Sun, 11 Feb 2018 11:49:39 +0000
By Batuke Mwanza
“ALFA….Alfa….where are you? Mr. Malik called him. “I’m here bwana” he answered as he hurried towards him from his servant’s quarters.
“You were calling me boss? He asked.” “Yes” said Mr. Malik. “You remember what I told you and Phiri last week that I was leaving for Mumbai in India for two months?
“Yes bwana” he responded, “well Donna (wife) and I will be travelling next week and since we will be out of the country for two months, I will pay you and Phiri two months in advance salary and my wife and I have bought you each a bag of meal-meal and some relish.” “Thank you bwana” said Alfred.
“By the way Alfa, when are you going to bring your family? Alfred smiled sheepishly, “very soon bwana.” “How soon Alfa, “you left your family in the village in 1991 and this is 1997, you don’t pay rent here and you are working, what are you waiting for? Mr. Malik pressed.
“I just had some problems and debts to pay and I have issues with my wife’s family” said Alfred. “Well, tomorrow is Friday and Phiri asked for permission to go to Kabushi Compound to spend a night with the mother of his son and give her some money and then come back the following day on Saturday and I have permitted him.”
“You have never asked for permission to see your wife and children.” “Anyway, I just wanted to inform you that we are leaving on Saturday morning and I will give you and Phiri your money tomorrow morning, make sure you look after yourselves and the house very well,” said Mr. Malik.
Then on a Saturday morning around 08:00 hrours, Mr. Malik and his wife left the country for India.
Alfred Kinayoo and Hardson Phiri had been working for Mr. Malik, a Zambian of Indian origin for five years in Ndola’s Kansenshi area as housekeepers. Kinayoo popularly known as ‘Alfa’ or ‘Wenge’ (because of his love for Wenge Musika songs) used to leave in Senanga, Western Province of Zambia with his wife and three children before leaving for the Copperbelt Province in search of employment.
He promised his wife that as soon as he finds a job on the Copperbelt, he would send money to Senanga to her so that she and the family could also join him. But Kinayoo spent seven years away from his family in Senanga without sending her the money after securing his job.
In 1990, he and two of his colleagues left Senanga for Chingola to work in the mines. Even after he got the job under ZCCM (Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines) he only wrote a letter once to his wife, informing her that he just got the job and would send money to her, but he would go partying and womanising, until he was broke. The fact was that Kinayoo was a reckless man.
Whenever, he got his salary, he would party until he had nothing and would get himself into debts. It is no wonder why even after working for two years in the mines despite having a well-paying job in the mines, he had nothing to show for.
Ever since he was a youth in Senanga, his family always complained about his reckless behaviour. Even after he impregnated a school girl and was forced to marry, many thought he would mature in marriage life but he was still playful and reckless despite having three children. In 1990, when he left for the Copperbelt with his friends to work in the mines when he was 32 years old, his mother expected him to change while his father got worried that city life might make him worse, his father’s fears became a reality.
Kinayoo worked for the mines for two years before being fired for reporting for work drunk as his appointing authorities viewed him as a risk to the company in the mines and himself. However, fortune follows fools, as just after a month and some weeks he was lucky to find another job as a house keeper at Mr. Malik’s house in Ndola. It was Hardson Phiri, a friend he met in Chingola who told him that an Indian man was looking for two housekeepers in Ndola. A family friend of the Indian, who knew Phiri very well, recommended him to him, and Phiri in turn invited Kinayoo, and the duo started working for Mr. Malik in Ndola.
When Mr. Malik asked Kinayoo when he would let his family join him, he would give excuses after excuses. He didn’t tell Mr. Malik that in fact, he left his family two years before he started working for him.
As usual, old habits die hard and Kinayoo continued with his usual lifestyle. Phiri, 10 years younger than Kinayoo was still a bachelor and although equally a drunk, he supported his child financially and the woman he impregnated unlike Kinayoo who deserted his family and turned his wife into a “Muka Muchona” (a term used to describe women or wives whose husbands left them for greener pastures in the city).
Five years had passed on and the duo were still working for Mr. Malik, then Mr. Malik had to travel to India for two months leaving Kinayoo and Phiri with the responsibility of looking after his house.
His two children were schooling abroad in the United Kingdom so Phiri and Kinayoo had all the freedom of doing anything they wanted.
One afternoon a few days after Mr. Malik left for India, a young female vendor selling tomatoes and vegetables wandered by the yard advertising her goods. But Kinayoo was not only interested in her merchandise. He immediately proposed to her and promised her marriage. She accepted and the two became lovers.
A week later, she started spending nights at Kinayoo’s servant’s quarter.
Mr. Malik had two servant’s quarters in his yard which Kinayoo and Phiri used. Kinayoo would party with his lover and come late in the evenings. Phiri and other friends of Kinayoo didn’t approve of the relationship as they considered his young lover who was in her late teens as too young for an almost 40-year-old man like him and she seemed too independent.
They asked him to consider knowing her background and how her family would allow her the freedom of spending nights out with strangers. Kinayoo defended himself saying he would soon visit her family. “Mukazi sa chepa” (a woman is never too young) he would argue.
The young woman whose name was Rhoda cleaned and cooked for Kinayoo and he felt relieved to have her. After cohabiting with Rhoda for two weeks, he left her alone one Friday evening, going for his usual clubbing. Meanwhile, Phiri had earlier informed Kinayoo that his child was sick in Kabushi and would spend a night there. On a Saturday morning, when Kinayoo went to his servant’s quarters after sleeping out came to a shock awakening when he discovered that his property apart from his bed were gone. He was robbed, and Rhoda was nowhere to be found. When he asked some neighbours, one Garden boy in the neighbourhood, told him that very early in the morning, he met Rhoda his “wife” with a Television set and she told him that she was taking it for repairs. Poor Kinayoo was left clueless on what measures to take as it was clear she had robbed him of his property and all the money he kept in the house. Tears ran down his face whilst he was alone. How was he going to survive until his boss came back from India? He wondered. He also thought about his family in Senanga. All this wouldn’t have happened if he only brought his family and listened to advice.
Based on a true story
