My clothes were already dirty from me being dragged into the bush; God knows where those two men had taken me. The last thing I remembered was the violent blow to my cheek before everything went blank. I looked down at my skirt. There was blood all over the bottom part. My whole body felt numb. There was a pool of water in the ground nearby. I used the water to wash my panties and then hung them up to dry on the branch of a tree.

That was the only piece of underwear I had. All my possessions had been stolen from me by the guma guma gang. This gang attacked and robbed people in the bush between the South African and Zimbabwean borders. Their targets were illegal immigrants. My savings from selling tomatoes on the streets in Harare were all gone, for nothing. But I had to be strong because I was still far away from my destination. I didn’t know exactly where I was, only that I had crossed the border and was in South Africa – the land that flowed with milk and honey.

Every Zimbabwean who came back from a trip to South Africa came with something to show. But right now I had nothing. My small business wasn’t very profitable because I had little income to buy more fruits and vegetables, as the other vendors did. At times I ended up preparing some of the tomatoes I should have sold as relish, to serve for us to eat with pap. South Africa was my last hope of getting employment to enable me to support my siblings.

My name is Rudo, which means ‘love’.

Love is special, if you are surrounded by family and friends who love you. My parents, whom I treasured the most, had passed away and I had to carry the yoke of being a parent to my younger siblings all alone. It was something I couldn’t pass on to another person because there was no-one else who could stand by my younger brothers.

It was tough to support my two siblings with the money I got from selling fruits and vegetables. I was sixteen, but I wasn’t at school. Going to school had ended up being a luxury for us; what mattered more was having something in our stomachs.

Thinking about food now made my stomach grumble. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had eaten. Thinking about what had just happened to me was worse. Those two men who had raped me had taken something I valued more than anything. Something I could say was my own. Something I could never buy with money. They had taken part of my life.

I crouched next to the tree, hugging my knees, and allowed the tears to flow.

But after a while I wiped my face with my blouse and stood up. No matter what, I had to continue my journey.

I hope there will be a Good Samaritan who will take me to Joburg, or even Cape Town where I’m supposed to go, I prayed as I sat on the side of the road waiting for a car to stop and pick me up.

***

Tell us what you think: What choices does Rudo have at this point? How would you feel in her situation?