The script has flipped.Writes Legendary Peter Makosa
Some years ago, when I was working for the Malawi Police, and I was based at Soche Police, in Blantyre, we received a complainant from one of the most influential citizens in the country, renowned aviator Captain Wisdom Mchungula, Malawi’s Chief pilot and the Chief Executive Officer for Air Malawi. He was a national hero and a monumental figure in matters aviation. A legend of the skies. May his soul continue resting in peace.
The complaint was that his begotten daughter Davina, who grew up in wealth and opulence, went to Kamuzu Academy before proceeding to Chancellor College and graduated with flying colours, was dating an uneducated thug. A primary school drop out, a boy who couldn’t write or speak English.
Captain Mchungula informed us.
That boy was from the Malunga family. Magga Malunga.Yes, the same Malunga Family this Kineo boy has found love in.
A man who was decorated and respected across the globe for his aviation prowess was angry. He argued that his beloved daughter, who was in her 20’s, with everything at her disposal had befallen for a man below the accepted standards. He believed that she was bringing shame to the family.
He vented. We listened.
But of course, we judged. Not his judgement, but his character.
We expected him to understand that love is not only blind, love is bind.
I was at that point deputy head of CID with Bob Mtekama at the helm.
Captain Mchungula wanted the relationship to end. He wanted the police to arrest the Malunga boy.
Respectfully, we told the Captain that love is not a crime. The Malunga boy has not committed any crime for him to be arrested.
Captain Mchungula then blurted: “If that is the case, then I kill that boy. I have invested a lot in my daughter to end up with a nobody.”
“I am happy going to jail for murder than seeing my daughter with this boy.
“Where did I go wrong?”
Bob Mtekama chirped: “You did not do anything wrong Sir, it is just that your daughter has made a choice to love someone who you don’t like.”
I weighed in: “Maybe, this boy makes your daughter happy than any of the boys who wish she could fall in love with. Your daughter’s happiness is important than your status or reputation.”
Captain Mchungula became angry and shouted: “You are too young, to give me advice about my child. You don’t understand how it feels to see your child, a girl, for that matter, being wasted and becoming useless.”
Silence ensued. Graveyard silence.
We strongly advised the legendary Captain against committing a crime over something that he does not have control over. We told him to sit down with his daughter and try to understand her.
Now the matter that was not a police matter was becoming a police case as we had a duty to prevent a crime.
Davina made it clear that she was never going leave her Malunga boyfriend, no matter the consequences, and that she doesn’t care what her father thinks or wants. She said it was her choice and her happiness.
She was a girl in love.
Captain Mchungula lost. He knew his daughter had reached a point of no return. So, he hatched a plan.
He sent Davina to America to take her away from her boyfriend so she could make her forget him, and move on and perhaps find a “decent” boy in America.
But Captain Mchungula forgot that love and matters of the heart are not the same as flying a plane, where a plane needs to be controlled to fly, love is stupid, it flows on its own terms and cannot be controlled.
When his peers were reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Captain Mchungula was obvously busy reading geography and aviation books. He didn’t understand the dynamics of love.
In America, the distance did not deter Davina from amplifying her love for her beloved Malunga boy.
She ignored any man’s attempt to woo her. She knew she had someone special who made her happy. The Malunga boy. She remained loyal to her boyfriend, not her father.
She worked hard for her love, and for her boyfriend. In no time, the boyfriend was in America. They got married there.
There was nothing her father could do. Love won.
In the end, the children born in that marriage are Captain Mchungula’s grand children. He could not love them any less because he doesn’t like their father.
We can only guide our adult-children, but control them, we must not, especially when it comes to matters that involves love and happiness. Let us not dress up control as protection.
It is OK for our children to make mistakes or wrong choices. It makes them grow, and later they glow knowing they learnt.
That is life. Let love lead.
The script is the same, it has just flipped for a new set of actors.
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