Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000
SUDDENLY, the passengers at Mandevu Main Bus Stop in Lusaka saw a plump young woman in a blue track suit coming from the direction of a parked IFA truck and calling after a young man who was moving a short distance ahead of her. “Stop there!” she shouted. “You, stop there!” The young man, whose outward appearance and manner of walking was typical of the infamous bus stop pickpockets with scars all over his face, pretended not to hear and moved on. “I say stop, don’t you have ears?” the woman shouted angrily at him. “Stop there.
I want to talk to you.” The young man later stopped, albeit reluctantly, and looked behind. “What do you want?” he asked. “Why are you calling me? I don’t know you.” The woman looked at the young man from head to foot and asked, “Tell me, what did you say to me just a few minutes ago? I want you to repeat to me every word you said.” “What did I say to you?” the young man responded defensively. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
WOMAN: “Don’t try to be clever. I have no patience for fools. Why did you pass those silly comments at me? Did I quarrel with you?” YOUNG MAN: “I don’t know what you are talking about. And what’s it that has offended you anyway?” WOMAN: “You called me a prostitute just because I did not respond to your advances. You even added a silly comment that I was proud for nothing because I was not even beautiful. Why did you say all that rubbish to me?” YOUNG MAN: “And if I said that so what?” WOMAN: “Don’t you realise that I can beat you for that?” YOUNG MAN(SHOCKED): “What? Me being beaten by a woman? What kind of nonsense is that?
You cannot be serious.” He laughed mockingly. But the woman told the young man that this was no laughing matter. “I am serious,” she warned. “Dead serious. You can’t insult me for nothing. I think you are stupid.” That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back: a woman calling him stupid and in full view of so many people around! No man worth his salt could tolerate such an insult from a member of the fairer sex and the young man looked determined to put her in her right place. He grabbed the woman by her track suit top and shook her roughly. He slapped her across her face while still holding her tightly. “Woman, calling a man stupid?” he shouted. Another slap. “Learn to have manners.” But to the amazement of the onlookers, the woman managed to free herself from the young man’s grip and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
She then gave him a head butt that sent him flying to the ground. That sent wild cheers from the onlookers. As he lay on the ground flat on his back, the powerful woman squatted on his knees while she twisted his fingers. This act apparently caused severe pain because soon afterwards, the young man started screaming for help. The scene was reminiscent of a women’s wrestling match one sometimes sees on television screens except that this one involved a man and a woman, with the latter enjoying the upper hand. When it became apparent that the woman was winning the fight, a smartly dressed man in a dark suit jumped out of the parked IFA truck and went over to intervene. He held the angry woman by the hand and asked her to spare the “fool’s ” life because he had now realised his stupidity. The man turned out to be the woman’s boss.
After giving the young man a last kick in the buttocks, the woman agreed to let go of him, saying, “I hope you will respect women from now on.” She and her boss then jumped onto the truck, with she – can you believe this? – as the driver! People just couldn’t believe their eyes when, upon joining the nearby Great North Road, the woman propelled the machine at top speed heading towards Kabwe…… The author is a Lusaka-based media consultant who also worked in the Foreign Service as a diplomat in South Africa and Botswana. For comments, sms 0977425827/0967146485 or email: pchirwa2009@yahoo.com
