It is 10 June 2024, morning.
Vice president of Malawi, Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima, kisses his wife and bid his two children goodbye, not knowing that this is the last time they are seeing him alive.
The vice president and nine others bubbling with life gambols to board military aircraft Dornier 228-202K in Lilongwe at 9:15 a.m. and are expected to land at Mzuzu Airport 45 minutes later.
Suddenly, the aircraft disappears from radar and goes missing. The delayed search for it begins. It takes them the whole day and the next to find it crashed in the Chikangawa forest – all on board killed.
The country erupts in turmoil. Some people believe there is foul play involved. They say there was a spat between the president and his vice over the agreement they signed in 2020 that the current president would run for the first five years and support the vice president in running for second term in 2025. They say in May, the president unilaterally announced that he would seek re-election.
They say there were suggestions that the vice president decided he would run against the president come the 2025 election.
we will meet soon
In loving memory of Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima (vice president of Malawi)
Dulcet et decorum est pro patria mori
we will meet soon, my brother
with spears of truth in our hands
by the door of the nirvana
hands that severed your thread of life
shall drip of blood
when winnowed in the calabash of doomsday
the wreckage, base stations and the forest
shall speak with tongues of truth
like saws’ teeth
shall shred their egregious
yellow hyacinth lies
in the blender of judgement
a concoction for them to drink
lastly, inebriated they shall admit their first-degree murders
faces down in rain of shame
a long silver shining light
shall turn to pitch-black
leading them the way
through the forest of black roses
back to where they slaughtered you
in cold blood with nine others
on 10th June 2024
and there!
they shall meet their Maker.
Nixon Mateulah was born in Lilongwe in Malawi and moved to South Africa in 1996. Running Home is a fictional memoir based on his experiences when arriving from Malawi in South Africa during the early years of the South African democracy. He has published a number of short stories and poems in various online and print publications.
