I still remember his face, his powerlessness, begging for his relatives to spare his life. He had stolen two fat bulls, and the fury in his uncle’s face would draw blood at the slightest touch.
He would tell me stories about his exploits with girls and I would listen with rapt attention as if I was studying for an exam. A great storyteller, Sammy even had my father increase his salary – not much for a shamba boy, you’d say.
One funny story he told me was how he once went to the home of a girl he was eyeing. She was not there, but the mother was. Sammy told me he unflinchingly told her that he had come for her daughter. He did not go into details, swiftly moving to another story.
There’s one where he had gone for ‘closing ceremony’ at some home, where he had managed to open the 'servers' of the four girls in that family. It did not go down well as the girls fought over him, with the mother wondering what was wrong.
If Sammy was an animal, then he would be the honey burger. Wherever his interests lay, he would go in, without thinking twice. I guess that’s why he stole his uncle’s two bulls.
We were at home when we received a call that he had earlier been seen with two bulls going to an auction. He claimed it belonged to our family. Unlucky for him, everybody knew we never had bulls. With suspicions aroused, he never managed to sell the bulls.
We immediately made a phone call to a cousin who knew him well, and indeed confirmed that some bulls had been reported missing.
The following morning, Sammy woke up red-eyed and asked me to look after the animals, for he had a small errand.
A day later people showed up at our place, the owners of the stolen bulls, roughed up Sammy. I watched as one man picked a thick eucalyptus branch whacked him in the head. He cried telling them not to kill him.
I remember him telling me that when a thief was caught in their home place, a grave would be dug. The thief would then be shown where he’d be buried. And that was it. Right there, under the fury of his uncle, he was made of lynching material.
Later, I heard how he had begged hard to reroute because at the local centre, people were waiting to lynch him. He was lucky that they valued his life, took him to a police station, judged and later sentenced to a twelve-year sentence.
#hivisasaoriginal