The Sunday Mail
Rosenthal Mutakati
HIDING behind reeds and thickets to watch women bath in Mukuvisi River, including swimming with a coterie of friends after a heavy downpour, were among yours truly’s favourite pastimes during the rainy season while growing up in the dusty streets of Glen Norah.
We frolicked in the dirty water oblivious of the risk of drowning, contracting diseases and being attacked by crocodiles.
Called “kumubhagu”, “kubhaguja”, “kutuhwina”, “kurova muchaira”, “duhwinho”, among a host of other names, swimming was quite fun.
A good number of young boys would bunk school lessons to spend time on the banks of Mukuvisi River, where most families grew maize, vegetables and other crops to augment their earnings.
Though we regularly got beaten up for swimming and missing school, as children we never relented, for the forbidden fruit was sweet.
While there were good swimmers, there were bad ones too. Bad swimmers became the butt of jokes for gulping water in what was known as “kunwa zvikapu”.
It was during these swimming excursions that we watched some budding romances blossom into marriages. There were also times when people would settle their scores on their way to the river.
Gentle reader, though memorable, these trips were not without challenges. At times we would be cut by discarded bottles while swimming, and the women we would have watched while bathing would beat us silly.
“Vana vasina kurairwa. Nhasi munotiona,” the women would shout while chasing us.
Older boys would occasionally give chase. They would also steal our money and take our clothes while we were swimming.
This incensed our mothers and earned us worse beatings. Like fire, water can be a good servant and a bad master too.
There are so many challenges associated with the wet season that people must always be on the lookout. Many people are dying countrywide by attempting to cross flooded rivers.
There are countless reports of people who are throwing caution to the wind through trying to cross the flooded Limpopo River to South Africa.
Borders have been closed to the travelling public to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Motorists are also putting people in harm’s way by crossing flooded bridges.
Only last week, six people drowned after their vehicle was swept away as they tried to cross a flooded river in Gweru.
So far, only two bodies have been recovered amid reports police have abandoned searching for the other victims. People simply have to wait for the water to subside. Further, the rains have not spared Harare’s old trees, some of which are falling and rendering roads inaccessible.
Authorities urgently need to attend to this, while people need to avoid sheltering under trees when it is raining.
It is, however, a boon for farmers, including thieves too, who conveniently use the rains as cover for their activities. So it is now advisable to sleep with one eye open.
Inotambika mughetto.
