Letters From a Retired Miner – 12

I want to talk about what happened one day when I went to visit my son in Kitwe. My son Bwembya has given me a granddaughter. Her name is Maria Fostina Bwembya. I am very proud of her. I was looking forward to seeing her with her brother and her parents.

Our bus had a puncture 10 kilometres from the Chembe Ferry on the Luapula River. The bus had no spare tyre. The conductor took the punctured tyre to the nearest village. He took four hours, so we arrived in Kitwe in the evening. I found my son and his family eating their supper in front of the television. Fostina and  Bwembya junior were lying on the floor with their plates in front of them. Their parents were sitting in the big chair.

What was shocking to me is what they were watching. They were watching the news where they showed pictures of people who died in a war lying on the road. Can you imagine that? People are eating and watching dead people?

South African daisy -Osteospermum_ecklonis

In our Bemba tradition, children are not allowed to look at dead bodies just like that. It is a heavy thing for children to look at some things. Children are not encouraged to look at a dead person and they are not allowed to look at an adult who is naked (When I was a child, we were told that if you look at a naked man or woman, you will go blind!).

I remember the day I saw a dead person for the first time. I was 10 years old. It was a Tuesday and I was walking to school with my friends from my village. Those days we walked a long way to get to school. The road was not tarred. Each time a truck passed, we ran off the road and stood in the grass. We covered our nose with our hand because of the dust.

Chilufya was a boy from a village near my village. He was walking with his friends when a truck came along the road at high speed. There was a ditch on the side of the road where he was walking. He decided to run to the other side of the road before the truck got there. Sadly, he was too slow. The truck struck him down.

When we came around the corner, we saw a lot of people on the road. Children were crying and women were wailing. I pushed through the people to see who was on the floor. That is when I saw Chilufya lying there.

His books were scattered around him. His leg was very bent and his face was covered in dust and blood. He was not breathing. It looked like a bad dream. Everything seemed to go very quiet in my head. My body felt strange as if I was somewhere else. It was as if my skin was walking on my back. I have never seen anything so bad.

I started crying. I did not even go to school. I was not able to eat food for three days. My mother was telling me to eat, my father asked her to even get me my favourite food, fried eggs, but I found it very difficult to eat.

In the night, I woke up crying like a baby.

That was a long time ago and I have seen many dead people after that but I will never forget that day when I first saw a dead body.

When I saw my granddaughter watching dead people and eating her supper, I remembered that first time I saw a dead body. My question to you is this? Will this make people to have the same respect for human life or not? I don’t think so.

I talked to my son about showing dead people on TV. He said he understands. After that day, he checks what kind of film is showing at the time of eating so that he will keep his daughter from seeing such pictures so many times that it will not make her sick.

My friends, if you have a child, are you helping him or her to grow up with a human heart or are you training him to be like a soldier who can kill with one hand and eat with the other hand? Is that the kind of child you want to carry your family name or to be your neighbour?

I don’t think you will go blind if you look at a naked adult, but those stories helped us to grow up with good manners. You can tell your child different stories but inside your heart you must pray that your child will grow up with the heart of a kind person.

I want my granddaughter to be deeply touched by the death of another human being when she sees her first dead body. It is a heavy thing. That is how it must be. It is what makes us care about our next door neighbour.

The day your daughter is able to eat while looking at a dead body is a day when you must weep about her future. Such a daughter will not care if she finds someone starving on the street or if someone is crying because he has no home.

She will just carry on eating.

Have you ever seen a dead body?

What did you do?

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