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Freedom Mupanedemo
A Visually impaired man moves to cross a road at Mataga Growth Point. Clutching a home-made wicker he scans the surroundings for obstacles. His ears sharp as ever, pick on the rattling sound of an approaching ramshackle car and he stops, hoists his head at an angle to allow his ears to effectively determine the sound and speed.

As soon as the vehicle sound passes by, the man, Adonia Machekeza, suddenly feels some tender hands pat his right shoulder, followed by a shriek but sweet voice of a woman offering herself to help him safely cross the road.

Obligingly, Machekeza gives in and is helped by the stranger. The help goes beyond crossing the road as the woman, Janet Bonda takes him further down and, as destiny would have it, their small talk turns into courtship. The rest is history.

Bonda, who herself is living with albinism, knows very well how vulnerable a man like Machekeza is and how both of them are vulnerable to discrimination.

A village blind man, who grew up in the area, and on this day, has been doing his routine rounds at the growth point to while up time, Machekeza quickly sensed deeper motives behind Bonda’s insistence to help and suddenly, he realised a potential wife in the woman.

And lo, there they clicked; there, the adage, love at first sight could not be immediately evoked and certainly in this case not on the visually impaired Machekeza, but maybe for Bonda.

Sooner than later, they became soul-mates. From that day about 12 years ago back in 2009, the two have remained resolute and still they believe, one day they will have a white wedding even in the midst of their detractors.

So, this is the long and short love story of Machekeza and his sweetheart, Bonda.

“I am fine with the relationship. We are family. Yes we met on the road and many families that exist have couples that met in some rare circumstances. We are not the first ones,’’ she says.

The couple today, in their different conditions, are now husband and wife and blessed with three kids, one of whom has since taken her mum’s gene and is living with albinism.

Their story is one discreet and sad one. Both families have refused to bless their union.

“Our own relatives discriminate against us and both families have refused to bless our marriage. But we are in love and happy,’’ he says.

The wife’s relatives have refused to accept that her heart fell on a blind man. They felt with her condition she needed a “better” man to help her out.

“An able man who could fend for her since she has some limitations with a very sensitive skin was what they expected not the visually impaired Machekeza,’’ say some family members.

To them a blind husband is the worst she could go for hence they have until today, some years into their union, refused to recognise Machekeza as their son-in-law.

“When I married my husband, everyone in my family disapproved arguing he couldn’t  help me out owing to his condition. They wanted me to leave him because they thought with my own condition, I would be exposed even further since it meant I should be the bread winner,” narrated Bonda.

She reckons that contrary to her parents’ thoughts, Machekeza in his condition, is a caring husband, who fends for his family.

“My parents and other relatives even refused to accept her husband’s little token of appreciation as part of lobola.

“Their argument was that they could not take money from a man who is visually impaired and already struggling with life,” she said.

The complexity of this union is that even Machekeza’s family did not help in any way. They,  on the other hand could not accept him bringing in a woman with albinism to be the part of the extended family. To them this spelt a curse in the family so they also could not accept Bonda.

But the couple soldiered on.

Today they have their homestead comprising a bedroom hut and pole and dagga kitchen which doubles as their three kids’ bedroom.

“We have weathered the storm and with God’ grace we are still together pulling and going,” says Machekeza.

He said his family could not accept Bonda and chucked him out of their homestead.

“When I indicated to my family that I was marrying Bonda despite her condition they asked me to pack and go, so driven by my love for her, I moved out and approached the village head who in turn allocated me a small piece of land to stay.

From scratch, they started a new life and at one point Machekeza left the family and went to South Africa where he begged from the streets sending the little proceeds back home.

Machekeza who has a musical talent believes if he gets support and well-wishers to buy him instruments, he can be a good musician.

“I am a mbira musician and I only need some support with instruments so that I can grow my music,” he said.