GRAVES of Innocence

chapter three

Father began to unearth the side of the head in the grave, he put his hand in his pocket and took out a bottle containing black powder, he poured it from the side of the head to the feet, and then he told me to start going around the grave from left to right.

He started, and I followed. We were going around but walking backwards, and after going around a lot, I started feeling very dizzy, my father told me to sit, and he came back to stand where he was standing.

"Let's call his name three times in a loud voice," said Father, but I didn't understand what he meant. That is, a person died many days ago and then he tells me to call his name, since when did the corpse appear? However, I just had to obey what he told me, I called him.

I mentioned his name for the first time, my father was showing me a sign that I should raise my voice, I called him for the second time and then for the third time. Strangely enough, I heard him respond, and I could completely confirm that it was him because I knew his voice and even if he spoke just one word, I recognized him.

I was shaking more than usual, I was turning around because he had reacted, trying to find him. it showed that he is not there in the grave but he is several meters away. When I still didn't believe it, my father pointed at me with his finger and told me to look under the big Johoro tree that was a little to the side of the cemetery.

I looked but I didn't see anything, I turned to my father, and he told me to keep looking without blinking. In a situation I didn't expect, I saw Alfred standing under a tree, his hair was long and very dirty, and the colour of his skin had changed so that you would think he had put charcoal powder on his face. As if he had realized that I had seen him, Alfred turned and started running, shortly after he got lost in the big forest that was on the side of the cemetery.

I was stunned, not believing what I saw, my father turned to me and looked me in the face.

"Do you see now? There are Other things, don't be ridiculous," he said, and I was still stunned, feeling like I was in a terrible dream that I didn't know what the end would be.

My father had to hold my hand and start pulling me, my mind came back to normal, I was still turning to look at where Alfred had disappeared. I will come to explain more about the circumstances of Alfred's death where now I began to believe that it was not a normal death. My Father had opened my eyes.

We went back home and found that people are still increasing at the Mwankuga tragedy.

We went all the way home but since I still had many questions about the old man's death, I had to escape from my father again and go to the disaster. This time, the people were already outside in line, each with a sad face.

The act of me just appearing in that area, I was surprised when people stopped everything they were doing and stared at me. Even those who were crying, all became silent, they were looking at me. I did not understand why this situation had happened, great fear spread in my heart.

In the distance, I started to hear whispers while people kept looking at me. An old man who in the past I have heard that he has a habit of stealing money from people with the magic of 'take it and bring it', stood up and spoke nervously.

"What your father did, he saw that it was not enough and decided to send you to continue your magic here. This year you will read the numbers, and tell him he is frying himself with his own oil. the end is near," said the old man, causing almost all the people in the village to support him, a big commotion ensued while others stood up and wanted to come and beat me.

It was then that I understood why people were looking at me with low eyes when I arrived at the disaster. However, they felt that my father had sent me to do magic! Poor thing, I was left shaking with fear because I knew nothing about magic or spells.

In order to save my life, I had to run away, they continued to accompany me with harsh words accusing my father and the whole family of being involved in religious matters and that we supposedly killed old Mwankuga due to our dispute over the farm boundary.

I returned home with my stomach, the first person to see me was my father who was sitting outside our house, on a large log of a mvule tree preparing his medicine. he was surprised to see me running while crying. He stopped me but I didn't stop for fear that those people would be following me, I went inside and went to lock myself in our room.

I regretted not listening to what he had told me, I was shaking with great fear in my heart. I kept locking myself in my room all day, asking myself many unanswered questions.

According to my father's explanation, if Mwankuga had died, then our teacher Mwashambwa who was with him in that incident in the forest would also have died, which was a little difficult for me to believe.

What happened that day, starting from the forest where we had gone to dig for medicine with my father, the death of Mwankuga, which happened in the cemetery and the noise of people who were accusing our family of being magical, made me start to look at my father with a different eye.

So that day passed with so many thoughts about the events that happened, every time I thought, I missed the answers. There was a lot of talk in our village about my father's magic.

I was deeply ashamed in my heart. Three days later, Mwankuga was buried in the village cemetery while his tragedy was dominated by superstitious incidents here and there that still many people continued to believe that our family was involved.

Finally, Mwankuga was buried and a little bit of the noise we were getting started to decrease. However, when the day came to go to school (at that time I was still studying at Makongorosi Primary School, Chunya) I encountered a lot of stigma at school.

My classmates used to isolate me and call me a witch, they accused our family of being responsible for the deaths of many people who were dying in a confusing environment in our village. However, as my father taught us all family members, we were not supposed to argue with anyone, I listened to all the accusations without answering anything.

My greatest passion was seeing teacher Mwashambwa because according to my father, he was with the late Mwankuga the day they were fighting magically with my father in the forest. I was very eager to see the teacher because I wanted to learn something about magic and witches.

I believed that just by looking at him, I could discover something that was hidden behind his life. However, later when it was time for the math period, the class teacher came and told us that teacher Mwashambwa was very sick so he could not come to school or enter the class until he recovered.

"But it's true!" I found myself yelling loudly, a statement that caused all the students and the teacher to turn to me where I was sitting, and I heard groans in the background dominating the whole class.

"What is true?" our class teacher, Madam Timbuka asked as she followed me where I was sitting. I felt a great shame mixed with fear, I did not know what to answer that teacher because, in my mind, I had received the information about the illness of the teacher Mwashambwa and what my father told me that the teacher was a witch and they were collaborating with the late Mwankuga.

"I'm talking to you Togolai, what is true?" asked Madam Timbuka again, this time she was very close to me where I was sitting, I started to cry as the fear could not hide on my face