Monday 16 May 2016

THEY ARE PEOPLE AFTER ALL

Passing by Chichiri campsite was never an easy thing to do. “They hit people there” kids would say. I had a very bad picture of soldiers as a kid. In secondary school I heard similar stories concerning soldiers from Monkey-bay.  So every time I saw a soldier, I looked the other way, pretending not to see them while trying so hard to avoid eye contact. If not for the fear of appearing suspicious I probably would have been running the opposite direction every time I saw one. After all who wants to get slapped around for merely being a civilian.

When I was in college I got the chance to know soldiers. one of my best friends came from a military background. I remember the first time I met one. Tall, dark, well soldier-like. when he spoke I was shocked. He spoke like any other person. Slowly I got immersed into the world of soldiers to the point that I wanted to be one too. By the time I was leaving college I had a very different picture of soldiers. They are people too, they pray, laugh, eat, love, cry. just like the rest of the world.

When I was in standard four, I knew this other police officer. His name was Mr Banda. Before him, police officers were something to scare me by. “if you cause trouble, police will arrest you.” But Mr Banda talked, he laughed, he said hello. How could such a person arrest a kid. I never asked these questions out loud though. Since them I grew up with the mentality that police officers were my friends. I would tell my friends, “I can talk to a police officer” it was something admirable in my head. It still is.

However, college distorted my image of the police. Suddenly they became something you run from. Even when there were no demonstrations, if I saw a police officer I would quickly scan my head for all the possible crimes I may have committed. After college, I got a chance to spend time with police officers. Every two weeks, I would work with a different group of them.  And guess what? They joke too. They pray. They can have babies. They fall in love. 

I have friends in the Military, I have friends in the Police Service. They think, they feel, they love, they get angry. Today, some of my friends will be going for training to join our friends in the Malawi Police Service. I wish them all luck. Yes, some people will look at you differently after this. But I know, the only difference between you and me is the uniform you have to wear and of course the six months of running. I will proudly say, I have friends who are police officers. Just as I proudly say, I have friends who are soldiers.

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