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Chief Sibasa Filabusi:
At 22, I travelled to Filabusi feeling like Superman.
New apprenticeship. Bright future. Big dreams.
But 30minutes after meeting my girlfriend, I discovered two important things:
1. Life humbles people very quickly.
2. Superman can also become a punctured bicycle tyre:
XX had sorted my arrival logistics.
Three of his nephews were waiting for me.
They welcomed me warmly and escorted me home.
A rooster was slaughtered for me.
Ubuntu culture when a visitor arrives, suddenly one chicken somewhere begins to sense that its future is looking very uncertain.
Also brought groceries, as a well-mannered young man.
Explained purpose of my visit to MaMncane.
Treated like family immediately.
Next morning the eldest boy escorted me to Chief Sibasa area, where my girlfriend lived.
It was about 3 kilometres.
The scenery was beautiful.
Eventually we arrived near the homestead.
My escort told me to remain hidden in the bushes while he went ahead to call her.
Entered stealth boyfriend mode😀.
Thirty minutes later he returned with her and quietly left us alone.
I felt like Superman.
I had kept my promise to come.
I also had good news, the apprenticeship offer.
Future was looking good for us.
In four years, big company house for us.
Everything seemed perfectly aligned.
I held her in my arms with confidence.
Many reassuring kisses but they felt a bit dead.
She didn’t look excited.
In fact she looked like someone holding exam results they were not sure they wanted to open😀😀
I enquired what was wrong.
My dear friends 😩😩…….
I was reduced from Superman to a punctured bicycle tyre.
Instant deflation.
The kind where you don’t even hear the sound, you just realise the air has quietly escaped.
Silence for several minutes.
In my head however, ten radios were playing different stations at the same time.
I was trying to figure out whether this was real life or whether I had accidentally entered a Zimbabwean drama series.
But I looked again at this beautiful girl standing in front of me and immediately told myself something important.
Superman does not panic.
So I switched into strong man mode with a swollen head.
“Don’t worry,” I told her.
“Everything will be fine.”
Meanwhile inside my mind another war had started.
Why did I leave my bank job that paid four times more than the apprenticeship salary I was about to start.
Remember, I was only 22 years old.
At that age I still needed someone to help organise my own life.
But during that one hour we spent together before I returned to the bus stop, something changed in me.
I grew up quickly.
I made a serious decision and communicated it clearly.
“I will return in 3 months to make everything right” I told her.
Three months to raise the money and return.
Because the truth was simple.
This girl was too kind, too beautiful, and she loved me too much for me to suddenly develop Olympic running speed and disappear.
So I made a plan.
My first three months of apprenticeship salary would fund my return.
The savings I still had from the bank job were immediately protected.
I was not going to allow my girl’s dignity to be destroyed further.
She deserved much better than the situation we had created.
Heroic trip to Filabusi, suddenly became a serious reality check.
She was pregnant.
She herself had only just realised it.
Her mother had suspected it weeks earlier, but she did not believe her.
By the time I arrived, she had already missed her period.
And that, my friends, is where the real story begins.
A story of ridicule, embarrassment, struggle from all directions, from people around us, from family, from church, and even from work colleagues and superiors.
But it is also a story of resilience, faith, hope, and love.
A true definition of love & loyalty.
Stay tuned.
Next chapter - Adulthood tests,church judgement, family reactions, workplace gossip, and my return to Filabusi three months later.
Life was just getting started.
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