Severino K. Bakuri …… (3)
Death …………………… (0)
Severino K. Bakuri triumphs after extra time
BY VINCENT GOTAMI
In the game of football, the strength, and prospects of success for a player is not defined by their dribbling skills nor ability to play within the regulated standard time of ninety minutes, but ability to endure and finish even if the game is to spill into extra time, maintaining the same stamina, energy, and thirst to emerge victorious.
In the journey of life, its trials and tribulations could be equated to the game of football, then the journey walked through by the late Sekuru Severino Bakuri, a renowned educationist, unifier, advocate and icon of social and family unity, ambassador of the Catholic faith, perfectly qualifies him as not only a play maker of the game of life but one who deserves a gold medal around his neck.
As the curtain came down and the clock wound to his illustrious life in the early hours of the 4th of March 2023, taking his last breath gasp at a private healthcare facility in Masvingo, and as the news of the demise of his adorable soul filtered through, for a moment the conscience of relatives, friends, churchmates, workmates and the generality of the spheres and radius in which he lived went through a momentary black out, indifferent on whether to drain in grief over such a non-returnable blow and loss, or to celebrate and cherish his illustrious life, or both such grief and celebration.
The notorious and non-prosecutable armed robber, death, by passed all security measures and protocols at the 24 hour clinic in Masvingo, gained unwelcome entrance and straight to the ward where Sekuru S.K was calmly recuperating from, and against the wish of all, completed a typical and spectacular heaven heist in which the ransom demanded by the gods was nothing less than the life and soul of Sekuru Bakuri, and in the process condemning his three sons Kule Tendai, Kule Tatenda and Father Kudzai Bakuri and his ever soft and patience champion wife to the league of orphans and widows respectively.
No wonder why the ancient Botswana film makers described the gods as crazy in the yesteryear popular film, THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY.
Whilst the pain of losing him is still raw and fresh as if our minds where the pain is reposing are air conditioned and temperature controlled to keep the pain fresh, it is only worth to take stock of Madyira’s life, pick learnings and shape/ form some aspects of living after him. Being a muzukuru of the royal Gumbo totem, better part of my interaction with him was all laughter and joy but educative and informative.
The first take away point to learn from Sekuru’s life was love for all. By love, in the context in which it was practiced by sekuru S.K, I mean original and hard, unshakable love not for a selected few in his close circle but for all.
If anyone was to claim to know Sekuru S.K and fail to pick promptly at the infancy of their interaction, the overflowing love he had, then that person’s claim of knowing him would be void of a basis.
One encounter that quickly rewinds the mind is when I passed by his house when he was seated in his yard with the boot of his car full of fresh mealie cobs harvested from his thriving peri urban farming venture which he was selling.
I stopped close by, pulled off the road and walked back to the entrance of his yard. As expected, Sekuru S.K had already stood up upon realizing my car and that I had stopped to greet him. The expression on his face was very predictable because it had become a trademark, that big smile. “Saka wanga uchida kudarika usina kumhorosa sekuru?” was the first question he posed on me as I greeted him.
Playing with the uncle’s tail, I replied “Mudhara uite mushe iwe, saka unoti ndamisirei mota, I know you vaera Gumbo kuda kutonga tonga, ndosaka ndamira kuti ndikukwazise.” He immediately burst into laughter and, without counting, randomly picked fresh mealie cobs that his arms could maximumly carry and walked me to where my car was parked and threw the mealie cobs in my car.
“Chienda unobikirwa nemuzukuru wangu kwaye mudzimai wako, kwete iwe chipenzi chemuzukuru.” Again, he burst into laughter walked back to where he was seated.
As I took off with my car, excited with the carbohydrate supplement jackpot for myself and my family I had just hit out of sekuru’s kindness, as the laughter initiated by Sekuru Bakuri faded away, a quick reflection struck my mind.
Surely if he were to repeat the gesture, he had extended me to the next person to pass through, which he is capable of doing, surely how much profit would this old man make out of his hard work?
The answer quickly graced my mind. What mattered to him was not the material return on original investment but love extension through sharing to the next person, above all not expecting any reciprocation in the process.
So deep was his love, fused with faith, that in contemporary society and times where men find it difficult to part with as little as a torn dollar note, potentially rejectable even with street vendors, as an offering during church services, and only do so with reservations or tactfully to dodge the embarrassment of remaining seated while others line up to give offering, Sekuru S.K threw in the offering basket the priceless gift of a whole human being to the church, one of his two sons Father Kudzai Francis Bakuri.
Sekuru S.K was an advocate for the preservation of culture, values, and norms especially when it concerns family unity. Educated, influential and successful as he was, he never dropped the culture ball and in all interactions with him, he would make sure that when describing a person, where they come from, their totem or identity of any of their relatives, maiden or in laws, is part of the description.
This is something he passed to his children and is inherent and evident in all interactions you make with them. With the life he led during his career in education at a time the teaching profession was thriving more than now, as his children grew up, resourced well with both parents in the working class, the risk of losing direction of life, compromised faith, and an oblique moral projection synonymous with over resourced spoiled youths who had everything at their disposal in their formative years was very high.
The case was different with Mdhara S.K Bakuri. With the resources and amenities provision to his sons came along discipline, wisdom and inculcation of faith, something that has lived sustainably to see this day within his children and family. Even in their adulthood, the life lessons kept coming their way. I remember at the deaconate ordination thanksgiving mass of his son Father Kudzai Bakuri in 2016 where I was the Master of Ceremonies, Sekuru S.K Bakuri’s speech was short, precise, straight to the point and pregnant with meaning, directed at the newly ordained deacon son. “This was your choice and we respected it. Ini handidi munhu anozodonhedzwa nezvisina basa” and he was done! I have confidence sekuru Kudzi still has these words in mind and will always remember them in his ministry infested with temptations.
The extent of his love and how it’s cherished publicly was evidenced by the hundreds who graced his send off. So befitting was the sendoff that the population of vehicles alone which parked in and around his rocky yard in Bako communal lands of Mukaro area in Gutu outweighed the human population that has thronged some funerals I have attended.
The second rare trait that Sekuru S.K possessed was that of bravery and endurance. For close to three solid decades, at different intervals, at least three chronic ailments and their resultant health complications united, connived, and declared Sekuru S. K’s body as the best habitable facility to dwell.
With faith and hope, he embraced the ailments as they came and committed not to let the conditions define him nor his destiny. He kept thriving in his education profession, farming ventures, family, and social responsibilities and above all, maintained his participation in church programs.
Countless times he was in and out of different hospitals, but his stance never changed, pointing the middle finger, and telling off the pain that his chronic conditions was bringing. Again, this he made sure he inculcated in his off springs. You meet any of his sons, you check how sekuru is doing, and with joy and hope, they would answer you he is stable and getting better, you would joke and talk other social issues even though behind the curtains and blinders of their family house they endure the sight of their ailing father in unbearable pain, deteriorating at an exponential rate especially in his last days, where the word stable in the context of sekuru S.K transformed meaning to refer simply to a functional pulse rate and nothing more.
Hard work and humility defined Sekuru S.K as he grew to become a successful farmer, both crop and livestock. This is one aspect of his life that was collectively skipped by all who delivered speeches at his sendoff ceremony, and I failed to understand as to whether they actually knew this bit of his life, or they had forgotten.
Maybe I was bound to remember more being a direct beneficiary of his hard work and generosity, having feasted on his harvest for free before.
March 4, 2023, Sekuru S.K finally gave in, terminated his union with the illness and pain and answered the call from the ubiquitous agent for souls transfer to our permanent home where the Lord reside, DEATH. Soldiers of Sekuru S. K’s caliber never die, they simply take a rest. And we say rest well chitova, madyirapanze, godzamuto, mwana wa Chinomukutu, Chaurura wegona. You are somewhere you can see us, but we cannot see you, but with faith, joy, and hope, we know we shall see in the other life already prepared for us. The competition for eternal life is over for you, you got the last laugh and full entitlement to bragging rights. You conquered, you defeated death and you are the winner. Thank you for not taking Gogo with you, now I can take over!!!!
EVERLOVING MZAYA
VINCENT GOTAMI
