Dear Nephew Milambo GREETINGS from this very confused city.
I hope that by the grace of Limatunda you and your young family are doing okay, and that by the grace of the ancestors all the people in my beloved Ukumbisiganga are all in good shape. Here in the city, there is nothing much to report my dear boy, apart from the fact that next week your aunt will be coming over to Tabora.
She reminded me yesterday that the due date for the birth of your child is fast approaching, and that she has to be there when it finally happens. The way she was telling me, it was as if your wife is expected to give birth next week instead of the middle of next month, but as I told you before, she prefers to be there early so that she can assist your wife.
Once again I tried to convince her that we should come together to Ukumbisiganga, but once again she flatly refused, and told me that these are female affairs and I was not supposed to poke my nose, in short she was telling me to back off.
I know you are excited as you wait for the birth of your new child my dear boy, and it is good to be excited, because there is nothing more precious than bringing a new soul into the world, troubled as it is. I think after your wife delivers and your aunt has returned, I will make plans so that I can also come and lay my old eyes on my new grandchild, and offer my thanks to the Nyamwezi ancestors.
I will tell you the date my dear boy. I was told that mzee Salim went to join the ancestors this week after he fell from a moving motorcycle, and I was saddened by the fact that he died a very lonely old man. I think you know the story of mzee Salim, and how his wife of almost 50 years left him and eloped with a lorry driver from Uyui.
When I heard the story, I really felt depressed and sad for the fellow, because I have known that old man since when we were all young, and you should know that we went to the same missionary school in Urambo.
My dear boy, sometimes you look at how things happen to someone and you wonder how Limatunda can allow them to happen, and you even wonder whether the ancestors have decided to punish that person for some things they did in secret.
Because I understand that when his wife left him and his only son died soon afterwards, mzee Salim fell into serious depression, and eventually he fell into deep alcoholism, and that is how he met his end, because I am told that he was dead drunk when he fell from that moving motorcycle and broke his neck.
Anyway, I hope Liwelelo will have mercy on him and forgive him where he went wrong, and I hope too that the ancestors have welcomed him with open arms in their midst.
My dear son, I think you remember the experience of the last time when you came to this confused city, and we came across those boys who have given themselves the name of a rodent, the ‘Panya Road’.
I know you remember how despite the fact that the blood of Chief Mirambo runs in our veins, we were forced to flee for cover when more than 20 of those young hooligans invaded. It is sad but those boys are still around my dear boy, and a few days ago they invaded Kawe, where apart from robbing and injuring several people, they killed one innocent girl.
My dear boy, I don’t know where this world is heading to, but I believe that the modern day parent is responsible for some of these chaos we are experiencing today. Because some of these people who call themselves parents, actually most of them, have failed in this exercise of parenthood, that is why we have raised, and continue to raise, a generation of miscreants.
People believe that pampering your child is translated into love, not knowing that it is the biggest mistake they make, because I still believe caning your child will not result into murder. “I was raised in very difficult conditions, and I did not have much, that is why I don’t want my child to go through what I went through,” these dot com parents are fond of saying, but they forget that the tough life they faced under their parents is what shaped them into the people they are today.
My dear boy, you have that handsome Nyamwezi son who is looking up to you as a father, don’t for one moment believe that giving him everything he wants is love, you will raise a man who is used to getting whatever he wants, and he will eventually be a burden to the society.
Because these boys calling themselves Panya Road have parents, and they know what their children are doing, but they are powerless to control them, because they are monsters they themselves helped to create…all in the name of love.
My dear son, you should raise your son knowing that no discipline feels good while it is happening, but afterwards the rewards are rich, because if a parent refuses to discipline an unruly child, that child will grow accustomed to getting his own way.
He will become, in the common vernacular, a spoiled brat. Anyway, let me stop here because I can hear your aunt calling, and I know that if I do not respond soon it will be disastrously for me, because I don’t know why, but today she woke up with a very nasty mood, I think it might have something to do with the fact that I returned home very late yesterday.
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