Buffalo attack leaves Mbire man (un)manly Amos Jokonya, who suffered severe trauma after a buffalo attack, narrates his ordeal (ab0ve), shows his head injuries (top) and (bottom) goes about his daily duties at his home in Masoka Village, Mbire District
Amos Jokonya, who suffered severe trauma after a buffalo attack, narrates his ordeal (ab0ve), shows his head injuries (top)  and (bottom) goes about his daily duties at his home in Masoka Village, Mbire District

The picture collage shows Amos Jokonya, who suffered severe trauma after a buffalo attack, narrating his ordeal, showing his head injuries, and going about his daily duties at his home in Masoka Village, Mbire District

Freedom Mupanedemo Syndication Writer
It’s about mid-morning in Masoka communal lands in Mbire, and a frail, wiry and grey-haired man leaves his pole and mud hut which he calls home to answer nature’s call. For Amos Jokonya (76), like many poor villagers in Masoka, his hut totters with age, its straw roofing hued black by daily fire- wood smoke and is surrounded by a thicket that he calls his toilet.Each day, he chooses a new point to “post his letter” when nature calls.

And this particular mid-morning he carefully chooses his point, skirting and tip-toeing over previous postings before taking his position.

2602-1-1-HIS HEAD WAS ALSO BADLY INJURED FOLLOWING THE ATTACK

Suddenly, and within the twinkle of an eye, a wounded buffalo ferociously charges, picks him with one horn from between his legs and tosses him into the air, his already torn pair of shorts becoming immediate history. He drops with a thud, but the bull goes for the kill, this time picking him by his tummy, ripping the stomach open.

Somehow, his shirt got entangled between the horns, forcing the buffalo to retreat and run away.

“I had gone to relieve myself when I suddenly found myself staring at a fretting and charging buffalo. I never got the chance to move an inch.

“Before I could run, the buffalo had attacked and I was on the ground. It lifted me and whatever happened next only God knows. After regaining consciousness hours later, I discovered that I was alive, but with my intestines out. My tummy had been ripped open and my private parts were badly injured. In fact, I no longer have my twins. I lost my manhood,” recounts Jokonya.

He said as the heavens would have it, a passers-by stumbled on him as he seethed in pain.

“I was heavily soiled and the buffalo had spattered all over the place. A scotchcart was quickly organised and I was taken to Masoka Clinic, where I was transferred to Harare Hospital where I spent several months in admission,’’ recollects Jokonya.

But how Jokonya found himself in a male surgical ward in one of Zimbabwe’s biggest referral hospitals remains a mystery to him.

2602-1-1-JOKONYA HOME

It was this near fatal buffalo attack that brought him to Harare for the first time.

Masoka communal lands in remote Mbire is a different world all together. The vagaries of nature and history that condemned it might as well have cursed it.

There is no cellphone network, no road network to talk about, no business centres, but marauding wildlife and an unforgiving weather pattern.

Day in day out, people and wildlife fight, at times to death, it’s a typical jungle where survival is for the fittest.

Jokonya, who is equally condemned by history, geography and fate, is a living testimony of how cruel life can be, yet to survive, you must be resilient.

His soul is as scarred as his body, making him a sorry sight. The man lost his genitals, suffered three broken ribs and had his tummy ripped open.

“I really don’t know how I survived that buffalo attack. It was a miracle and by God’s grace I am living today to tell my story,” says the dejected Jokonya.

Jokonya has since been deserted by his two wives, for he can no longer perform conjugal duties.

“I thank God that I am alive, but am a useless man now. My two wives have since walked out of the marriage because they were no longer getting their conjugal rights. I now stay alone and life has not been rosy since then,” says Jokonya, who revealed that he now survives on handouts as he can no longer do any menial job to fend for himself.

“I only do very light jobs and it has not been rosy for me. I normally go fishing and exchange my catch for food in the village.”

Jokonya says he is now a weakling and sometimes sleep deserts him.

“I sleep on one side, but sometimes I wake up in very serious pain. It’s a difficult life,” he narrated.

Masoka communal lands is a vast swathe in Mbire district and borders Chiwore National Park to the north, Doma Safari to the west, Dande South Safari to the south, Chisunga and Kanyemba communal lands to the east. Human-wildlife conflict is the order of the day.

There is nothing unusual when villagers wake up to find their crops having been grazed by elephants. Neither would it sound newsworthy to the locals for a pride of lions to have attacked their livestock in their pens.

It’s common and somehow part of the normal daily life for wildlife and humans to mix and mingle albeit with systematic clashes. It is a delicate cohabitation.

Intriguingly, there are some rather horrifying and appalling human-wildlife encounters that occur but still go unheralded, some of them earth-shattering and harrowing, the type that only video footage or action pictures can best describe.

Jokonya said a week barely passes without a villager being attacked or their livestock being attacked by wild animals in the area. At times villagers are fatally attacked by these menacing wild animals.

Jokonya is not the only wildlife attack victim in Masoka, the area headman, Blessing Chisunga, says there are some villagers who have lost lives after being attacked by wild animals.

“The challenge here is that we live with these wild animals. We are surrounded by game parks and normally these animals flee hunters into the villages. We also have the Doma people who are hunters and gatherers, at times their prey escape and most wild animals which stray into our villages would be running from attacks and every person they meet would be an enemy,” he said.

Headman Chisunga said they have lobbied Government so that they also benefit through the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (campfire) programme. — Zimpapers Syndication Services.

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