It is rather impossible to talk about Rudo Chibindi and the
unfortunate circumstances that she finds herself in today without talking about
her past circumstances.
A past that she constantly referred to as very regrettable.
If only she could turn back the hands of time, she would not make the same
mistakes again.
“I badly regret those days but then, I was young and
naïve.” Let us rewind to 2003.
At about this time that year, Mwendikanyi Chibindi, also
known as Mwendy, then famous as one of Oliver Mtukudzi’s three backing
vocalists — the other two being Mary Bell and Cecilia Ndlovu — was making news
from her grave.
Mwendy, who had been romantically involved with Mtukudzi,
passed away on August 18. It was during her funeral wake that her daughter,
Rudo, was turned away by Mwendy’s relatives.
It was through that acrimonious turn of events, Rudo versus
her mother’s relatives, that the world got to know of the romantic relationship
between Mwendy and Mtukudzi.
Mwendy’s relatives, that is her mother and uncles, barred
Rudo from viewing her mother’s body or even attending Mwendy’s burial.
Rudo was involved in an “incestuous” relationship with
Mwendy’s live-in lover, one Joe Mafana.
The “incestuous” relationship between Mafana and Rudo
produced two children, a boy and a girl.
Fast-forward to 2015, 12 years after Mwendy had passed on
and a year after Rudo and Mafana had separated, and as fate would have it, in
the same month that Mwendy passed away, Rudo lost her sight.
On the night of August 31, she went to bed seeing clearly. But when she woke up the following morning, she could not
see. Just like that.
Could it have been a case of Karma?
“I do not care what people say or think, people will always
say what they want,” said Rudo in a recent sit-down with The Sunday Mail at her
grandmother’s home in Chitungwiza.
Her grandmother, Mwendy’s mother, the one who chased her
away from her mother’s funeral wake years back, is now late and Rudo has moved
into her home.
She continued: “I went to bed on the night of August 31 and
when I woke up the following morning, I could not see. When I tried to tell my
workmates and friends what had befallen me, most of them dismissed me thinking
that I was being a drama queen.
“My workmates, knowing that I was always up and running
selling different wares, thought I wanted time off from work so that I could
attend to my side business.”
But when she visited her workplace, a private school in
Harare’s Hillside, where she was teaching then, her workmates realised that she
was not faking it. She painfully remembers the visit, in the company of her
private college’s principal.
She had to go to an eye clinic in the capital, where she
was only attended to in the afternoon.
“Without any counselling, the optician said I had lost my
sight for life.”
Gutted, she thought a second opinion would help matters.
She visited a private eye surgeon, who made the same conclusion, but added that
at US$1 500 per eye, he could operate on her.
“I did not have the money then and I still do not have that
kind of money. I am told that my eyesight can be restored if I can raise the
money.”
The two diagnoses had been straightforward — glaucoma had
caused the loss of her sight.
“For several days leading to the loss of my sight, I had
complained of severe headaches. Even though I tried to have the headaches
attended to, no one could tell that the headaches were a sign that glaucoma was
slowly setting in.”
Although Rudo is not very keen to talk about the
circumstances leading to her falling in love with her mother’s live-in lover,
circumstances which she openly regrets, she said it is a story that she will
tell one day.
“My focus now is to get myself back on track with my life.
I have taken courses at Dorothy Duncan, and I now know how to use braille. The
next step is to find what I can do with the teaching experience that I have.”
But the journey to re-discover her old self has been
arduous. In May 2017, she went into a coma.
For three months, she was admitted at Chitungwiza Central
Hospital and only woke up on July 27.
Part of the journey to re-discover herself involved
acceptance. She admits that has been a tall order.
“One of the things that I had to come to terms with was
accepting my changed circumstances, especially not being able to see. I was
also facing financial instability.
“Remember, I had separated with Joe in 2014, and I had to
give up my children, for their sake. I could not continue living with them in
my state as I felt my condition affected them. So, I had to let them go and
stay with their father. And now Joe has left the country, they are staying at
his family’s home.”
A lone figure at her grandmother’s home, Rudo said she has
since come to terms with her changed life. She now does almost all the
household chores by herself.
“There was a time when I would cry all night, l would wake
up with sore eyes. Then one day, I asked myself, for how long will l continue
crying and to what end? I then resolved to look after myself and do everything
by myself.
“Now I cook my own meals, wash my dishes, do my laundry and
sweep my room. Even if I had been given a choice, who would I choose to have my
situation? If fate had it that I be the one, let it be,” Rudo said. Sunday Mail
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