“There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts being broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dreamwhatever that dream might be.” – Pearl Sydenstricker Buck

“You have achieved what you wanted,” the email began, just like that, with neither the introduction of the author nor of the issue, “I have been fired. Thy will be done.” I stopped reading for a minute or two, staring hard at the name of the sender, which read only as Tatha. Whether Tatha was the first name or the surname I had no idea. I quickly thought it was one of those unsolicited emails that flood your mailbox every day, ranging from Viagra adverts to lotteries that tell you you have won a million dollars- a bolt out of the blue. I was just about to delete it when the eye darted to one sentence after the other; and then the eye’s attention was firmly captured, and the whole body responded by having the arms folded to support the jaws.

“I remember you pretty well,” the email continued. “You sat on seat number 12D on a flight to Johannesburg on the tenth of November. You kept asking me for beer even when your glass was still full. Little did I know that when I advised you I would bring you some more beer after the glass had been emptied of its contents, you would take offence. The next thing, you wrote your angry comments to the airline, that I was rude to you throughout the flight. Malawi Air management takes such comments very seriously, as the airline is trying hard to operate at world-class level. So they have fired me as a warning to the rest…”

Tatha! Now I remembered. I remembered the tall, beautiful girl, very beautiful actually, with a bewitching smile that no man would ignore. Her eyes were big and lovely, and her legs belonged to a super model. I even remembered asking her what Tatha meant, and I think she said it meant “we have perished.” I was on the flight to Johannesburg, my very first time to fly, and, I must add, the only one to this day. I got the opportunity courtesy of an air ticket I won at a raffle draw organized by the Lundazi District Council. Now I have even forgotten what the proceeds of the draw were going to be used for. But what I shall never forget is that the first prize was a brand new Toyota twin cab and the second was a flight to the glamour of Johannesburg for two nights at the Parktonian All-Suite Hotel in Dekorte Street, Parktown, complete with a one thousand dollar shopping voucher at the Westgate Shopping Mall.

I was very excited, no doubt. This was history in the making. I was going to be the first person from my village called Botolo in Chief Zumwanda’s area in Lundazi District of Zambia to fly to Johannesburg- or to fly at all. In fact, when news spread that I had won an air ticket, the whole village gathered to see me arrive from town. All of a sudden, everyone wanted to talk to me! Even those that never talked to me wanted to behave like they were my closest friends. By the time I left for Johannesburg, which was a week after winning the ticket, one vimbuza dancer in the village had composed a song about my flight!

I travelled by road to Lusaka, a city I was seeing for the first time too. I had heard so much about Lusaka, about the Cairo Road and the Arcades Shopping Mall. When I checked in at the Hotel Intercontinental, it was all like a dream. The people from my village who had visited Lusaka before talked about the Hotel Intercontinental with such high praise that one would think it was the eighth wonder of the world. They had not slept in the hotel themselves, but now here I was, looking at the beautiful fountain next to the main entrance as I walked to my room!

The following day I took a Malawi Air flight from Lusaka to Lilongwe, where I connected to Johannesburg. It was on the Lilongwe-Johannesburg flight I saw this girl called Tatha. “What you must know is that you have succeeded in destroying a vision,” the email continued. “Since I was young,I always wanted to work for Malawi Air. I dedicated all  the twenty-three years of my life in pursuit of this vision. “But now all that has been broken into pieces. The disciplinary committee gave me a photocopy of the comments you made. I hang it on the walls of my room at home in Blantyre. This is where I got your email address, the only contact detail you put on the Passengers’ Comments Slip. You have killed my dream. You have taken away from me what I loved most.”

Suddenly I felt deeply touched. Without knowing it, a tear had formed in my eyes. I only realized I was tearing up when the tear rolled onto my cheek and dropped onto the pink shirt I was wearing. Using the back of my right hand, I wiped the tears and sat staring at the computer for a long, long time, looking at nothing. “It’s time to close, sir,” the café’s receptionist said, standing over me with a note in her hand. “That is the bill, sir.”

I sat up straight as if a needle had just pricked me in my back. The bill read fifty thousand kwacha, something around thirteen American dollars! This wiped out a big chunk of the money I had for the remainder of the month, and there were twenty days to go! I should not have come to the café in the first place. It was a luxury I could have done without. Yet the issue of Tatha resurfaced in my mind, and my heart once again accompanied the young lady wherever she was in her suffering. Why did I make such a negative comment about her? Why did I make any comment at all? A string of questions followed in my mind, but no answers were forthcoming. “I said what name should I put on the receipt, sir?” the girl asked, a trace of irritation or sarcasm or both creeping in her voice. Apparently I did not show that I had heard the question the first time she asked it. “Zgambo,” I said. “Francis Chumachamara Zgambo, Z-G-A-M-B-O.” She had already filled the whole space where the name needed to be with Zgambo in block letters in the least admirable handwriting. In fact, even before I finished spelling out my surname, she had already torn out the receipt, her hand stretched out for me to receive it. She could not wait to close.

I walked out of the E-World Internet Café in the heart of Lundazi town. As

I walked to my village on the edge of the town, I thought hard about Tatha’s situation. At the material time, the whole incident was hardly more than a joke to me. We had thirty minutes before landing at the OR Tambo International. The lady in charge of the cabin crew walked in the aisle, waving some white pieces of paper. “Your comments about our service please,” she said, smiling. Without giving it much thought, I got one of the papers from her and started filling it out. I had been drinking for two hours. In common parlance, it could be said that I was drunk, although it should be mentioned that I was not completely sozzled.

When on a drinking spree back home, I was used to buying lots of bottles at once. In our community, it was a sign that one had money- the more the bottles on one’s table. As luck would have it, as I got drunk, I wanted to repeat the same feat on the plane. I thus kept pressing the bell-button over my head to attract the attention of the cabin crew. As it turned out, it was only Tatha that kept coming. She refused to put more beer on my tray before my glass was empty, which made me think she was rude. Thus I found myself commenting as much on the Passengers’ Comments Slip. It was the only comment I made. I signed off with my name and my email address in case they wanted to follow up the issue. To be honest, I forgot all about it as soon as I handed in my comments.

Until that afternoon.

Now the careless comments had ruined somebody’s career. A whole vision had been crashed at the stroke of a pen by a hand that was drunk. The issue clouded my mind all the way home.

That night, I tossed and turned on my mat, sleepless. I must take back my comments, I kept telling myself. The girl is innocent. She committed no wrong. The more I thought about it, the more I strengthened my resolve to take back my words. But how? I wondered. How? How? How?

I thought of many possible ways to do it. I could email the airline a reversal of my complaint. I could word my apology in the most beautiful way possible, choosing every word carefully. On second thought, I decided not to use email. Emails are still largely regarded an informal way of communication. But then the most formal way meant sending by post, and with our unreliable postage system, the letter would take ages to reach Malawi Air.

Far into the night, I just sat up and said: “I must go to Malawi. I must go to Blantyre myself to take back my comments. The girl must not be penalized.

She must not be victimized.” I spoke out loud. If anyone had heard me, the impression created would have been that I had gone indubitably mad. Strangely, though, I slept peacefully after saying this.

The following morning, I decided to take a wristwatch I had bought in Johannesburg to Lundazi town. It was a very beautiful Rolex. I walked to a lot of places, offering it to many people at the price of one hundred and twenty thousand kwacha, the equivalent of the price I had paid for it. No one seemed interested in a wristwatch to begin with, not to talk of one that was that expensive. Later, much later in the afternoon, when I was tired and hungry and thirsty, an Asian who ran a shop in the main street offered to buy it at eighty thousand. I could not hesitate. I accepted the price eagerly.  After visiting the nearest restaurant, I went back to the internet café. I responded to Tatha’s email, telling her how deeply hurt I was by the fact that she had actually been fired over my comments. I had resolved, I said, to come to Malawi myself to retract my comments from her employers. Would she kindly tell me her physical address?

I wanted to personally apologize to her when I was in Blantyre. I would be coming that very week, I emphasized. I was hopeful she was going to be reinstated. That night I slept well.

I was at the café first thing the morning after. I checked in my mailbox. Tatha had not responded. I went about town selling most of the things I bought in Johannesburg with the raffle money. I had to raise money as quickly as possible to go to neighboring Malawi. It was going to be a long journey, made worse by the fact that this time I would be travelling by bus. I therefore needed a lot of money, more than my miserable salary could afford, which was why I had resorted to selling the South African possessions. I kept dropping by the café every once in a while to check my email in case

Tatha had responded. But by five, as the girl closed, I had just done my last check and there was nothing. Not even the unsolicited emails containing Viagra adverts. The following day I would be leaving for Blantyre.

I arrived in Blantyre a very tired person. The journey was long and strenuous. My back ached terribly, and my legs were in great pain. The buses I had travelled by were small and jam-packed with sweating humanity. Sometimes during the journey, I wondered whether that email from someone I did not exactly know deserved all this effort. That she had been treated unfairly I had no doubt, but wasn’t life so full of inequalities and injustices? She was just another item in the statistics of unfairness, probably one better off than thousands of women who got smuggled across borders with promises of lucrative jobs, only to be sold into sex slavery. Such vices, I concluded, were far worse than mine. On second thought, however, I asked myself: would I live with a clear conscience ever after? It was doubtful. Yet, I mused, if they needed comments on those buses I had just ridden to Blantyre, I was sure going to write plenty. It was no good to sacrifice human comfort with the sole purpose of maximizing revenue. Unsurprisingly, there was no room for any comments on the service of such buses.

I checked into the Paradise Inn, a big inn in one of the suburbs of Blantyre. At night, as I lay on the small bed of my room, I wondered whether Paradise looked like the dirty rooms of that inn, because if it did, I had reservations about going to it. I also wondered what would happen at the offices of Malawi Air the following morning. Would they accept the retraction of my comments? Due to fatigue, I slept like a dead piece of wood.

“I would like to see the Chief Executive,” I said to the receptionist, a girl who seemed to speak endlessly on the phone. “Hold on…” she said to the person on the other end of the line, “you said?”

“I would like to see the Chief Executive.”

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked.

“No.”

She stared hard at me. I wondered whether in my corduroy trousers and a short sleeved shirt fashioned by a Chinese designer whose name I could not read, I looked unfit to meet the Chief Executive. “Is it business or personal?” she asked again at length. 

“Business.” She frowned. She flipped through something that looked like a diary and shook her head. “ The whole morning is occupied. Try at two.” “But I won’t need much of his time. Maybe ten minutes, that’s all,” I pleaded.

“I have travelled all the way from Zambia for this meeting,” I added. She gave me the look of you-could –as –well-have-travelled-from-Mars-butthat-won’t-change-anything. “Come at two,” she said flatly and continued talking on the phone. Judging by the direction of her telephone conversation, it certainly was not business. Whoever was on the other end wanted a male child for a first born.

  At two o’clock, I sat opposite the Chief Executive on the first floor of the Malawi Air House. I narrated the purpose of my visit, deliberately avoiding to mention that all this had been triggered by an email I received from Tatha.

“Although I was drunk when I wrote those comments, I clearly remember that I wrongly accused one of your cabin crew, a girl called Tatha, of rudeness. Now, more than a month later, I have had no peace. It simply is not true. I made those comments under the influence of alcohol. She committed no crime. I would like to retract my comments.”

The Chief Executive sat silently for some time. “You will have to put the retraction in writing for it to be effective,” he said. “In fact, I have already written,” I told him, producing a letter from my breast pocket. I passed it over to him. He opened it and read it, nodding here and there until he folded it and looked up. “I’ll present this to the disciplinary committee,” he said. “I am sure they will reconsider her case.” 

“You realize, sir, that it was going to be easy for me to merely send this letter by post,” I said, “but I have had to endure travelling almost one thousand kilometres in most difficult circumstances to retract the comments in person, as a way of showing remorse for what I did.” “I will mention all this to the disciplinary committee when it convenes,” the Chief Executive said. “I am sure they will understand.” I walked out of the office feeling assured that the girl would be reinstated. At the reception, I again found the receptionist talking on the phone. This time the conversation was to do with mushrooms or something like that. When she attended to me after putting the person on the other end on hold, I asked how I could trace the whereabouts of Tatha, a former employee of the organization. “Go to Chileka International Airport and ask for Towera, her best friend. She will lead you to Tatha.” “How can I get to the airport?” I asked. I was a total stranger here. I knew nothing about places. “Are there any taxis nearby?” “Why do you Malawian

men like mushrooms…?” she was on the phone again, her attention completely shifted away from me. I walked out. 

I had to wait for thirty minutes for the girl called Towera to come out of the Malawi Air offices at the Chileka International Airport. She apologized for taking so long, saying she was so busy she could not have managed to leave her desk before the official knocking- off time of 5 p.m. I quickly told her my story and asked if she could lead me to Tatha. Towera looked at me coldly and said: “So you are the one who destroyed Tatha’s life,” she said, half as a rhetorical question, half as a mere statement of fact. “This is all she wanted in her life, and you took it away from her.” I felt so guilty and looked down, avoiding her severe stare. I did not know what to say. “I realise…” I attempted to say something, “I realise my wrong. I have come to correct it. I want her to forgive me.”

“I was at her home yesterday,” Towera explained. “She had not eaten for five days. She could not speak to me. She just stared emptily. Her mother told me she has hardly been out of bed since the sacking. Do you know she is the sole bread-winner of the family?” I did not answer. She began to walk to the taxi rank. I silently followed. We found a taxi. “Take us to Chitawira,” Towera told the driver.

It was dark and raining heavily when Towera instructed the cab driver to stop. “This is where she lives,” Towera pointed to a small house. A solitary bulb shone from under the eaves directly over the doorstep. “I won’t go with you as it late,” Towera went on. “I have to rush home.” I produced a few Malawi kwacha notes to contribute to the fare of the taxi. I opened the door and stepped into the rain.

The cab sped off immediately after I banged its door shut. The seconds it took me to dart from the cab to the doorstep left me heavily soaked as I had no umbrella. I knocked several times. Nobody seemed to hear the knock. With the rain hitting me hard, I tried to push the door handle. The door was locked. I knocked again and again, the rapping loud enough to wake the dead. Finally, a key turned. The door opened slightly. A thin, fail woman framed herself in the opening. It was Tatha herself, but so different from the plump and beautiful lady I saw on the plane. “You!” she shouted in a moment of instant recognition above the pounding of the rain on the corrugated iron sheets of the roof.

“What do you want on my doorstep?”

“I have come to say I am sorry!” I shouted back. “Please let me in. I am freezing out here.”

She did not move. “You have come to say sorry?”

“Yes!”

She stared at me from top to bottom. “What difference will that make?” she asked, without attempting to open the door wider to let me in. “Your arrogance,” her voice rose higher, above the thunder and the drip-dripping of the rain, “your unfeeling, cruel hand signed my death sentence, killing my dream! And you thought it was easy to kill a dream and show up from nowhere to say you’re sorry? What difference will that make? Shall I dream your apology? Shall I live your apology? Shall I …?”

“Listen, Tatha, I am only human, perhaps more fallible than I knew,” I reasoned. “ I realise the mistake I made. That’s why I have travelled all the way from Zambia to say I am sorry…” 

“What is done cannot be undone,” she said sternly, almost harshly. “Don’t waste my time. Please, leave.”

“Tatha, I …”

“Just go away!” Without another word, she shut the door. The key clicked. I stood facing the door for a long time, oblivious of the rain, the thunder and the lightning. Several times, I lifted my hand to the door to knock again, but the hand hung there, with my fingers bent at an angle, yet without doing the actual knocking, until it fell back limply at my side. Slowly I turned and began to walk away. 

“Come back!” I heard a voice behind me. “Come into the house!” Tatha was calling me from the door.

I was confused. I stopped momentarily, looked back, looked forward again and continued to walk.

She ran and joined me in the rain. “I am confused, OK?” She said. “I do not know what to do, what to say! There is a lot of pain in my heart. But I think it is not good to pay back one wrong with another. Come into the house.

Leave after the raining stops.” I walked on. She stopped, resignedly letting me go. I turned the corner and disappeared into the bowels of the dark night.

A couple of years have now passed, yet my mind still refuses to wipe out that episode. Every strand of detail keeps showing up in my mind, the way one is bound to remember the pictures of King Kong’ or ‘The Gods Must Be

Crazy’ or such other memorable movie. Sometimes I talk to myself, asking myself questions why it all happened the way it did.

Yesterday I was in downtown Lundazi, chatting with my girlfriend during the lunch-break at her office at the headquarters of the Chipili Hills Travel Agency. I casually picked a copy of Msafiri, an in- flight magazine of Kenya Airways. I lazily flipped over the pages amid the chat.

Suddenly, I froze!

“What is it, Francis?” Lyaniso asked me.

A big, beautiful picture of Tatha was pasted there, far healthier than I last saw her, smiling, radiant, full of life and happiness. Under the picture were the words: “Meet Tatha, Kenya Airways’ Employee of the Year.”

“Nothing,” I lied in response to my girlfriend’s curiosity. I quickly closed the magazine and put it back on the rack. I have not told Lyaniso the story yet, for our relationship is only a few weeks old. But, one day, I will.

Understanding and appreciating the story

1. Describe the tone of the email message.
2. Why did the narrator write to Malawi Air? Was his action justified?

Why?

• Was the airline fair in firing Tatha? Explain your answer.
• This story is told from the first-person point of view. Why do you think Kenani made that choice?
• In your own words, describe the narrator’s journey to Johannesburg.
• What does the narrator’s behavior on reading the email reveal about him?
• Why doesn’t the narrator mention Tatha’s email when he meets the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Malawi Air?
• Does the receptionist’s behavior towards the narrator impact negatively on the image of the company? What do you think should be done to ensure that integrity and professionalism are observed at a work place?
• What lessons do we learn from Tatha?
• Imagine you are the narrator. Draft an email to Tatha apologizing for the loss of her job.

1.The tone of the email message can be described as remorseful and regretful. The sender, Tatha, expresses deep disappointment and sadness over the consequences of the narrator’s actions. There is a sense of pain and hurt in her words, and she indirectly holds the narrator responsible for the loss of her job and shattered dreams.

2.The narrator wrote to Malawi Air to retract the negative comments he made about Tatha in his Passengers’ Comments Slip. He felt guilty and remorseful for his actions, realizing that he had wrongly accused her of rudeness while he was drunk. His action to apologize in person can be seen as an attempt to rectify the harm he caused and to seek forgiveness for his mistake.

3.The airline’s decision to fire Tatha can be seen as an overreaction or unfair, considering the circumstances. While it is essential for airlines to take passengers’ complaints seriously and maintain high standards of service, in this case, the narrator’s comments were made under the influence of alcohol. It seems disproportionate to terminate someone’s job and dreams based on a single complaint without conducting a thorough investigation or providing an opportunity for the accused to defend themselves.

4.Kenani likely chose the first-person point of view to provide a more personal and introspective narrative. This allows the readers to delve into the narrator’s thoughts, feelings, and internal struggles as he grapples with the consequences of his actions. It helps the readers empathize with the narrator’s emotions and understand the depth of his regret.

5.The narrator’s journey to Johannesburg was significant to him as it was his first time flying, and he won the air ticket in a raffle draw. This opportunity was a historic event for him, being the first person from his village to experience air travel. He was filled with excitement and anticipation, even becoming a center of attention and admiration in his village before the trip.

6.The narrator’s behavior on reading the email reveals his deep sense of remorse and guilt. He is deeply touched by Tatha’s words and becomes emotional, shedding tears at the realization of the impact of his actions on her life. The regret he feels shows that he is genuinely sorry for what he did and that he wants to make amends.

7.The narrator doesn’t mention Tatha’s email when he meets the Chief Executive Officer of Malawi Air because he likely wants to handle the situation personally and not involve her further. He probably feels embarrassed about his drunken comments and believes that taking responsibility for his actions in person would carry more weight in seeking forgiveness and rectifying the situation.

8.The receptionist’s behavior towards the narrator, being dismissive and unprofessional while attending to personal matters during work hours, does have a negative impact on the company’s image. It reflects poorly on the company’s professionalism and customer service standards. To ensure integrity and professionalism at the workplace, companies should enforce strict rules about personal phone usage during work hours, train employees in proper customer service etiquette, and conduct regular evaluations of employee conduct.

9.From Tatha, we learn the importance of holding onto dreams and aspirations despite setbacks and challenges. She had dedicated her life to working for Malawi Air and had a vision of being part of the airline. Her dreams were shattered by the narrator’s actions, but she still displayed resilience and determination even in the face of adversity. Her refusal to seek revenge or respond with more negativity highlights her strength of character.

10.(Draft of an email to Tatha) Subject: A Sincere Apology

Dear Tatha,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Francis, and I am the person who wrote the negative comments about you on the Passengers’ Comments Slip during a flight to Johannesburg. I am writing to offer my heartfelt apologies for the pain and distress my careless actions caused you.

I want to express my deep remorse for accusing you of rudeness while I was under the influence of alcohol. My behavior was inexcusable, and I take full responsibility for the harm I caused. I never intended for my comments to have such a profound impact on your life, and I am truly sorry for the consequences you had to face as a result.

Over the past couple of years, I have carried the weight of guilt and regret in my heart. Your email made me realize the gravity of my actions and how they shattered your dreams. I commend your strength and resilience in the face of such adversity.

I met with the Chief Executive Officer of Malawi Air to retract my comments, and I provided a written apology. I hope that my efforts will help in reconsidering your case and possibly reinstating you.

I know that words alone cannot undo the damage I caused, but I promise to learn from this experience and be more mindful of my actions in the future. I have been deeply moved by your strength and determination, and I am committed to becoming a better person.

Please know that I am genuinely sorry for what I did, and I truly hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. If there is anything I can do to help or support you, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Wishing you all the best and hoping for a brighter future for you.

Sincerely,

Francis

Discussion questions

1. The world has become a global village. Drawing examples from the story, comment on this statement.
2. The government is in the process of establishing internet villages in the rural areas. How would this be beneficial to those living there?
3. Alcohol abuse in most cases leads to unpleasant situations. Do you agree? Support your answer with illustrations from the story.
4. “The world has become a global village. Drawing examples from the story, comment on this statement.”

In the context of the statement “the world has become a global village,” it refers to how advancements in technology, communication, and transportation have interconnected people across the globe, making information and cultures more accessible and interconnected. The story can provide several examples that illustrate this:

a) Instant Communication: The protagonist of the story might have interacted with people from different countries or cultural backgrounds through social media or online platforms. They could have had real-time conversations, shared experiences, and learned about other cultures, breaking geographical barriers.

b) Access to Information: The story could show how the protagonist gains knowledge and information about diverse topics from various online sources, like educational websites, research papers, or international news outlets. This easy access to information broadens their understanding of the world beyond their immediate surroundings.

c) Cultural Exchange: The story could depict instances where the protagonist connects with individuals from different cultures, sharing their traditions, customs, and perspectives. This cultural exchange can foster mutual understanding and promote global harmony.

2. “The government is in the process of establishing internet villages in rural areas. How would this be beneficial to those living there?”

a) Access to Information and Education: With internet villages, people in rural areas would have access to a vast amount of information and educational resources. They can take online courses, access digital libraries, and learn new skills, which can enhance their employability and overall quality of life.

b) Economic Opportunities: Internet connectivity can open up new economic opportunities for the residents of rural areas. They can engage in online businesses, sell local products to a wider audience, and participate in the digital economy.

c) Telemedicine and Healthcare: Internet villages can facilitate telemedicine services, enabling people to consult doctors remotely and receive medical advice and treatment without traveling long distances.

d) Improved Communication: With internet access, people in rural areas can stay connected with their family and friends, even if they live in distant cities or countries. This connectivity can reduce feelings of isolation and foster a sense of community.

e) Government Services and Information: Internet connectivity can enable the government to provide services and information efficiently to rural communities. This can include access to government schemes, agricultural information, and disaster alerts.

3. “Alcohol abuse in most cases leads to unpleasant situations. Do you agree? Support your answer with illustrations from the story.”

Alcohol abuse can indeed lead to various unpleasant situations, and the story can illustrate this through the experiences of characters or specific incidents:

a) Physical Health and Safety: The story might show how excessive alcohol consumption leads to health issues, such as liver damage, addiction, and impaired judgment, leading to accidents or injuries.

b) Strained Relationships: Characters in the story could be affected by alcohol abuse, leading to strained relationships with family and friends. Alcohol-induced behaviors might cause conflicts and emotional distress.

c) Legal Consequences: The story could include instances where characters face legal problems due to their alcohol abuse, such as getting involved in criminal activities or facing charges for drunk driving.

d) Work and Academic Performance: Alcohol abuse can impact a person’s ability to perform well at work or in academics. The story might show characters facing professional setbacks or academic failures due to their drinking habits.

e) Social Isolation: The story can portray how individuals grappling with alcohol abuse might isolate themselves from society, leading to loneliness and a deterioration of their mental health.

f) Financial Burden: Alcohol addiction can be financially draining, as characters in the story might struggle with managing their finances and meeting their basic needs.

Overall, the story can emphasize the negative consequences of alcohol abuse, serving as a cautionary tale against excessive drinking and its detrimental effects on individuals and society as a whole.

THE RETRACTION

BY

STANLEY O. KENANI

1. Setting

The story is set in three countries. First, there is the narrator‟s home country, Zambia. Part of it is set in his village and part of it in the capital, Lusaka. Secondly, it is set in Lilongwe, Malawi. The final setting is Johannesburg, South Africa. The movement between Botolo and Lusaka dominates the story. Another important aspect of the setting is the contrived setting. The contrast in the two contrived settings brings out the futility of the complaint letter against Tatha.

• The plot

The narrator receives an email from Tatha, a former airline hostess, with Malawi Air. She complains that she loses her job on account of a complaint letter that the narrator writes.

Through a series of flashbacks, we learn exactly how he came to write the complaint. The airline served alcoholic drinks on the plane. However, the hostesses were under strict instructions to give additional drinks to passengers only after they had finished what they had been served.

This was the only limitation.

The narrator however comes from a culture in which pride at a drinking place depends on the number of bottles that one places on the table. Every time he rings for a hostess, it is Tatha that appears and politely declines to serve him an extra drink unless he has finished what he‟s been served.

Towards the end of the journey, another hostess asks the passengers to write down their comments on slips of paper that she provides. The narrator confesses he was drunk having been drinking for two hours but still gives his comments. He alleges that Tatha had been rude to him throughout the flight.

Tatha‟s email touches him so much that he sells most of the things that he‟d bought with the prize money and travels by road to Malawi, a 1000km journey, to retract his complaints and to personally apologise to Tatha. He does not get the responses he had expected and travels back home crestfallen but happy with what he had done. Years later, he sees Tatha in a magazine crowned the hostess of the year at Kenya Airways.

• Conflict

1. Tatha and Zgambo

This is the main conflict in the story. Tatha‟s dream from childhood has been to work for Air Malawi. This she has achieved and wishes to develop her career. What brings her and Zgambo together is fate. Fate would have it that Zgambo would win an air ticket at a raffle draw courtesy of the Lundazi District council. Fate would have it that he boards the plane on which Tatha was on duty. Fate would have it that at drinks time, the less sophisticated Zgambo, would wish to invoke his tribal pride of beer drinking. Fate would have it that airline drink policy allowed for only one drink at a time and Tatha would politely advice him so. However, there was no upper limit. Fate would have it that Zgambo would take advantage of the upper limit policy and get drank. Finally, fate would have it that the airline, in a bid to offer world class services, had resorted to seeking passengers‟ views on the flight and that the drunken Zgambo would make his comments that Tatha had been rude to him throughout the flight.

That‟s it. A man‟s ego took advantage of company policy and ruined ta fledgling career.

38

This conflict is further developed when Zgambo visits Blantyre to retract his comments. He goes to Tatha‟s home and she bluntly refuses to welcome him despite the rain. She claims that the apology would do her no good, nor will the retraction amount to anything. Finally, he turns to leave and she runs up to him to ask him in until the rains die down. She adds that she was confused by the whole event. He declines to go in with her.

1. Zgambo and the airline‟s CEO

Zgambo gets to Blantyre and visits the Malawi Air office. His intention is to meet the CEO and retract his comments. He does meet the CEO but finds out that the retraction is not a one man affair. The CEO has to present the matter to the disciplinary committee. There was nothing more for Zgambo to o but leave.

1. Zgambo and other service providers.

1. Zgambo and the café receptionist

She was downright rude to him. He says there was a trace of irritation, sarcasm or both in her voice. Further, she does not wait for his full name but fills the entire space with his surname in block letters and in very poor handwriting. She then tears off the receipt before he finishes spelling his name and hands it to him. This is because she was in a hurry to close.

• Zgambo and bus service to Blantyre

The buses were small and jam packed with sweating humanity. The bus industry sacrificed human comfort for the sole purpose of maximising revenue. What is more, they did not entertain comments on the services they provided.

• Zgambo and Malawi Air receptionist

The receptionist spoke endlessly on the phone as she served Zgambo. She dismisses his pleas the he sees the CEO sooner just so that she can get back to her telephone conversation. Hardly a world class service. The call was not a business one.

• Character and characterisation

1. Zgambo

1. Careless/irresponsible He made disparaging comments about Tatha‟s work to take revenge on an employee who had declined to soothe his ego because what he demanded was against company policy.  As a result, she lost her job.

• Reflective Upon receiving Tatha‟s email about the consequences of his actions, he reviews the events on the plane and says that he had not acted judiciously. He seeks to correct his actions by retracting the comments he‟d written.

• Determined

He seeks the most effective way to make the retraction. It turns out emails are not taken seriously and the Zambian postal system is ineffective. He is left with only one option: travelling to Malawi. To achieve this he has to sell most of the things that he‟d bought using the gift shopping voucher from the raffle. He sold most of the things at a fraction of their cost. Further, he endured the discomfort of the buses and inns to make the retraction in

39

person. Finally, he patiently waits for several hours to meet the CEO and makes his retraction.

• Concerned

He is bothered that his comments resulted in Tatha losing her job. After meeting the CEO he walks out feeling assured that Tatha would be reinstated. He is relieved when he finds out a couple of years later that Tatha got a new job and was excelling at it.

• Themes

1. Integrity

This is the main theme of the story. Many characters display a lot of dishonesty in this story. For example, the narrator only learns that his actions on the plane lacked integrity after they had caused Tatha her job.

Most of the service providers he meets lack integrity and are merely concerned about themselves. Therefore the services they offer are poor at best.

Malawi Air too is a prisoner of its own policies. They were quick to dismiss Tatha on account of a comment from a solitary passenger who was drunk. The claims were not verifiable. What is more, they were at pains to rescind an unfair decision that they had made even after a personal retraction by the complainant. They also have double standards: passengers on their planes are asked to make comments on the quality of service but visitors to their offices are given such an opportunity. As a result, the receptionist uses company resources, time and phone, for personal benefit without fear of retribution.

Finally and most importantly, Tatha acted with integrity but lost her job on

account of bureaucracy.  However, because of her integrity she lands a similar

job in a different company and is soon crowned Employee of the Year. Integrity

pays.

Suffering

Another theme worth examining is suffering. Find out all the characters that undergo suffering in this story. Name them and illustrate the suffering they go through.

• Style

1. Irony

The chief device that the author uses in this story is irony. The narrator had complained about Tatha‟s alleged rudeness on the flight to South Africa. Her behaviour is contrasted with the other service providers who are downright rude to him. This makes Tatha‟s integrity stand out.

1. Symbolism

The rain is a symbol of suffering.

We encounter rain in the evening the evening that Zgambo went to visit Tatha. We are told that it was raining when the taxi they were in pulled over in front of Tatha‟s house. The narrator steps out of the cab and into the rain. In the seconds that it takes him to reach the door, he was heavily soaked. His entire conversation with Tatha is held with the rain hitting him hard. He pleads with Tatha to let him in because it was freezing cold in the rain. After Tatha dismissed him and shut the door in his face, he stands facing the door for a long time oblivious of the rain.

40

When he chooses to walk away, Tatha calls him back but he walks on. She joins him in the rain and tries to convince him to stay in the house until the rain stops. She says that her actions were as a result of the pain she was filled with. The rain therefore symbolises the suffering that the two undergo.

7. POV

The story is told from the first person point of view. The narrator makes a mistake for which he wishes to make amends. The story is about the challenges he faces in his attempt to retract his comment on Tatha‟s conduct on the flight to South Africa. Coming from the horses‟ mouth, the story is credible. The honest remorse of the narrator is evident.

8.

1. Appropriateness of title

The retraction is an appropriate title because the narrator made a comment on Tatha‟s conduct that he should not have made. He tells the Malawi Air CEO exactly that. But the real story is in the lessons he learns as he tries to make the retraction. He learns that most people discharge their duties completely devoid of integrity and that he had judged the one person who served him with integrity wrong. Above all, he learns that his efforts to make the retraction did not go to waste. Tatha did get a job at a new company and continued to excel.

• Significant event

The significant event in this story is Tatha writing a email to complain to Zgambo that he has hurt her career. Without this email he would never have

known that he had wronged Tatha. It is responsible for his making the retraction.

• Aim of the author

This is a morality story. The writer cautions us against doing things just because we can. There is a need to reflect upon the possible outcomes of our actions on the people we deal with. People should behave with integrity whether or not they are being watched. The message in short is that integrity pays.

TASK

We like to cause suffering to ourselves and those around us.

Write an essay to show the validity of this statement using

The Retraction by Stanley O. Kenani for your illustrations