he was born dead, or so they all thought, with hardly any breathing or noticeable movement of limb, the little body was covered in faeces. the baby had defecated in the mother’s womb, after all he had been born at ten months, and the mother had endured almost nineteen hours of intensive labor pains with only a wet cloth on her brow as pain relief. by now, too weak to force the baby out, she collapsed and the midwife had to literally tear the uterus in order to let the baby out. after abandoning the ‘stillborn’ child in a metal dish, all attention was given to the mother who was barely breathing. but soon enough, the attention of the midwife and other relatives who had gathered to witness the birth was arrested by the sounds of the abandoned baby in the metal dish. it could have been the harsh metal contacting his fragile skin that could have vitalized his organs and kick started his little heart. but to this day no one really knows what ignited the presumed dead baby to life, for there were no medical practitioners or sophisticated machines to record, let alone assist the helpless ‘poor’ mother and child. it was only after this grueling act of childbirth that mother and child were placed in a wheel barrow and pushed a mile uphill to the nearest hospital. without reliable records from the institution, no-one really knows when he was born. according to the hospital they administered care to mother and son on the nineteenth of august 1976, but according to the mother, she vividly remembers the ‘severe joyous’ day as the nineteenth of september 1978. mother and son had to stay in the intensive care unit for the next nine months, receiving no visitors for the first three. doctors were convinced neither would survive, especially the mother who, coupled with a ballooning high blood pressure, had also contracted numerous complications and infections from the unorthodox operation conducted by a seventy six year old midwife using razor blades that were not sterilized in a poorly lit mud hut. but again, even the learned doctors were proved wrong. it seemed there was a mystical and peculiar being, a mighty and omnipotent force invisible to natural man that was administering favor and divine care to both mother and child. “i will name my son ndapfidza”, which means i have suffered enough, were the first words uttered by dorcas after ninety days of breathing through machines. a wise and kind uncle, who was also a chief and had been present from the difficult pregnancy to the present moment interjected and stated “this child is indeed a blessing from God, his birth was miraculous and so shall be the days of his life, he is destined for greatness, his name will be “nyaradzaisandiraiishe”, which means the one who comforts, soothes all pain and born to serve the Lord. however, this twenty one letter name was to be no more part of his life than the registry at harare hospital where it appeared. he would be forever affectionately known as nya’.

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