A HARVEST OF GRIM DEATHS

By Omoseye Bolaji

“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

- Isaac Asimov

The message from my female South African journalist - sent via text
message was depressing –

“Morning, my editor. My younger brother was brutally killed on Friday. I’m going home today…” Later on I would hear the other terrible details of the death from her.

I winced. Another unnecessary death! A young life cruelly nipped in the bud again. Murder most foul. Another statistic of violence!

There is no running away from a general perception that in many ways South Africa can easily be construed as a very violent country where human life meretriciously means little. Reports of violent deeds and murder
are redolent.

The mass media does little to attenuate this perception. Every day in the print and electronic media, there are
lurid reports of wanton killings, men and women being slaughtered, farmers butchered etc. But as I pondered this new personal disaster afflicting my female journalist, my mind went back to a number of grisly deaths involving people I had known in South Africa over the years.

The first that came to my mind was “young” Themba who was the son of my first landlady here. A promising handsome youngster, he was tipped by most to carve a niche for himself in the near future. I left that house but still remained close to that family. Then I heard that Themba was now out of school and had a good job, and was taking care of his mother...then disaster!

I ran into Sandi, the younger brother of Themba and asked him about the family, and Themba in particular. I saw an involuntary shudder run through his body.

“So you haven’t heard?” he started. “Themba is dead. He was stabbed to death, ntate. Just because he bought a new fine cellphone. They left him to bleed to death on the ground in winter. They took his phone...”

What a senseless murder! But it is just one of many I know about personally here. Then there was the”gentleman” Lebohang who I had liked in the beginning. Amiable and genial. Then people told me he had killed two people, stabbing them viciously to death. He noticed my sudden discomfiture one day and laughed.

“So you heard about the guys I killed? It was self-defence, my brother.” He grinned at me and added. “Well, more or less! I am not afraid to kill a human if needs be”. Yet he himself met his end after being
brutally stabbed by an assailant. He who lives by the sword...?

And what about “Aunt Rita”? Friendly, empathetic lady. We used to meet intermittently,
her daughter - in her late teens - in tow. Uncharacteristically I saw the daughter all alone in toropo (the city)one day. I asked about her mother.

There was a terrible silence. She managed to say – “They killed my wonderful mum horribly. An assailant came at night and stabbed her so many times. The blood flowed from her bed to the kitchen... “ And she
began to cry

Alas, sadly, many Nigerians regularly lose their lives in South Africa too, some in gruesome fashion. For me one of the saddest cases was that of a Nigerian who operated a saloon here. I always had a soft spot for
him as I was the one who initially lent him most of the money he used to start his business.

His business acumen and nous were never in doubt and his business blossomed. I visited him every now and then; he was very much a people’s person. The news of his death really shocked me.

I gathered that he was stabbed in the torso many times by one of his closest South African acquaintances, who was drunk at the time whilst having an altercation with him. The same assailant, once sobered down,
whilst visiting the stabbed Nigerian in hospital, was told that he had passed away!

Yet, despite these sad recollections, I can not in good conscience say that I consider South Africans to be essentially violent people. There is violence all over the world. I really don't know...