is over.

At lunch time Tom and the others went home. The next day Tom and some other students tried to go to school but were prevented from doing so by the political youths who made sure no children went to school, observing the boycott. Pauline one of the students who lived near Tom’s house was stopped and clapped several times as she was going to school. All this was in the eyes of Tom.

From there onwards no children went to school for the next two months. The children played football, roamed the streets and did what-ever they wanted. Parents did not know what to do as they wanted their children to get educated, but to force them to go to school was exposing them to the danger of getting beaten or killed by the Zanu youth. The parents themselves would be labelled sell-outs. It was a catch 22 situation. For the children it was a God sent holiday with no date to return to school.

The situation came to a head when the police, with the help of the army started to round up the children wanting to know who was preventing them from going to school. It started in the streets as children were just playing, then the school football grounds after that it was a door to door arrest. No school children were left except those who managed to hide themselves in their parents’ homes.

Tom and his friends were playing football in the sports grounds of Chitsere School when they noticed the police arresting some children playing in another area of the sports ground.

Run, everyone run! Charles nicknamed ‘Mbanyu’ because of his prowess in street fighting. The police are arresting us, run, run!

All the boys and girls turned around and looked at the policemen and soldiers running towards them. There was chaos as all the children ran in different directions going to their homes. The police chased the children while the soldiers drove their Land-Rover trucks from Mbirimi drive into Dumbujena, Mwamuka, Chinamora and Samuriwo streets respectively.

As Tom, Charles ‘Mbanyu’ and others gathered in Mwamuka street, discussing and sharing information about what was happening.

I hear the police and soldiers are arresting school children and taking them to Yotamu police station. Madhani said his eyes wide open.

What do they want? Zuze asked, confused by all the happenings.

They want to know why we are not attending school, why we are boycotting lessons. Jonathan, brother to Charles said. Do not tell the police anything otherwise you will be beaten by the youth of Zanu, you will be labelled a sell-out.

Heeey! Look out here come the police Land –Rovers, Veronica warned the group of children. Run!

All the children scattered in different directions.

Tom and his siblings ran to their home, got inside and locked all the doors. Tom just managed to put a padlock at the back door to make it look like no-one was at home. Tom and his young sister Grace and elder brother Aaron asked the other children, John and James, to hide under the bed, while they acted as look-out, peeping through the window curtain.

The police Land-Rover went by speeding. There was silence and it seemed to be the end of the whole episode. This was a false silence as the police were moving door to door arresting any school-going children, loading them into their trucks sending them to Yotamu police station in Yotamu Way.

Tom, Grace and Aaron were watching from a corner of the curtains by the window when they saw, Charles, Jonathan, Madhani and other children being led from their homes and into the Land-Rovers. Tom and his siblings watched as a policeman looked at their house, it was a tense moment. The policeman advised the others the place was pad-locked indicating there was no-one. The police continued door to door arresting the children.

Tom and his brothers and sister sat silently, scared not knowing what was going to happen or when it would end. They had seen and witnessed many political battles in the township, houses being burnt, petrol bombed, people killed for not carrying a party card, police throwing tear-gas at crowds as they tried to break the clashes between rival political groups.

After almost three hours, children started coming back to their homes. There was excitement, shouting and talking as they exchanged information about what happened to each individual. At this time Tom’s mum came from Mukuvisi river woodlands where she illegally had a small plot of field of maize and other vegetable plants she tended to. Only then did Tom open the door and helped his mom with the food she had brought with her. Tom and his elder brother explained all that had happened during the day. Their mother was pleased at the action taken by the children. She knew they would be able to look after each other as they grew up.

Where are John and James? The mother asked.

They are under the bed. Grace spoke loudly, excited. We asked them to hide there. She went to get them. Aah, they have fallen asleep.

They all laughed and the boys were waken up and came out from under the bed.

Later, after 30 minutes most of the young boys gathered to share