The story of Hakkunde will not be complete until the story of Aisha is woven into it

Hakkunde meets a young lady in the course of his sojourn in the north and she made such a deep impact on him.

Aisha was a beautiful maiden who was ostracised in the community she lived because she was accused of killing her two husbands. She was treated like scum by the villagers, harassed in the market place, abandoned by her best friend and she once sought to die by taking an overdose of codeine.

Hakkunde refused to believe all the negative stories told about her and felt drawn to her, probably because of their shared pain – two lonely souls rejected by society. He tried to plead on her behalf that her name be redeemed by the village head but his request was turned down.

But he did not give up.

Though Aisha was labelled a black widow, he stayed by her side and they discovered a rhythm of love that was stronger than every false accusation.

A black widow is a type of female spider that is said to devour the male species. It is used figuratively to refer to a woman who kills all her husbands and is so attractive that men cannot resist her.

Aisha is castigated and avoided like a plague because of the subsequent deaths of her two husbands. But Hakkunde is driven by his affection for her and probes till the truth is revealed.

Aisha’s two husbands both died of Sickle Cell Anaemia!

Aisha was being falsely accused1

I pondered on the story of Aisha and the lessons learnt from it.

How many black widows have we CREATED?

People who are innocent of the crimes they are being accused of but who are ostracised from society.

People that we join others to disdain without trying to find out what they have done.

People that we watch gleefully as they bleed from the wounds that society afflicts on them.

So which will you be?

Those who torment the Aishas of this world

Or the Hakkundes that rise to fight for them to obtain justice?

Pick your portion.