AMHVoices: Letter to my slain daddy

By The NewsDay | Jun. 26, 2017 | 3 Min read

Daddy, you were not sick or having any form of physical weakness, but in one night they killed you as if they were slaughtering an animal. What crime had you committed?

Dear Dad

I am Raymond Chishamba, son of Morgan Chishamba, who was murdered during the 2008 presidential election re-run.

June 19 marked nine years after he was murdered and I have written the letter below in memory of my father. He may never read it, but still I have addressed it to him.

Daddy, it’s Raymond. I was looking for your address, but couldn’t find it. I have heard that you are in a beautiful place. If that is the case, I know most probably you might fail to recognise me for I have grown taller and I even spot a beard now.

It’s so unfortunate that you left or you were forced to leave without seeing me grow this far.

A lot has happened from the day you left, daddy. It’s been nine years now, some good, some bad, but on the good I have been making you proud. I continued in the path of school that you said I should continue in and I have been successful.

I’m graduating this year. I am now an engineer, daddy. I know you wanted me to be a doctor, but things change in life, daddy, here I am.

I did something more important, daddy, I gave my life to Christ and this has changed my life completely.

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My view of the world has totally changed. I have discovered that the world is so ruthless, daddy, it’s full of people who have no compassion for widows, orphans, the fatherless, the sick and the suffering.

I believe you are in a better place now. I hope you found peace there. I hope all the wounds and damages they did to your physical body were healed in the glorified body. I hope you are happy.

I believe the people who took your life did not know the hole that they created in our lives – your family – that will never be covered. It took me years to understand that I would not hear the sound of your hooting at the gate coming back home.

It’s painful that I kept on dreaming about you, but waking up to only see your face hanging on a picture frame on the wall.

Daddy, you were not sick or having any form of physical weakness, but in one night they killed you as if they were slaughtering an animal. What crime had you committed? Tears can’t stop coming out of my eyes.

Did they know that you were a father, a grandfather, a husband, an uncle, a brother, a Zimbabwean citizen with the right to live?

Did they know that they were killing a breadwinner?

Did they know that when you called saying Ndakusvika

kuMbudzi (I am nearly at the Mbudzi roundabout) someone was waiting for you at home, and she had already prepared your supper.

Did they listen to you cry Asi murikuda kundiurairei? (Why do you want to kill me?)

If you had committed a crime, why didn’t they take you through the justice delivery processes?

Murderers and criminals hiding behind mob justice! But it’s okay, daddy, we celebrate your life!

You are brave.

You are a fighter.

You are a hero.

You are a superstar.

Above all, you are a father.