“Were you kissing a vampire ama hiyo chuma ilikuwa moto aje?”
I joked, watching her smile get replaced by a frown and tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, what happened?” I asked.
After a long sigh, she briefly told me of her violent brother. At that instant, I felt my stomach churn, and anger boil at someone I did not even know.
Since then, I’ve often wondered, what could push someone so much against to wall that the best they can do us resort to violence?
There’s a single mum who left her boyfriend for being violent. Another lady had to leave only when she was close to death.
A cousin of mine, male, was so used to the verbal assault that he got into a comfort zone, afraid to leave or look for someone else.
As a kid, I recall some neighbour seriously belt-whipping the wife for reasons I can’t recall. As this was happening, my older cousin was sat in their sitting room, doing nothing. I remember wondering “atachapa Cousin yangu pia?”
I told myself if that happened, despite my size, I’d storm in and wrestle him. As for the wife, nilisema “ya wapendanao huwezi yajua”
Another neighbour used to beat up the house help, who happened to be her niece with a cooking stick, yaani mwiko!
Remember the guy whose face was disfigured by the wife a while back?
Ni lazima tuwe around violent people surely?