The grapevine always unfolded at the watering hole and this evening found Lazzo perched at the far end of the sprawling counter stretching from the east to the west.
It was the blabbermouth of the neighbourhood that let the cat out of the bag about the goingons.
Soon, the long forgotten adage which is a derivative of folklore embedded in animal life in fables came to mind.
It was about feline animals paying visits to possible prey and an example was the impala and the lion.
At first, it was an innocent relationship until one day the lion pounced on the former and hell broke loose hence the saying in a local language. ‘The frequent visitor often turns out to be the final assailant!
In the same vein, an unsuspecting woman was a victim of an incessant visitor who in the final analysis whisked away a television set.
The narration progressed at the same tempo with the flow of the alcoholic beverages too numerous to mention.
One of the key members of the women’s emancipation front was flabbergasted with the act.
In her relentless search for clues to this theft, one of her peers hit on a brilliant idea.
They would consult a spirit medium to help them trace the culprit as the legal process often proved tedious sometimes for lack of evidence.
“I never thought juju worked until now when I saw the results of the consultation bear fruit,” said the starry-eyed man who did not seem ready to keep any secret.
There were several men like him in the hood and they included Mambazo who never stopped talking until watering hole was closed!
It was one of those surprises rarely narrated that sent one into the realms of the supernatural.
Lazzo swallowed hard and he could feel the warm sensation of his favourite drink seeping into the bloodstream as he tenaciously listened to the revelation.
It transpired that the one of the prominent figures – a matriarch of the womenfolk in the hood approached the medicine woman for help.
The latter asked for K500 after which the inquiry would culminate in the disclosure of the thief.
The alleged lifter of the famous ‘idiot box’ had a menial job in the locality close to a domestic servant.
Soon, the man who had stolen the electronic gadget began to exude strange behaviour bordering on eccentricity or madness.
A group of women that had escorted their mate to the spiritual consultation were astounded when they began to notice the culprit’s conduct in the hood.
“But how can someone suddenly start behaving like a lunatic by evening getting rid of personal effects and throwing them about?,” asked one man curiously as he continued,” then I believe what the medicine woman had promised his client, that the person who had taken her TV set would be known by their extraordinary antics!
A few days of miscellaneous behaviour sent a signal to some relations on the outskirts of the city.
They came rushing in to the rescue of their relative who was on the verge of going nuts!
As belief in juju was predominant in the hood, they had no trouble getting wind of what had transpired…
They soon headed for the medicine woman admitting that their man was in the wrong and they needed his mental restoration.
Another rollercoaster manifested when their man suddenly regained his normal self to their relief after paying a lesser fee of K200.
Now, this turned out to be a rubble-rousing debate as one man refuted the credibility of this ‘spiritual investigation’ which he did not believe in.
“Look, you are an African and you should believe in some of these things because they happen!,” declared an imbiber at the extreme end of the counter who was seemingly inebriated above-average.
He further added that even in Western culture, there were practices akin to superstition just like Africa.
In his mind, Lazzo began to get embroiled in the exchange by analysing them one after the other.
He soon discovered that this was a war one could not win in these parts without having their ego bruised.
If one tended to be too western oriented on account of their literacy, they would merely be dismissed as one of those ‘white collar snobs’ brainwashed by western ideas!
In fact, African society the man continued had juju working in all facets of life and he gave an example of leaflets that are often distributed in the central business district of the city by the sidewalks as testimony to overwhelming belief in witchcraft or juju.
Another man hailing from the north of the country recounted an incident where he saw a truck that could not start after it was sold to a prospective buyer because the moving asset was under contention in family circles.
The truck was mechanically fit but could not move from its spot as various mechanics were called in to repair it to no avail!
There was another imbiber who said that there were still many people who doubted that wizards could fly in the sky and land wherever they wished and this was a phenomenon one cannot prove scientifically hence the arguments about its probability.
Lazzo noticed that the debate was reaching advanced heights just as the patronage was speedily cruising towards intoxication.
Again, time was gregariously reaching the hour the celebrated prima donna of the hood would start looking mesmerising!
He was in a remote part of the hood and it was about time he started working his way out of the precincts.
At this point, Maria, one of the celebrated patrons of the watering hole registered her presence. Lazzo noticed that every time she appeared, she made an avalanche of male heads turn in her direction!
But why, Lazzo wondered in his mind that the number female patrons had begun to dwindle as males became more conscious of the need for austerity in their expenditure.
It seemed, this trend had upset Maria’s strategy including a myriad of her kind in the hood…..