#MyTwoCentsOnCherylGitonga
By Silas Nyanchwani
One of the earliest Nollywood Movies that I enjoyed in the early aughts, was Fugitive, starring Ramsey Noah (no doubt the G.O.A.T) and Genevive (the most beautiful African woman), Rita Dominic, Alex Osifo et al.
In the movie, Ramsey Noah’s girl friend dies in an apparent drug overdose if my memory serves me right. Too bad she was the daughter of either the Attorney General or Chief Justice of the country and Noah was to be jailed for a long time had he not been rescued by some compassionate lawyer. In turn the lawyer’s daughter had a thing for Noah but that is besides the point.
Why I bring up this, is because, sometimes life throws at us certain responsibilities that are difficult to bear. Being the last person to see someone before they die is a huge responsibility. Worse, if the death is under controversial circumstances. The scene where Noah is trying to urge the girlfriend to wake up stuck in my head permanently. He is so innocent about it, oblivious that she is dead.
And his life took a sudden change for worse, even though it is just a movie.
Every day, when you wake up, you don’t know what life may throw at you. You may conceive a future president or Hitler from a sexual encounter you didn’t even enjoy. You may be a hero who rescues school children from a shooter. You may win the lottery. Such unpredictability is what intimidates us as human beings as much as it gives us hope.
What I know if daily, you set out to do the right thing, you pray, and you carry with you a genuine heart, you don’t have to fear what life may throw your way.
Lastly, here are my quick thoughts about Cheryl.
1. They did not have to reveal the name and the face of Cheryl.
2. If as she says that was the first time she was meeting JJ, it goes to show how fickle life is and how just one decision, one moment, one, one day, one thing can suddenly change your life, for better or for worse. She didn’t when she went to meet him that she will enter into the imaginations of Kenya, in a not-so-good way. But I hope she will forgive herself, her family and friends will be able to support her and stand with her to remind her, whatever happened may never have been her fault, she just happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time and for presumably wring reasons.
3. We still judge women, yet in such things it takes two to tango. I will blame the man, who is older and wiser in this case.
4. Everything is never what it seems. In murder investigations, the most obvious lead, is never the right lead (7 out of 10).
5. Murder is wrong. Karma is real. Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. There are a million creative ways of handling or containing individuals. Murder is really primitive.
6. Reading widely helps. Fiction. Non-fiction. It offers you a wide array of ideas, circumstances, situations that help you figure out how to negotiate your life out of shitty situations.
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