You could clearly see what was happening. My father took my brothers to help while I was left with my uncle’s wife to take care of her six-month old child, but after they finished building, I left to stay in the new house with my new family. My stepmother came with her three children to stay with us, two boys and one girl. At first the situation was good, with my stepmother earning my father’s trust that she could handle being the third wife after my elder brother’s mother left, followed by my mother.

When my father went back to work, he left our stepmother with us. That was when all Hell broke loose and we began to see her true colours. One day, she woke up early and called all of us when we were still asleep. We went to the dining room where she was waiting. She said ‘Ok, all my beloved, my name is Catherine Thwala, the first daughter of Abel and Selphine Thwala, I hope you heard all my historical lilies according to grandmother; you know what I like, you know what I hate. Practically you know that I like someone who loves and respects himself, hence you will do this to me too from this day onward. I have written up a duty roster. Everybody take a look and see who is on duty from now on.’ After the meeting, we all began to ask each other what this was all about. My older brother was on the safe side as he had only a few days to go and start attending boarding school, so everything was left in our hands.

Every day, we woke up early and before we went to school, we had to fetch water a kilometre away from home. We passed two boreholes before we reached where we collected water. She refused for us to fetch water from those boreholes, as she said that the water from those two were not safe to use. She explained that the people around that place hated her, so they put some poisonous stuff inside the borehole pump when they saw us coming from afar. Indeed, everybody hated her because of her devilish heart which is why she was staying in town all along. Nobody ate anything if we did not fill the drum with water before we went to school.

Some days, we could hardly wake up and we did not manage to fill all the drums needed, so we went to school with empty stomachs. Life became more difficult again, but worse compared to at our grandparents’ home. At first, our grandmother came and told our stepmother that what she was doing to us was abusive, but she would not listen to her. She told our grandmother that as long as she was the wife of Joseph, nobody would step into her home and do whatever he or she wishes; she still can do whatever it takes to prove everybody wrong and that she was the owner of the house.

After school, we would make sure that the journey of two and a half hours was travelled within one and a half hours, or else there was no food again. No one was treated favourably; everyone was treated the same, including her own children. Daily, before doing anything else, we were forced to pray so that God would give us strength not to disobey the orders and also to pray for the people who hated her. There was a prayer written down in the dining room as follows: ‘Dear Sovereign Lord, the father of Abraham and Isaac, give us the strength and wisdom to know you, cast out everyone who hates our lovely mother and put the jealous into exile, for no one can stop You in whatever You do. We glorify You, in Jesus’ name, Amen’.

When we finished praying, we would start to sing praise and worship songs. She would stop us singing and say: ‘ok now, one by one you sing, starting with Mike, then Obie, my brother, myself and lastly Uche, the younger brother of Mike. The only one who was not involved in our prayer schedule was our youngest sister, her last born, who was only four years old. We sang one by one and if we made a mistake, we were put into exile for not concentrating. We were all aware of this, so when we were on our way home from school, we practiced.

We used to wear the same clothes and we were not allowed to play with others during weekends. We had our own ball and our own kit to wear and we played two by two only. If anyone was found with us, we were punished. Everyone wanted to be our friends as we were living a township lifestyle. Our home was very big and designed like the town houses, so everyone could come as a visitor to observe everything that was done at home.

Sometimes our stepmother left us alone and went to Botswana and Zambia to buy special clothes to sell in our village. In that time, my country Zimbabwe wasn’t in a good state. The sanctions were so high that you couldn’t go to school if there was nobody working from your family. Even at that time, the United Nations had been banned from providing food and there was no free education in our country. Everything was for cash.

When she was not around, we were all happy together. We did all our daily duties and we were used to the time table. I was the best cooker at the age of eleven when I was in Grade 5. At school, my brother Obie was a gladiator. No one dared touch or mess with me. At home, when it was his duty to cook, I cooked for him. We were a tag team. Mike was good at laundry and cleaning, whilst Uche was good with the livestock. Everyone in the village was amazed by the duties that we did at our age.

Fetching water, cooking, taking care of livestock and cleaning up the seven-room house was not a joke at our age. The village people tried to call meetings to solve this but it wasn’t enough. My stepmother told them that what makes them talk too much was that they were jealous of what she had, whilst they were still sleeping in the huts that they put cow dung on to make polish. The chief gave her a fine, but money wasn’t a problem to her; she paid cash no matter how much the fine.

The whole village hated her. We were also filled with hatred toward her for what she was doing to us. We had nowhere to run, as all the people from the village surrendered to her behaviour. Even our father became her plaything as we watched him being insulted in front of us. At school our teachers were told that if we did not concentrate, they knew well what was best for us.

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: Why do you think this woman gets away with being so mean to everyone?