Gardigan Muganhu
His mother raised Gardigan in Mhondoro, Mashonaland West Province. He was born in the Chihota Communal Area near Mahusekwa business center in Mashonaland East Province. "I was born during my father's dying days and he named me Gardigan Tajambwa-nekurwara Muganhu." Tajambwa ne kurwara is a Shona phrase that means "the disease has skipped past us".
Following the death of his father, Gardigan went to live with his Babamunini (uncle/father's brother), who had inherited his mother (who had been in a polygamous marriage with his father), and she became Babamunini's second wife, again. After a few years Gardigan's mother and his Babamunini broke up, and she relocated to Mhondoro where she began to live with her brother, leaving Gardigan alone with his father's family. A father he had never met.
Abandoned by his mother, Gardigan learned to herd cattle from his cousins and would collect and run a community cattle herding program with his friends. When the time came for him to attend school, no one in his father's family was willing to pay his school fees. This pushed them to run away to Mhondoro in search of his mother and education. He began his Sub-A in Mhondoro and completed his secondary education in 1968 and his older brother catered for everything.
In 1973, he married Eubertina, his high school sweetheart. Both retirees, Gardigan and Eubertina are raising one of their late daughter's children. Gardigan has a small piece of land he farms and sells the produce to feed his family, whilst Eubertina offers laundry services.
Gardigan's ngano about Tsuro (rabbit) and Gudo (baboon) highlights some of the measures we have to adhere to avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19. Many people have complained about the constant need to wash our hands at every turn and like Gudo, we may miss out on a lot of opportunities to feed ourselves or commune with others just because we have failed to adhere to the rules of the day.
[Whispering Silence] This project was made possible with support from Africalia and the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation of Belgium.