When We Lost The Family We Lost It All
We have abandoned the extended family
When we lost the family,we lost it All
They found Melinkosi Moyo hanging,limp and cold in Esigodini.He had hanged himself and condemned himself to death.As dead as the Egodini project.
Only days ago he had ended the life of Prudence Ndlovu in Nkulumane,Bulawayo.At only 24 Prudence had her life viciously snuffed out.
Melinkosi had assumed the role of judge,jury and executioner.The story did trend for a few days,now people have moved on.The death of a young lady by the hand of someone she previously loved,during the first Lockdown of 2021.
We can only speculate at the circumstances that drove him to such extremes.To belittle life,the other and his,so trivialized to end without ceremony,in anguish.
Love gone bad,a bed of roses suddenly sprouting thorns,but roses have always had thorns.It is a matter of knowing seasons of bloom and moments of shedding leaves.As the good book says,there is a time for everything.
Two lives gone,only scars remain and bitterness.Could this have been avoided?
In the old days this relationship would have involved an Aunty there and an Uncle here.An Aunty who would have probably picked out the violent streak in Melusi and warned Prudence to terminate the relationship before it was too late.An Uncle who could have sat down with his nephew Melusi and knocked sense into his head,empathetically declaring that there was life after rejection.
You know those uncles could even source another lady for you in the blink of an eye,they always had a card up their sleeve.The family was our safety net back then,we have trampled on it.Divided by religion,the economy and the individualism of the new age.We are vulnerable,sitting ducks for episodes as gruesome as the one under discussion.
When we lost the family we lost it all.