A SILENT SONG ESSAY QUESTION
Failure to listen to wise advice can result in conflict. Write an essay to support this assertion based on Stanley Gazemba’s Talking Money.
No one is perfect. We all have some flaws. If unchecked, our individual shortcomings such failure to listen and heed good advice can result in misunderstanding. Mukidanyi’s irritability and obstinacy result in his disagreements with his brothers, his wife and Mr. Galo.
Mukidanyi disagrees with his brothers over the sale of his land. When his elder brothers Ngoseywe and Agoya try to advise him against selling his land, they fall out bitterly and their wrangles almost come to blows. Mukidanyi throws both of them out of his compound, his eyes flaming red. Shouting at them, he declares that he does not need their help. He does not need anyone’s help. He will run his household however he deems fit. Ngoseywe tells him that he will need them one day. Today, his head has swollen like that of an expectant toad in the field. He insults them and adds that he will do what he pleases with his land. In that terrible fit of rage, the neighbours can only watch helplessly from a distance as he clicks loudly, spits angrily on the ground and dashes a water pot against the wall. Mukidanyi’s fury leads to a bitter disagreement between him and his elder brothers.
Mukidanyi also falls out with his wife Ronika over the sale of his land. Ronika joins Mukidanyi who is warming himself in the main room. She persuades him to listen to what his brothers are telling him. He also advises him to consider leasing the land instead of selling it off. In her plea, she posits that Ngoseywe and Agoya have a point. She tells Mukidanyi that no one could stop him from selling his land, but he should listen to other people’s advice. Mukidanyi ignores his wife’s words of wisdom and resorts to violence instead. He grabs his hippo-hide whip and gives Ronika a thorough lashing leaving her screaming and whimpering till the small hours. Mukidanyi’s obstinacy ends in a conflict between him and his wife Ronika.
Thirdly, Mukidanyi ignores Ronika’s entreaty when she asks him to be wary of the Galos. She asks him if he knows the Galos. She reminds him that hardly anyone in the village does business with the Galos. Their money is not good, she says. No one knows where they get it from. Ronika beseeches Mukidanyi not to turn a deaf ear to what everyone tells him. These pleas leads to a conflict because Mukidanyi is apt to ignore wise counsel. He assaults his wife Ronika using a hippo-hide whip and she screams in pain and her whimpering only dies that morning. Mukidanyi’s stubborn nature leads to bitter disagreement between him and his wife Ronika.
Mukidanyi refuses to listen to Ronika and easily trusts Galo. When Mukidanyi springs his price out of the blue. Mukidanyi expected a haggle. When receiving the money, 500,000 shillings in cash, Mukidanyi does not count it. He easily trusts Mr. Galo. He says that he trusts him since he does not expect a friend to lie to a clansman. Galo offers to take Mukidanyi to Kakamega for transfer of the title deed at the surveyor’s office. Mukidanyi ignores Ronika’s warning and accepts Galo’s money without batting an eyelid. This causes conflict between them when the money starts talking later that night. Ronika furiously throws Mukidanyi out of the house and tells him to go and return the “devil” money. She finds the courage to mock and ridicule Mukidanyi , a big man who is hard of hearing. The row is as a result of Mukidanyi stubbornly disregarding wise advice.
There is a disagreement between Mukidanyi and his wife the night he sells his land to Mr. Galo despite her objection. That night he wakes up twice and lights the lamp to ascertain that the briefcase was still there, chained to the bedpost of their termite-infested wooden bed. He calls Ronika and asks her what time it was, since he is too anxious to sleep. His wife, angry from the lashing she received earlier that day, nonchalantly asks him how he expects her to know the time at that hour. Mukidanyi is eager for the daybreak so that he can go and take the money to the bank in Mbale. Ronika is bemused at being woken up in the middle of the night, the hour for witches unless Mukidanyi is a witch himself. She refuses to engage in Mukidanyi’s midnight chitchat and returns to her soft snoring. Mukidanyi is a disturbed man. He cannot sleep. He has to squeeze his eyes shut and try to force himself to sleep. He is forced to awaken with a start when he hears the voices. Again, he wakes up an audibly irritated Ronika. Playfully like a couple of school going children, the money under the bed was talking. The money Ronika had warned him about is the cause of their conflict and Mukidanyi’s regret.
Mukidanyi is mocked by his wife because of Galo’s money. She had warned him about. When the money starts talking Mukidanyi freezes stiff, his whole body covered in sweat. His wife is also frightened, her bony hand clasped on his wrist, her bosom heaving. The silence in their hut is morbid. Ronika commands Mukidanyi to light the lamp. She speaks in a shrill voice and scolding tone when she says that the house had been invaded by the ‘viganda’ spirits. Her breath whistles in the tense darkness. Mukidanyi’s hands shake as he gropes in the darkness for a matchbox. Ronika’s face is slick with sweats when she tells Mukidanyi that he will now listen to people. They fight because of the strange money. Had Mukidanyi listened to her advice this could have been avoided.
The fallout escalates when Mukidanyi is thrown out of his house because of the evil money. With a note of hysteria in her voice, Ronika commands Mukidanyi to take his money. She reminds him that she had warned him about Galo’s money. His elder brothers Ngoseywe and Agoya did too. But Mukidanyi is hard of hearing. Ronika’s lined face is an indication that she dies to wrest him to the floor. She refers to him contemptuously as a big man who is hard of hearing. Mukidanyi is scared of touching the briefcase, about the voices or the viganda spirits. Her eyes glowing angrily, Ronika laughs at Mukidanyi hysterically when the money talks again. She tells him that today, after dipping his hand in the wound to ascertain, he will learn about the people of the world. Today, he will know. She forces him to unlock the padlock after physically dragging him to do it. Then, she throws the briefcase out and sends her hapless husband after it. The children are bewildered for they had never seen their mother that angry or their father that frightened.
Lastly, Mukidanyi changes his mind about selling the land and finally returns the money to Mr. Galo. He had been warned by Ronika but due to his stubbornness he did not heed. The journey is long and harrowing. The couple hundred yards to Mr. Galo’s home seems like a mile. The briefcase gets heavier and heavier with each step. He is haunted by unseen night creatures swimming all around him, taunting him with their octopus arms. Sometimes he trips, slick blood-sucking tendrils would then grip his arm. He fights the demons when he feels the hold tighten and the razor edge biting into his flesh, but without drawing blood. The moment is scary. He is, however, determined to return the case despite the hurdles. When he finally gets to Mr. Galo’s house and meets him, he says he has changed his mind about selling the land. He returns the money then dashes away. He hits himself on the low-hanging branches and outcropping roots as he returns from Mr. Galo’s house. Surely, obstinacy results in regret and conflict.
In conclusion, one’s weakness can end up causing disagreements.
