Of murder and mental health

WITH SEKURU TAURAI

I said this before, I will say it again because although I said it the problem is getting worse and worse as if I did not say it. Chibhoraniland citizens continue to butcher each other for the most trivial reasons. Imagine someone being killed for refusing to exchange half a cigarette. One is killed for an empty beer bottle. A parent kills a small child for wetting the blankets although the act was not done deliberately. Yes, parents are killing their own children and vice versa. Friends are slaying each other, so do close relatives. Robbers do not hesitate to shade your blood especially if you do not give them what they want. Some are said to be executed for political reasons. Drivers kill passengers for the sake of money and thrilling speed. I can also talk of witches and wizards who will bewitch and murder you just because they don’t have what you have or maybe to have you for a meal. 

This problem boils down to serious mental sickness that will soon get to near pandemic proportions if it goes on unchecked or is it already there? These are actions that are performed by Chibhoraniland people who will be undoubtedly mentally sick at the moment. Please don’t ever think that it is only the people you see roaming villages, streets and bushes dressed in rags, eating from bins and dumpsites while talking to themselves that are mentally sick. Even anyone, I mean everyone who is usually called ‘’normal’’ gets mentally sick at one time or another, just as anyone and everyone gets physically sick now and then. This includes you and me. Mental sickness is shown when someone engages in what people usually call abnormal behaviour. Now, don’t tell me that killing someone because he spilled opaque beer on a US$2 shirt you got from Mupedzanhamo Market is not abnormal behaviour. So that person who is capable of such an abnormal act is actually mentally sick and needs treatment because he is not mentally healthy.

Many Chibhoraniland people are killing other people because they will be mentally sick. They need to get treatment to be mentally healthy. Here incarceration is not enough. Mental sickness is causing more damage to families, communities and countries. In fact most of the problems we have in life happen as a result of mental sickness. Check this out for yourself and you will see that apa Sekuru Taurai vataura. I have said it and I will say it again if we fail to prioritise mental health in Chibhoraniland. Otherwise we will go in killing each other until no one remains.