WITH SEKURU TAURAI

Move around all urban and semi-urban areas and you will not fail to notice that most houses are enclosed by walls that we here in Chibhoraniland call durawalls. I am actually beginning to see these walls even in rural villages. You see ‘’durawall’’ although English is not an English word in the sense that you will not find it in an English dictionary. The word ‘’dura’’ or ‘’dura matter’’ you will find it and it means ‘’the outermost and toughest of the 3 meninges’’, meninges being ‘’a membrane that envelopes the brain and spinal cord’’. The dura here is all about security and serves to protect the brain from damage. So here in Africa we decided to call the wall we erect around our homesteads, ‘’dura wall’’, being a wall that envelopes our homes in order to protect it from thieves and burglars. Talk of burglars and you will find us welding onto our window frames what we call burglar bars, and these are meant to prevent burglars from getting into our houses. Getting deeper into the matter you will notice that the durawalls and burglar bars do actually spoil the beauty of the house. However we have found them necessary because, as it would seem, or as it actually is, we people of Chibhoraniland really are a thieving lot to the extent that we are forced to take these unwanted measures to stop ourselves stealing from each other. Move around most developed countries and you will notice that their houses are not durawalled and burglar barred at all. Why, because they do not have so many burglars around. We are forced to tighten security around and on our homes, businesses and institutions while including more features like razor wire, electric fences, CCTV, vicious dogs and even armed security guards simply because we are thieves. People of Chibhoraniland let us rid ourselves of this evil habit of thieving. Poor as we may be poverty should not be an excuse for stealing while some steal out of mere greed. Worse still as we steal we do not hesitate to brutally injure or kill those we steal from. On another note there is definitely no joy in locking yourself inside a durawall and living in a house that resembles a prison. This was one of the main reasons why my late mother did not want to stay in my durawalled and burglar-barred urban house during the days when I was still living in town. You will agree with me that it is actually very nice to live in a house that has neither unsightly burglar bars nor prison-like durawall.