I was woken up to the sound of a man screaming ndefwaya
ifipe fyandi, mpela ifipe fyandi (I want my things give me my things). It took
about a minute for me to realize I was certainly not dreaming and that indeed
it was in real life that I was hearing two people arguing or fighting. I
reached out for my cell phone looked at the time it was 00:05.
I reached across the other bed and shook my sister who was
already awake being a light sleeper. Flo, Flo have you heard the noise out
there? “Iwe niba Dizo naba kazi bao” she
retorted sounding irritated. I tiptoed to the window which was on her said of
the bed and surreptitiously opened the curtain to peep outside. There I saw my
neighbours husband and wife just as my sister had said. They continued shouting
ndefwaya ifipe fyandi and I closed the curtain and whispered to my sister who
seemed disinterested in the whole fiasco. Nanga ni fipe bwanji vamene bafuna ba
dizo? To which Flo snapped at me saying go and ask him.
The husband continued to say ndefwaya ifipe fyandi to which
the wife said naine ndefwaya dinner set yandi (I also want my dinner set). Dizo
then told the wife he was going to beat her up because his fipe (things) bordered
on life and death. As the argument got
heated I heard the (Nkugulume’s) bachelors of the hood come out and restain
Dizo from beating the wife.
Dizo told them they knew not what they were doing because
all he wanted were his fipe. At that point I opened the window and popped my
head outside so I could have a full view of what was happening seeing as there
were other spectators. As Dizo aggressively followed his wife I implored with
one of the nkugulume’s to stop him. The wife narrated how she had bought a
dinner set on ‘Pay Slow’ (A type of lay-buy done in the hood where you get the
goods and pay slowly for them over an agreed period of time). She complained
that she hadn’t even finished paying for it and Dizo took it to one of his
girlfriends and that she wanted it back.
When Dizo noticed that everyone seemed sympathetic to his
wife, he got angry and insisted she give him his fipe. Everyone seemed to
wonder what that maybe when he said to his wife, “Ba Shazie tamule fwaya
ukumpela ifipe fyandi? Kanshi nga ni ifyo twala filila munsenga”. The wife only
piqued back that she wanted her dinner set and he would have his things.
What happened next made everyone freeze in their tracks.
Dizo took two steps back and got on his high Verandah. He then said “OK mwe ma
neighbours bonse nabali mumayanda umfweni, ifwe tunwa ama ARVs” (attention
neighbours, even those of you that are in your houses listening, we (dizo and
shazie) drink ARVs). Dizo then turned to his wife and said give me my ARVs.
Finally we all knew what the Fipe (things) he was demanding were. Clearly
shocked, Shazie screamed at Dizo saying you are the one who infected me! Not to
be out done, Dizo said “iye ba shazie, nalimitwalako ku clinic mwakwete CD4
count iyalubana elo nomba amatako yafuma mulensamwina”.
In as much as many people have broken the silence on issues
of HIV and AIDS, no one had ever done it in such a fashion. The Nkungulume’s
all looked down and walked away seeming very uncomfortable on the grounds they
stood, I quickly shut the little window I was leaning on and Shazie walked into
her house.
The next morning all the hood seemed to have a weird aura. People
walked around with an awkward expression and even saying hello to shazie seemed
like a chore to many. In the end shazie and dizo divorced and to the amusement
of many he moved it and married Rose the neighbor who used to be Shazie’s best
friend.
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