Men Get Drenched For Poking Fun At A Mountain

During the Easter holidays I accompanied a good friend of mine to his rural home in Mutasa District near Mutare in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe.He wanted to use his vacation to dig the foundation of his home at the Mutasa Growth Point.

Men Get Drenched For Poking Fun At Mountain

Growth points are designated areas in Rural areas which have been ear-marked for development into to service centers ,where most pof the services people require for example Courts and Registration offices for Births and Dates.Inevitably these have to have residential stands for the people who work in the various government offices as well as people from the surrounding areas who can afford the cost of the stands.

My friend had a couple of guys from the community whom he hired to do the excavation work on the building foundation.Whilst we worked,we are the types to put hands in our pockets whilst other men work,a lot of tales and general buntering ensured.One such tale was told by one of the guys who related how they were sent to fetch a heifer that had to be slaughtered at one funeral in the area.

The guys proceeded to a mountain where the cattle where being herded,being young men ,they were buntering along the way.We were told that one of the guys who was a motor-mouth started to laugh at the shape of the mountain alluding to the fact that it looked like someone’s  bold-head.The youngmen in the group burst out laughing,one who was familiar with the local taboos and customs cautioned them against such behavior but they did not pay heed.Next they saw a baboon and started laughing at it upon which a deluge of rains started falling around them.When the people who had remained behind saw thus happening they immediately knew that someone had talked out of turn.They guys spent a miserable afternoon going round in circles.One of the saner guys finally knelt down and talked to the ancestors for forgiveness,soon after the rains stopped and the guys were able to go back home.

One would assume that these things are just jest but in most places where there mountains or thick forests there are some areas where you just have to watch what you say or do,transgressing leads to people either losing their way of worse disappearing for good.Such tales are abound and for most people who live in towns like me they sound like tall-tales but they are real.