It was a Monday morning around
07:00am when Banakulu (Grandmother) was seen in the hood slowly making her way
to her tenants. Banakulu was a 68 year old woman who owned a house in the hood
and lived in a different area. She usually sent here grand children to collect
the rentals for her every moth. Everyone in the hood knows that when Banakulu
shows face it meant only one thing, her tenants had not paid rentals and things
would definitely go sour if they did not pay.
As Banakulu approached her house,
word had gone around like bushfire that Banakulu was in the area and everyone
should brace themselves. Everyone started loitering outside their yards whilst
trying hard to act busy and not look obvious that they were waiting to see what
would happen next.
Even though news of Banakulu’s
arrival in the hood spread at lightening speed it did not get to Bana
Kasakula’s house fast enough for her to “take cover”. Banakulu with a stern
expression walked straight to Bana Kasakula’s house ignoring the greetings from
her other tenants. She knocked on the door and Banakasakula was seen coming out
of her house and walking back out with a chair.
She gestured to Banakulu to sit who just ignored her going straight to
the matter at Hand the RENT.
Bana Kasakula explained that the
money was not ready and that her husband had not been paid his salary at work,
Banakulu started shouting on top of her voice notifying anyone who cared to
listen how Bana Kasakula and her husband had defaulted on rentals. She round
the house to each of her tenants knocking on their doors and telling them of
the injustice Bana Kasakula had done to her an old woman.
As soon as Banakulu was done
complaining to all the tenants at her house she walked back to Bana Kasakula’s
door step and asked for her money. No
sooner had Bana Kasakula explained that the money was not ready than Banakulu
begun wailing. She threw herself on the ground screaming and rolling herself
towards the roadside. The absence of a fence at Banakulu’s house attracted the
attention of passersby and those going to work to stop and decipher what was
happening to the poor woman.
She rolled herself all the way to
the roadside and started jumping up and down while screaming and crying. Those
that attempted to calm her down only seemed to worsen the situation. Banakulu
then leaped into the air and begun climbing the only tree in the yard, a
Malberry tree by the roadside. As she ascended the tree people begged her to
get down as she could get injured but she would not hear of it.
Banakulu got to the top of the
tree and sat on a branch and started wailing. She then responded to those that
were begging her to come down that she wouldn’t come down until Bana Kasakula
and her Husband gives her the money. She then turned to directly address her
debtor saying “Nipaseni ndalama zanga after all simwenzeko pamene nenze kuchita
uhule nabazungu ku pamodzi hotel, kuti nipenze ndala yo mangila nyumba iyi” (give me my money, after all you weren’t there
when I was a prostitute exclusively for white people earning money to build
this house).
Banakulu revealed a number of
other unprintables until a man who was
passing by could not take it any more and walked to the tree where she was and
asked how much they owed in rent. She told him K120 and he gave her K150 told
her to get down the tree as he had paid the rent for them. Banakulu with a hint
of a smile got down the tree and walked away, but not before telling Bana
Kasakula that she should pack her things and vacate the house.
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