The Rape Victim
This is an absorbing story on the timeless topic of rape. In this story, Mr Liwetete stands on trial on a charge of raping his wife. For her part, the complainant, Mrs Liwetete, is desperate to see her husband convicted and thrown in jail so that she can get married to her boyfriend, Mr Liwetete's childhood friend. She spices her evidence with lies and exaggerations. To complicate the matter, Mr Liwetete has had a previous conviction for rape, for which he had served an unforgiving nine-year jail term. Although at the time of his conviction, it was widely believed that the sentence had been too harsh, given the uncertainty of the facts put before the court, and also considering that he was a first offender. Indeed, most of Mr Liwetete's friends, who had known him to be a gentle and caring person who would not even squash a mosquito feasting on his blood, found his conviction hard to countenance. However, as in the present case, it had been a case of public opinion calling for a firm stand against rapists, especially serial rapists.
Since his release from prison seven years ago, Mr Liwetete has managed put his life back on track as a successful food-supply businessman, courtesy of an honest crook - a senior warder, who made it possible for him to earn a sizeable amount of cash by making him participate in a robbery he had hardly known anything about. The cash had been handed over to him on the same day of his release from prison as payment for his part in the well-orchestrated crime. For now, though, as the judge went through the pages of his judgement, Mr Liwetete sat silently in the dock with his head hanging low and heavy in front of him. His mind wandered back to his dark days in prison - the hostilities amongst groups of inmates, the diet, the work routines, the prison warders, the various unorthodox ways to cope with the natural sex drives and cravings, the shame of being in prison - and above all, the wasted time, day by day. In prison, your life just wastes away and nobody outside seems to care, or even notice; there is no present, no past and no future - you're just there. As Mr Liwetete listens to the judge's summary of the case, it looks as if the nine years he had innocently spent behind bars had been for nothing. "Is it not enough that a man is sent to jail for nine years for a crime that did not exist?" Mr Liwetete ponders. He wonders what the maximum sentence will be this time around, particularly given that he is now to be regarded as a habitual criminal.
Unknown to Mr Liwetete, the judge is also caught up in his own moral conundrum, knowing that if the odds are reversed, he may as well also be found guilty of the same charge Mr Liwetete is facing. As a staunch Christian, almost to the point of fanatism, the question, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her" has begun to ring louder and louder in his ears, while at the same time he is well aware that in his profession, 'the law is the law'. Nonetheless, the judgement must be delivered to put this case to bed. What judgment will the uncompromising, brutal and merciless Judge Mulumesi deliver in a matter of minutes from now? Read this compelling novelette to find out.