Maria Demands Her Share---continued

When I returned to Bufumbira, the hard situation forced me to work in the gardens whenever my health permitted.

But I was telling you about my father. He did not pay fees for me to go to school. He was too busy chasing after women to have any time for anything or anyone else. He may have paid fees for my brother for a short time, I am not sure, but as for me I never went to school at all. You know our people think that educating a girl is a waste of money. I can only write my name, not very well, but at least I am able to sign agreements. I got tired of dipping my thumb in ink like an old woman, so I learned to write my name as an adult in a woman’s group. Perhaps if I had gone to school, I would not be suffering the way I am now.

Maria shakes her head, sadness written all over her face. It is clear from the way she narrates her story that she is very intelligent. She is confident, orderly in her narrative and her very expression and gesture show a clear grasp of events.

She picks up her story “Maama’s son, my half brother, was called Ntoni. We all grew up together here at my father’s home. Later, when he was big, my mother encourages him to go back to his father in Rwanda. There was property for him with his father. Ntoni went back and found that his father had remarried. He lived with his father for some years. As time went by quarrels arose between him and his stepmother”.

“He returned to Bufumbira and persuaded Maama to return to Rwanda. Because Maama was already so unhappy with Daata, she was only too willing to leave. She took us with her. Her Rwandan husband welcomed her back with open arms. I think he still loved her. He built her a house” Maria pauses again to cough. She passes her hand over her hair, which is thin and wavy, probably due to her sickness.

She continues with her story. “Problems soon developed between my mother and her co-wife over their husband’s attention The younger wife accused her husband of spending more time with a woman who had deserted him only to return with a bunch of children from another man for him to look after. Her greatest fear, though, was that these children would share.her husbands property. Quarrels between Maama and her co-wife became frequent. Soon my stepfather became overwhelmed by these fights and called in the authorities to intervene. The property was divided equally between Maama and his co-wife. Maama lived on her piece of land with all her children: Ntoni and us from the Bufumbira father, my half-sister, Ntoni sister, was already married and had children.

“After some time, Ntoni started acting strangely toward Maama and the rest of us. .It appeared that all along he had used my mother to get his hands on the property. Now that his father’s property was divided between his two wives, he wanted Maama and all of us out of the way. He started to nag my mother constantly to take us back to our father, where, he said, we belonged. He was particularly harsh to my brother, who was later forced to return to Bufumbira .But after he left, Maama worried about him. Who would cook for him, who would take care of him? She, therefore, convinced me to follow and take care of him. My brother and I lived for some time with our father, but he was not very good to us. I decided to return to my mother, while my brother remained behind. I was about twenty at the time but not very strong.

Mention of ill health seemed to remind her of something. She pauses, yawns and gestures to stop the tape recorder. Her eyes are focused on me in some kind of appeal. Her sharp, seemingly youthful eyes do not seem to belong with her prematurely aging face. ”I am feeling a bit dizzy. I slept very badly last night and in the morning, I cleaned out the stomach with vomiting. I put nothing near the mouth before I left home, not even water.She reaches for her bundle, that she keeps near her and pulls out a plastic bottle full of water. She washes her hands and then eats.

………………………………………….To be continued,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,