TERRIBLE DAYS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Tonight, I'm a bird of paled color on a saddened evening with a song of sorrows in its beak. I cannot help but ponder the unbelievability of these realities that now surrounded me. Although it may not be new under the sun but it is the first time of seeing things fall apart before my eyes.
My name is Samuel oparaji I am Nigerian but my quest for survival had brought me to South Africa. Back home I was a young writer but the pressure of hunger - our common enemy - was in need of rapt attention than my talents.
Its been seven years since I moved over and started out by getting used clothes and spreading it on the street of Alexandria township, Johannesburg. The sales was high and so was the profit and now I sell all kinds of designer wears in an attractive shop. All thanks to intense and consistent hardworking, I also just got married about a year ago and my wife is very pregnant. There's no doubt that this country is conducive for economic growth. The street is dominated by fellow Africans and I'm best friend with "IZ" the intelligent Zambian who sells electronic devices.
Sadly, destructive tensions has built up in indigenes as they claimed we were amassing their own wealth for our interests. Their claim was not true as it is known that 80% the country's wealth is controlled by few elite white men since Nigeria for instance contributed immensely to their freedom from apartheid. Therefore the success of minor businesses from fellow Africans is neither a threat nor a problem.
On a dreaded day some gangs of indigenous came and bought goods without paying and it was IZ who was courageous enough to ask them questions, however they beat him to the pulp and burned majority of his goods, my wife suggested that we close up and leave but I calmed her fears unaware of the immediate danger we sat it. Instead of help from the local authorities we had anticipated, a more violent group came around with a aim of collateral damage. They fired guns at harmless people, burnt down whole shops and all our goods and in the bid for escape my pregnant wife was caught in the fire, I escaped slightly to a broad realization that I have lost everything, my family, my life labor and my savings, my friends, my peace and everything that accords to life. It is in the darkness of this gruesome fate that I write with sheer unutterable grief nested in my poor soul, I dare to have courage for the envoy my country has promised but either I survive this trauma or not I hope my tragic experience will inspire those in power to stop the malady called xenophobia.
© Ganiyu Taofeek
#AnsaNonFictionWriterOfTheWeek
