Sun, 15 Oct 2017 10:32:05 +0000
BY BATUKE MWANZA
WHEN the announcement the pupils were longing to hear finally came, there was excitement among them. The grade 12s and Grade 9 were sitting for their final exams in a weeks’ time and pupils who were not writing exams were asked to go on early break until the exams were over.
That meant an early holiday for more than two months for the pupils who were not in Grade 9 or twelve. The pupils of SUNRISE BOYS BOARDING SCHOOL, especially the younger ones in primary school were very excited.
Surely the prospect of going back home to your family should raise the enthusiasm of anybody, especially a primary school kid who has been away from home for close to 3 months. But one particular kid in Grade 6 yellow wasn’t excited about going home, even after being away for close to 3 months. Abuild Ngulube, an eleven-year-old Grade 6 pupil wasn’t keen about going home, he in fact was always very happy when at school than when at home, simply because at school he didn’t have to face his step mother.
His step mother had been a thorn in his little flesh. Ever since his mother died some five years ago and his father remarried, it hasn’t been easy for Abuild. A lot of negativity has been said about step mothers, even songs have been sung about them.
One Zambian Musician, Ballad Zulu once sang a song condemning step mothers of how they subject their step children to all sort of cruelty simply because they are not their biological children “nimfwiti, ni njoka, ni mbobo” (they are witches, they are snakes, they are mambas) the musician doesn’t have kind words for step mothers in his song entitled Step Mother. He even further sung that they trick men they found with children already that they don’t mind marrying a man who already has a child or children, only to come and ill-treat the innocent children.
But why marry someone whether a man or indeed a woman who already has a child or children who you cannot live with? Desperation?
Well in the case of Abuild Ngulube when he was only 6 years old, his loving mother died of cancer after battling with the disease for 3 years. Three years later his father Stone Ngulube remarried.
He married Clementina Chisonta, a 33-year-old single mother. For Mr. Ngulube, a 42-year-old civil engineer, it was his second marriage while Clementina, it was her first time to become a Mrs. For Clementina at 31 years, single unemployed with a child out of wedlock, she would do almost anything to get married. So if a widower, a civil engineer with a child asks for her hand in marriage, she would offer both her arms.
Clementina couldn’t resist the opportunity of becoming Mrs. Ngulube. All the guys she`s been with during her days in Kaunda Square were never marriage material guys and never considered her a marriage material woman either. To them since she was a bar lady, they would just take her out at night clubs and use her. She even became pregnant by one of the guys who at first denied responsibility and it took her and her widowed mother to take him to court where he finally admitted the pregnancy. Admitting the pregnancy was one of thing and taking care of the child was another. The guy who was a minibus conductor rarely saw or cared for the child. When summoned to court he would claim that he had financial problems since he wasn’t in steady employment. Eventually, he vanished never to be seen again. She then found a job as a sales lady in a mini mart in Kaunda Square so as to support her child. Mr. Ngulube a widow then of Mean wood area then fell for her as he became her regular customer when he was shopping in Kaunda Square. Clementina was beautiful with a nice shape and after Ngulube started dating her for a few months he decided to marry her and adopt her son while she also agreed to look after his son as her own too but things changed later when she took total control of him and the house. From living in a poor un-plastered two-roomed house in Kaunda Square, to living in a fancy 3 bedroomed house in Meanwood and Mr. Ngulube even bought her Toyota Runx car. But in return, she ill-treated his son Abuild and treated him to corporal punishment. She bullied her husband into buying the best things for her and her 8 years old son, Chimwemwe. It was worse when the couple welcomed their new born son. She would claim that Abuild was rude and had no respect for her. The best foods, and clothes she would give her own biological children while she found faults on Abuild and would whip him. Chimwemwe her son however had no trouble getting along with his step brother Abuild and would at times sneak food to his bedroom for him to feed. Abuild was bright and academically intelligent and would help his stepbrother with homework. That’s the only part Clementina appreciated her stepson but overall she detested him and wished her dull son was equally or better than Abuild. Mr. Ngulube had always been too busy or too blind rather to see what had been happening in his house and easily believed anything his wife would tell him. His own relatives accused him of being too weak and blind while others believed she used charms on him. Because Abuild was very bright his jealous step mother suggested that he goes to a boarding school. She complained to her husband that since she now had a baby, the last thing she needed was confrontations with his son and boarding school was ideal for him and good for his studies and Mr. Ngulube agreed to send his son to a boarding school, SUNRISE BOYS BOARDING SCHOOL in Ndola rural while Chimwemwe her son went to more expensive school in Chudleigh in Lusaka. It is a wonder how God created an animal called WOMAN. Very fragile, soft and tender but yet possess the most powerful spell of manipulation and can easily influence and manipulate the most powerful men in the world and make him sacrifice his own family for her. Incredible, very incredible. So when Abuild arrived home from boarding school it was the same story. He longed for the day he would go back to school, to be away from his stepmother. One Sunday evening Mr. Ngulube called Abuild so that he can check his progress at boarding school. He was very happy with the boys school performance “ you are very bright my boy, keep up the good work and I promise you, if you pass your Grade seven, I will not only buy you a present but take you to the best school.” He added “I didn’t know you are so bright”. That was one rare moment for Ngulube to suddenly show interest in Abuild. However that very moment only added more hatred to him by his stepmother who saw and heard those remarks from her husband. It ‘boiled’ her temper to the worst that she thought of getting rid of him for good. The following day on a Monday while her husband went for work, she bought a powerful insecticide and mixed it with food so that her stepson could eat. She had earlier taken the boys out to a party to play so that when Abuild consumes the food and the poison takes its affects, she would claim that he was poisoned at the party were they went. As usual, she first fed her son and left the poisoned food in the kitchen with instructions to Chimwemwe not to eat the food because it belonged to Abuild. When Abuild came and was told to get his food in the kitchen, he found Chimwemwe in the kitchen admiring his food “are you hungry?” he asked Chimwemwe, “you can eat, am not hungry, you always sneak food for me when am also hungry, you can eat.” Chimwemwe had a big appetite and always ate more than Abuild despite him been 2 years younger. Meanwhile Clementina who was watching TV was so taken by her favorite show on Zee World channel that she couldn’t care knowing what was happening in her kitchen, until an hour later when she heard her son wailing. When she went to the kitchen she was horrified to find her son vomiting and crying, complaining of stomach pains. When she found out what happened, she panicked and rushed Chimwemwe to the hospital but he died a few minutes upon arrival from food poisoning. She wept uncontrollable and was so confused that she admitted before her husband about what happened and pleaded for forgiveness. If the love he had for her had always blinded him, that very incident immediately opened his eyes. As she was arrested for causing the death of her own son, Ngulube vowed to divorce her and never remarry, but instead concentrate on his children. For Abuild, it was a miracle to be saved under such circumstances and spelled an end of growing pains with a stepmother.
