Feature: On april sixth, I slept

Wells of blood were larger than oceans One person was spilled in many places The women and children wailed louder than thunder Dying quickly was set as the single fine alternative Where do we go from here? When our territory is swallowed in thoughtless hate Vulnerably viewed as an opera by the rest of the worldWhere will I hide? Drift from this world just a little while. Discover yourself in the eye of a horrible onslaught. Cold blood is flying past your bare eyes. Bullets are raining with hard bangs on every surface and unlucky fleeing flesh. But you are still fortunate enough to be alive even if you don’t possess your senses. Suddenly, a rough shove sends you tumbling down awkwardly. Before you realise what is befalling you, a painful twist is applied to your hands and feet, as you are harshly bound by two armed-to-the-teeth massive men. Your groans and complaints are received by empty fierce winds drying your blood stained mouth. A knee jacked in your back pins you to the ground and a salty sensation fills your eyes as you fight to keep it back from flowing because you don’t want to appear weak and timid. Hours later, the sky is clear, the smoke is gone and the air is free from fast flying man-killers. The ground is mulched by bloody people lying on it. Lying on your belly, you are being quizzically gazed at by a couple of mean looking men who are scarcely dressed in torn and un-buttoned stained shirts. Your senses are back but all you sense is danger and no flight or fight, just danger. To your disappointment, your captors are not holding AK-47s but clubs, machetes and blunt knives. You are then painfully heaved to your knees by two of the men. By this time, your whole body is wary and feels disconnected at all joints. You smell death but you still maintain a tearless stone face as your only weapon. Gradually, you start hearing disturbing sounds approaching: the sound of sobbing women. You view a chain of limping women joined at the neck by shackles being dragged by two men on either side of the queue. They are lined up on your left side. Your ears are becoming deaf by their cries. All of a sudden you again hear tender cries and as you turn, a similar picture of hurting children is being roughly lined up at your right side so that you are in the centre, separating the children from the women. The cries of the children and women are clouded by heavy sarcastic belly laughter from these animal-men. You start feeling pity for the children and your stone-tight face slowly gives way. A drop of liquid salt drops on your cheek. In a little while, your tear drained face betrays your bravery and in your heart, it’s more obvious that none of you will make through this anyway- tears or stones. So you try to straighten up and be as calm as possible so as to inspire and be a model to your fellow captives. The men gather around and start singing songs of war as they dance vigorously. They gladly portray joy and triumph. In their songs, they thank God for giving them victory over their unforgiving and ungodly enemies. You get confused and puzzled, wondering about which enemy they are singing about. As far as you know, you have never held a gun in your hands, the women on your left would rather take care of their babies than go about creating deadly enemies as these while the children on your right are always unaware of anything, just playing about in the maize fields. So, who are these men really singing about? Amidst the songs and mantras, one of the men steps out from the dancing squad and boastfully marches to the left side. With a dagger wielded in his hands, he bends low towards the woman at the beginning of the line as if he’s being dared by his friends to do something dire. As you watch in unbelievable horror, he squeezes his knife on her throat causing the whole knife to disappear inside her. Blood spurts out at tremendous pressure as she falls to the ground shaking uncontrollably unable to shout or move her legs or arms which are firmly bound. The noise becomes immense at this point as the women and children cry out harder and louder than before. One of the children loses his breath and faints to the ground and the others wail louder thinking he’s dead. Your heart stops pounding and starts vibrating. Your pants can be heard twenty miles away. You look right and left to see if there is some way you can escape but you don’t notice, even if there were one. The music seems to be demon inspired as these men lose control of their bodies. They sing louder and cover the moans of the women and children. Thirsty for more blood, out from the crowd steps another red-eyed demonic man. You realise that his tummy is painted red and from that moment, you appreciate that none of you will be his first kill. As you tremble in wild fear, he hoists his machete on the child at your extreme right and instantly beheads him. The singing men get louder, your mind evaporates and another child faints. As you still gaze, you all of a sudden hear a damning cry on your left and when you turn, a woman lays down with her body roughly savaged by another murderer. You hear another piercing groan on your right and when you turn again, two children have been amputated and beheaded. You start sighing heavily as you realise that the line is getting shorter on either side at a tremendous speed. Soon, all the women are butchered and only two children remain. One of them suddenly frees himself and tries to pace away but his fragile legs are swiftly disjointed by a swinging machete. He lies down in deep pain as one angry man passes a bullet through his spine. Now it’s one more child before they get to you. You start screaming but the men’s songs get louder swallowing your disparity in the noise. The child next to you is stabbed multiple times by a teeth bearing bald headed man. The child shivers to the ground until his body lays motionless drained of its blood. Now it’s only you remaining. You close your eyes and attempt to say a prayer but you don’t even make out what to pray for. Whether for survival or quick death, you just don’t know. When you open your eyes and raise your teary face, you find that the angry man is staring right through your eyes. The music is now unbelievably loud. The angry man also joins the music and starts to sing as he dances along, doing the same things he did before he slaughtered the rest. He starts to jump and swing his machete about in the air while all this time still fixing his blood shot eyes on you. His machete drips specks of blood on your face and shoulders. He rhythmically steps closer and closer with his eyes still locked with yours. When he gets close enough, he slowly raises his machete over your head and you now know it’s the end. At lightening speed, he brings down the machete. You close your eyes and the music stops. Where were you in April? Reflect on it through this period and make an oath true to your heart that you will always say, ‘Never Again’ to genocide. Contact: mugishaivan@yahoo.com