Grandpa can't you see that your time is up.

DISCLAIMER
This story is pure fiction about my Grandpa Hamudiamwe and no one else. Any resemblance it might have to your own Zimbabwean or African grandpa or any person you know is pure coincidence. Therefore all forms of intelligence should take it as such, a fiction story about Grandpa Hamudiamwe and no one else so that they don't make me disappear into thin air like Jestina Mukoko.

I have a grandpa who is 84years old and is chief of our village. He should be relaxed in an aged people's home by now but is still holding on to the threads of power in our village albeit against the majority of the clan's and most of the villagers' wishes. Twenty-eight years ago grandpa liberated the village from foreigners who had taken over the village and in so doing won the hearts of many villagers which is why back then the villagers voted him to be the chief of the village. As chief of the village he appointed helpers to help him run the village efficiently and most of these helpers were incompetent people whose only credentials were being a war hero. The result was that instead of developing the village, the helpers became corrupt and ran down the village into a total mess. Hospitals closed, schools became playing grounds, the water in the village became so dirty and germ-infested that it caused cholera among many other diseases, energy to cook with and use in the industries in the village became scarce resulting in production in the industries being ground to a standstill, roads became filled with potholes, the village which used to be very clean became a health hazard and to make things worse ethics and professionalism in the uniformed forces flew out of the window and resulted in no rule of law in the land. The most prominent thing grandpa did for the village during his reign was takeover farms from the foreigners who had settled in the village many decades ago and gave those farms to the local villagers. According to him it is that fact and not his corrupt and incompetent helpers that has caused the total mess the village is in because he says the foreign settlers and their relatives overseas then started acting vindictively towards the village system. Most of those villagers that he gave the farms to did not fully utilise the farms and the result was hunger in the village.

If Grandpa was a democrat, he would not hold it against me if I were to tell him point blank the mistakes he made when he was at the helm but he happens to have been indoctrinated so strongly by the communists who helped him liberate the village, such that he doesn't take kindly to rebukes or anyone saying anything against him. It is those Marxist/Leninist theories of a one party state that the communists instilled into his head that has caused a lot of blood to be shed during his reign because he believes in killing the opposition so as to maintain a one party state. At one time another tribe in the village didn't want to unite with him and his tribe to make a one party state and he ordered that many members of that tribe be butchered mercilessly in ways that are so inhumane and would cause those of a nervous disposition to have heart attacks. The head of that tribe and members of the tribe were then left with no option but to unite with him and his tribe so as to save the people's lives. Then there was the time when he was voted out of power and decided to cling to the power by unfair means, ordering his followers to cheat during the vote counts so that there is a repeat of the voting process. He then unleashed a campaign of terror in the village so as to intimidate the villagers to vote for him in the next round of voting. The result was the opponent withdrawing from the voting process so as to save people's lives. Under his rule, many people's lives have been lost due to their involvement in village politics and it is that fact that makes the villagers fear him more than they fear a pack of lions.

As I write this, people in the village are dying from hunger and cholera and grandpa is acting indifferently torwards that fact. It pains me to see my fellow villagers in pain, suffering and dying and knowing that this will continue as long as Grandpa continues to cling onto power. Most of the other villages in the land are fed-up with Grandpa and his communist actions, just as most of the people in the village he rules are fed-up with him, but no one dares tell him that to his face. Can't he see that he has overstayed his welcome? I bet it is the sturborn and "by ginya" gene he inherited from his Malawian dad who must have been related to Dr Kamuzu Banda that makes him ignore the fact that he is no longer wanted. I wonder were he put his pride. If he had any pride and a sense of honour he wouldn't cling to the chieftainship when he knows very well that he is no longer wanted.

"Grandpa can't you see that your time is up," I long to tell him those words but am afraid to because most people who tried telling him that are now either Saints in heaven or ghosts roaming the dark streets and his residence during the night.