“Does this bring food to my little table? How many times should I tell villagers here that I no longer want to hear about that name? Do you want my granddaughters and sons who are sweating it out in foreign lands to starve me after getting wind that I am attending useless meetings arranged by the same crazy and clueless fellows who ran everything down and as if that were not enough damage– chased good citizens through violence and hunger? Look at you: unemployed, starving and coming here with: Gogo, there`s a meeting. What! Wake up. You want me to vomit? Get out, out!!!” Granny Masuku`s stick landed hard and severally on an image emblazoned on the front of the visitor`s worn-out shirt.

The visitor was sent packing. For the first time, he asked himself whether over the years he had really benefited from organising and terrorising people or whether he was just being used by the big greedy officials. He felt naked, foolish and embarrassed.

That incident sent the village wagging tongues. Some people said it was because of senility or madness or both. All agreed that whatever it was there was a mantra and a method in it.

Gogo: SiNdebele for grandmother

Sibanda is the author of Notes, Themes, Things And Other Things, The Gushungo Way, Sleeping Rivers, Love O’clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing, Football of Fools, Cutting-edge Cache, Of the Saliva and the Tongue, When Inspiration Sings In Silence, The Way Forward, Sometimes Seasons Come With Unseasonal Harvests, As If They Minded:The Loudness Of Whispers, This Cannot Be Happening :Speaking Truth To Power, The Dangers  Of Child Marriages:Billions Of Dollars Lost In Earnings And Human Capital, The Ndaba Jamela and Collections and Poetry Pharmacy.  Sibanda’s work has received Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. Some of his work has been translated into Serbian.