BEWARE THE IDES OF NOVEMBER

Nichole Ngwenya- As the month of November draws to an end, one cannot help but to breathe a sigh of relief. Each day in November is a nightmare that is filled with great uncertainty as one can’t help but wonder if they will make it through the day or if they will see the next sunrise. 2020 has seen a worsening bloodbath throughout the country with the horrific deaths of prominent figures like Cal-Vin  and Genius in the entertainment circles, an increased in gender based violence related murders and even worse road traffic accidents and suicides and cruel, gruesome murder!. With all that is happening around us, one is tempted to actually believe that the curse of November does really exist, and if so, what really happened that triggered the curse and what should be done to release Zimbabwe from this curse.

November is associated with dark superstition that goes beyond measure as during this month everything with links to the spiritual and ancestral world of indigenous traditions temporarily ceases to function. The ancestors are on leave and without the ancestor’s blessings, all social, economic and political aspects of human existence are bound to be followed by doom and gloom. From a spiritual point of view, Zimbabwe is still to undergo rebirth at the age of forty years, yea you read it right, the same time it took the Israelites to move from Egypt to the promised land, hence most spiritualists believe that Zimbabwe is headed to her own Canaan at the rate at which things are going, this is certainly the eleventh hour as an ancient Ndebele saying that goes like “Ingungu ma isikhala kakhulu isizadabuka.” Is the horror that we are leaving in a sign of that the end of suffering is drawing closer or it’s just a flicker of hope that keeps people going so that they don’t suffer from depression.
In 2018, on the 15th of November, 42 lives were lost in Gwanda after a South Africa bound Brooklyn Express caught fire. Now in 2020, we are witnessing almost on a daily basis, public transport sector experiences an accident that leaves scores of people hospitalised. The murders alone are blood rushing especially the one which happened in Mzilikazi surbub in Bulawayo where the corpse was abandoned without a scalp or eye. As if this is not enough deaths, our grief has been increased by the number of mines which are collapsing and trapping people underground, with about 30 informal miners feared dead after a deadly mine collapse in Bindura just a few days back. This makes one just wish that November ends already.
People from all over the country have come up with all sorts of explanations but is it really a curse or its just fires injuiced by global warming which has recently in the risen significantly because of human nature to be negligent? Maybe it has something to do the current state of the roads or general oversight in the case of the increase in the case of road carnages. Karma, some are crying, all this is happening as a result of the atrocities committed against the minority and blood of the innocent is crying for justice from beyond the graves.
They say ancestors were greatly insulted and they need to be appeased to stop the horrible deaths which have been experienced in the last two weeks. Or maybe it’s just another chapter of “Billionaires Club” with some boosting their coffers for the coming year. All these are nothing but just assumptions. Myth or Reality, we are still to figure which one it is between the two. The world is watching and waiting in order to judge which of the theories would be proven first.