Abomination Poem Summary

Abomination
Weeping like people gnashed and grind teeth in hell broke out at the Waruma’s grass-thatched house. Their only son, Nahuruma had left the grain.

The weeping to others was not surprising. That week the family had reported that Nahuruma had gone missing after he was sent to Mulanje Mountain to deliver food rations to the sawyers that cultivated trees for timber. He was supposed to return the same day.

To reach where the workers were working, the boy had to pass through a narrow and a slippery place so his missing became a cause for concern. Villagers named this slippery place, Pharamata. This word means ‘use of hands’ in Lhomwe. Any slip up at Pharamata meant the victim rolling about hundred meters into the deep pit that lay gaping like Diablo’s.

Bringing the boy’s - dead body to the village when he died in the mountains was an abomination. The remains were supposed to be buried in a cave right there, roared a voice. Never in the history of the village did they bury a person after they had died in the mountains.

Bringing the dead body to the village was like snatching the meat in the mouth of the gods. This act was a conduit for trouble; it maddens the gods. To punish this abomination, the gods might close the womb of the sky resulting into a drought. If drought ensued, many people might die because of scarcity of food, thundered the elder’s chairman Chingolopiyo.

But the chief observed that the death of the boy had presented an opportunity to the village. It was time to examine this ritual and other rites like wife inheritance and hyena. These tradition rites needed abandoning completely or fine-tuning. For example, the chief joked that a hyena could be argued to use a condom. But the matter at hand was urgent; the boy’s remains lay on the reed mat waiting for his quick decision. He suggested to the elders to be reasonable and backtrack on their