Nugget: Home burned in Riots
Our home burned to the ground during riots in Gweru
The Nugget : Waiting for the mob
PLACE: Gweru (formely Gwelo) Outside Monamatopo Township
DATE: April 1960
We stood in the passageway because my dad said that was the safest place. He held his shotgun ready and our friend Derek Frith held my dad's .38 revolver from World War 2. My mother cradled my two year old baby brother and my sister clutched onto her skirt. We heard the ocean-roar of the mob approaching. The police skidded up the driveway and yelled at us to follow their armoured car in our car. I was 8 years old We stayed the night at Derek's home in town.
In the morning
My mother woke me up, "Honey, our house was burned down last night."
I knew our lives would be changed but I had no grasp of any significance and became obsessed with the worry that I wanted to find my marbles. I had a good collection of marbles and I wanted to see them again.
When we got to the house the walls were still warm. The wooden floors were ashes so I spent a long time sifting through the ashes for my marbles. The glass in the windows had melted into stalagmites. My mother tried to find her gold ring and my dad tried to find a gold nugget that he treasured. All we could find were some cutlery items which were blackened with soot. All we had at that moment were the clothes we were wearing. I had been wearing my school uniform.
At school my teacher found a pretext to send me out of the classroom and told the Standard 3 class what had happened. The following day they had collected a big bag full of clothes
Dad told us that when he went to work the next day he was besieged by weeping people who said that they had no choice in the mob.
Read more about my dad
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