The company didn’t have a budget for me to receive any formal training. As far as the human resources department was concerned I was still a sign writer on paper; I wasn’t officially transferred me to my new post. So I became better at teaching myself computer skills. I started coming to work early and I didn’t take lunch. Before I knew it, a couple of weeks later, I started to produce the company invitations on my own. I designed things that were normally done by the advertising agency, which saved the company more money.

Then one day I overheard the marketing director talking to his personal assistant. The company wanted to open a restaurant in the flagship supermarket. But they were hampered by the advertising agency’s delays to come up with a proposal for the managing director. I then took it upon myself to come up with an appropriate concept and name for the restaurant. When my proposal was complete I had no idea how I was going to present it to the marketing manager because my position didn’t allow me to be a part of any important meetings.

I finally managed to talk to the marketing manager, told him about my idea and presented my concept. I suggested that the name for the new restaurant be “Red Dinner”, he seemed impressed with what I had done. He took my name and idea to the management meeting where the board approved it. A week later I received a letter of congratulations and a one thousand Zim Dollar voucher to shop at the company’s supermarket courtesy of the management director and the board.

I was happy and grateful, even though the Zimbabwean dollar had devalued at the time, I appreciated the sentiment. My forward thinking led to my being handed more responsibilities within the marketing department. In those days, the company hosted the largest horse racing events in Africa. It was cleverly connected to a promotion in all the national supermarkets. It was also culminated in race day, which was attended by close to one hundred thousand people from all over Zimbabwe.

There were many things to organise in order to put those events together. I would be given what I thought was challenging responsibilities in this main event. I applied for study loans in the hopes of studying a course that would give me a more formalised position in the company. However, all my applications were unsuccessful because my salary as a sign writer was not enough for me to qualify for a loan. I become discouraged and fell back to my old ways of drinking. That’s when I was introduced to and dagga and reggae music, partly by my boss, the public relations manager. I looked up to her and I spent a lot of time with her. I even visited her at her home where she introduced me to her friends, most of which smoked dagga. One of them was a drug dealer.

She was a psychic who would read my future using cards. This gave me hope that my position in the marketing department would be formalised. But that didn’t come to pass. I became entrenched in Rastafarianism. I started to listen to music by the likes of Peter Tosh, Burning Spear Black Uhuru, and Mutabaruka and came to see life as either black or white. I learned about the Babylon system, this was the formal business and education sector within Rastafarians that resonated with me. I was disappointed with what seemed like a dead end job. I was frustrated and I wanted to become a fulltime Rasta with dreadlocks who smoked marijuana whenever I wanted to.

One day woke up and felt that I had just had about enough of my job. I went to an internet café in the city centre and wrote an email to the marketing department. I resigned with immediate effect and sent it. Afterwards, I told my parent that I had left because I was ashamed to say I had resigned. They told me that they would take me to see a sangoma in our village, who could help me get my job back by giving me muti. I went reluctantly.

I went to see him. He didn’t look like a sangoma, not like I had expected. He was wearing normal clothes as he stood waiting for me under a tree. He gave me a couple sticks, the size of match sticks. He instructed that I throw them in my bath and break one and put it under my tongue when I went back for my disciplinary hearing. I knew that there wasn’t going to be a hearing. I only went to see this sangoma out of respect for my parents who’d asked me to go. I went back to the city, did what the sangoma said for two days and then I threw the sticks away. People started asking why I wasn’t at work. I didn’t explain myself to them as I felt that there was no need for me to do so.

A couple of months later I started my own business.

It was during the Davis Cup World Tennis Tournament. The white Zimbabweans filled the city sports centre to watch the brothers Byron and Wayne Black, who played both the singles and doubles. I bought flags from my dad’s printing business, along with other Davis Cup themed merchandise, and went to sell at the stadium. My business took off very well. I would also go to cricket matches and in the late 1990s Zimbabwe’s cricket was on a high; it was the golden era.

My business blossomed. I hired four guys to help me with the selling and promotion of my merchandise during the busy cricket season. One time I arrived early at Old Harare Sport club, where I saw Zimbabwean cricket players Grant and Andy Flower, sons of the man who introduced me to the gentlemen’s game. I asked them to autograph my stock so I could sell it when the games started. I also followed cricket tours as they played around the country.

I was so happy at the time because I was earning much more than what I had earned when I worked at the supermarket. I had the opportunity to meet many different people every day. I met a lady at a Davis Cup match, who advised me to save some of my earnings and buy shares on the Zimbabwe stock exchange. I took her advice, saved up and bought shares. I grew dreadlocks and gave myself an off day now and then. I would buy beers and dagga for the guys who worked with and for me. I partied hard and became a heavy drinker like I was a couple of years earlier.

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Tell us what you think: What do you foresee for Nicky as he goes back to his old ways?