Heartbreaking by Angella Momba

This was not the kind of thing I expected to happen; but it did, and still it gives me the chills when I talk about it. It was a very cold night for goodness sake, we bundled up, sat on our wooden chair with my auntie listening to the news and warming ourselves with the charcoal burner in our midst; because of the charcoal burner we left the door a bit open so that we could not suffocate and that’s when they found the chance to do what they craved with my auntie. Two men came in, first one turned off the candle while the other pushed me to the side. The only light there was remaining, was coming from the charcoal burner and it was enough for me to see two more men come in; one grabbed my auntie’s hands the other grabbed her legs and the third one grabbed her mouth as she tried to scream.


The fourth man started undressing my dear auntie as she struggled and then he noticed me in the corner; he grabbed me so hard and threw me out and then locked the door.

I kept bagging on the door but no one paid attention. I decided to go to the neighbours but they weren’t there. It immediately started raining, left with no alternative. I just sat there in the rain, crying.

That was the most horrible night of my life. I always thought that life got easier as you grew up, but what I witnessed on that one night changed my perception altogether. And now life is not what I pictured as a little girl, it has all changed not even to bad but to worse.

I blame my uncle for what happened, in fact, it all started when I was in form one and was sent to live with my uncle who was at that time living with his wife and two children who were both his. That was not so common in our village. People envied him and that gave him a pompous behaviour. He went around bragging about it to everyone he met. People soon got tired of it. Had he known the consequences of his actions, he would not have done that because in the end he was the one who lost.