Father says I should have seen the signs when strangers started coming up to me asking questions about what I was writing. He says I should have been careful when they asked if I was interested in politics and if I was interested in running for parliament.
Instead, I told them, yes, I was interested in politics. Wasn’t everyone? Isn’t that what we’re all supposed to do? Wasn’t something like making a cup of tea in the morning a political act, depending on who is doing it and why they’re doing it? Aren’t we all supposed to take an active interest in what happens around us and in how things are going at home, at school, in church, in the communities we live in, in the country, in the world…?
No. I had no plans for running for parliament. But, yes, I was worried if I’d be able to get a job after college. I was worried about how my parents’ wages seemed to be buying less and less each month. I was worried about how Chitungwiza had become infested with rats. I was worried about how raw sewage was always spilling out onto the streets and about how, when children where playing, they would splash through the sewage to retrieve their footballs. I was worried that the death penalty was still on the statute books. I was worried about how resources that were meant to benefit local communities were being diverted and were being used to benefit local party officials. I was worried about how national resources were being plundered. And I was worried about how corrupt government officials seemed to be above the law, about how they seemed to be the law and could do what they wanted, when they wanted, how they wanted and nothing happened to them.
Father says I should have seen the signs when after one article in which I talked about these things and another heated discussion with another set of strangers, I was withdrawn from teacher training college.
He says it was bad enough that I talked about these things.
He says it was worse that I wrote about them. He says when I felt the itch to write, I should have written bedtime stories for children.
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