Try My Shoes

Author: Ebuka Henry
Book: Try My Shoes
Date: 22/04/2020
#TheRefugee

Life is one big chessboard where People are the chess pieces.

Chess is a strategy board game where all pieces on the board can move in different positions and each with different limitations. Chess, the game of life, is a game where every decision made has an impact on the rest of your game. One bad move and your entire game is ruined or in the least, it makes it hard to recover from that bad choice, But in this case the choice was made for us, A choice that choose Division instead of Unity. The choice that made us flee our mother's land. A choice we had no say over, but suffered its consequences. 

Blessed Remain the memory of my last day of peace.  A day I woke up to, filled with so much promise of prosperity and assurance of a great future. I whistled as I made my way to the Mines in search of my daily bread. The Mine belonging to the late chief, A Mine that provided Jobs, secured futures and placed our community on the map. We grew up knowing our future was secured at the Mine until life happened. The Mine was passed down to his two sons Zoba & Dube after his death, following a long battle with cancer. One of Life worst Chess moves, Taking out the Chief (A king) an emblem of  Prosperity, Assured future, Peace and order, replacing him with his sons (Knights) emblems of greed, lust for power and destruction. The death of Chief was a Memory we all dreaded, The first wave for power and territory began between the brothers during Chief's battle for his dear life, which was put in check by the chief and a few elderly people in the community, The Inheritance of the Mine was given to Zoba which was his right by birth in which Dube agreed wholeheartedly masking it behind hidden agendas. There was rays of hope and our future seemed stable again with things returning to normal at the Mines, until the second wave hit, immediately after the chief's death. The whole community went wild, everybody running helter skelter.

screaming and chants are heard in the background

        

Dube: Militants of the republic
Militants: Ahu
Dube: Today we cleanse the land with blood and usher it into a new beginning
Militants: Ahu
Dube: A beginning of wealth, A beginning of power for we are the chosen few
Militants: Ahu
Dube: Cleanse the Land and Seize the Mine, Let no Man or Woman get in your way, Attack !!!

I trembled at the sight of blood as it spilled all over the ground, the screams of the wailing community pleading for mercy, I watched as hope faded and future's forever shut ,as I escaped the deadly clutch of death with a few of the surviving villagers to the neighbouring community as we sought refuge. 
Months passed by, but the sight of what I witnessed remained fresh. I tried to hope again, but the community that took me in deemed me lazy, I tried to believe again, but the community i sought refuge from saw a body moving with no life. Was Life going to be fair in this round of chess? I pondered listening to my heart drumming at redemption but my shoes of grief were too heavy to move towards it.  I wish they could try my shoes to see what pain I carried so they could see life from my perspective. I wanted to become King with a castle and not a pawn at Life's chess.
I prayed faintly and hoped for better days.