SWAMPY TALES

WHAT A DARK-BLACK SEASON FOR LUNGA!   Tuesday October 1, 2019. I woke up to a myriad of missed calls. One by one, I called back. All of them tried to deliver a single solemn message: “Uncle Chisala is no more!” A single, sixty-something old, handsome and controversial man who had been sick for a while had died. I last visited him several months earlier. I was filled with shame and that disturbing sense of guilt. Maybe, I should have done more for him. But my hands were already full with other pressing responsibilities. Many issues needed my urgent attention. I had just returned home from nursing an equally very sick sister.   I had to camp in Mansa to keep checking on her in Samfya while trying to keep my small business afloat. Sustaining my boys’ stay in boarding, rent and other bills were all calling. That was the start of one disastrous rainy season of 2019/2020.   Just as I arrived in Kitwe to mourn uncle, another persistent phone call from the village kep...