Becoming The Muse

Coffee with whirlwinds

If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my tangle of words and invite you to feel at home.. The rain clouds have gathered, the lightning is flashing and the wind is whirling. They say when its too windy it chases away the rain. We really could use some rain about now.

Culturally our rains are tied to spiritual beliefs, with first rains being regarded as a cleansing or signifying rebirth and rejuvenation. Prolonged dry spells are attributed to the wrath of ancestors for various misdemeanours.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the majority of people seem publicly sceptical about such things during the day, but during the night you might find them questing for answers. A remnant of our colonial legacy where aspects of our culture got relegated into craft only practised by night… but only darkness prevails in the night.

Chamupupuri as we call the common whirlwind are mostly harmless, a vortex of air, whirling about due to sudden changes in atmospheric pressure, lasting for several seconds before dissipating. The energy generated by these winds can pick up dust and debris of various sizes twirling it about in the air. They don’t ordinarily have the intensity of twisters and tornadoes but whirlwinds have been reported to cause a fair bit of damage to infrastructure.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you about a couple of curious incidences involving whirlwinds reported in the recent past. The first incidence happened in Masvingo under Chief Zimuto’s area. A whirlwind of black fog rose from the grave-site after the burial of an elderly gentleman and followed the funeral procession from the graveyard to the homestead, where it blew off the thatched roof from the round hut that had served as the deceased man’s bedroom, depositing the thatching on the nearby fire where food for the mourners was being cooked, burning up all the food, leaving nothing to eat for anyone….

In Mberengwa, a 75 year old grandma lost her life after a mysterious whirlwind blew through the homestead setting fire to her hut. They had just finished brewing tea in the hut and had not completely extinguished the fire when the whirlwind fanned the flames causing thatching strands in the hut to catch fire. The woman who tried to extinguish the fire and got trapped in the inferno’s swift escalation, which engulfed her….

In Gokwe a whirlwind disrupted an examination room at Zhomba Secondary School where students were in the middle of a Combined Science Paper 1 exam, blowing the answer-sheet of one student out the window. The answer-sheet was recovered 500m away and the examination resumed….

If you were having coffee with me, I would say maybe its just unfortunate incidences involving whirlwinds or maybe there is more to it, especially as this seems to be increasing in occurrence or maybe because of the internet such stories are getting publicity.

Discussion about things such as this serves as a diversion or distraction from the electricity  and economic challenges.. who needs to talk about how the monthly inflation rose from 5.8% in September to 37.2% in October and how the local ZIG currency has lost another 14% from when it was devalued by almost half…  

The power utility company is supplying less than half the country’s electricity requirements resulting in long hours of electricity shortages. Maybe with the rains the water level at Kariba dam will rise boosting electricity generation, feels like a fickle thing to base hope on, the rains.

If you are having coffee with me, I would tell you that its reported that whenever they want to carry out repairs and maintenance work on the Kariba dam wall they first consult the traditional leaders to ensure smooth progress. Its said that when the dam was being constructed there were floods, earth tremors and the cases of disappearing personnel which kept disrupting the work. They finally did an appeasement ceremony to the spirits of the land and offered sacrificial livestock. A whirlwind enshrouded the animals and when it dissipated the animals had gone and the missing people were returned, from then work proceeded without disturbances.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that less than 50 days after Starlink was launched in Zimbabwe its now marked as sold out in Harare the capital city. While the sold out status is not unique to Harare, 5 other African cities  have been marked with designation, Zimbabwe stands out for reaching this status in the shortest possible time..

The uptake of Starlink has been a whirlwind that threatened to bankrupt the local internet providers who had been offering expensively priced data packages. The Starlink effect has seen the entrance of competitive internet packages, so even one who isn’t directly using Starlink services has benefited from satellite service.

Whats been going on in your neck of the woods? What would you dress up as for Halloween right now I am thinking a whirlwind…..

~B