I can not state as fact that James Jemwa was fatally hit by a car under the influence of alcohol but knowing him and the time the incident last night around NSSA building in Harare occured it does not need a rocket scientist to tell or discern if you know the late Tsano Jemwa! I learnt around 10am today that the curtain has fallen on the life of James Jemwa(as I affectionately called him). He was a fearless photojournalist who was a bonafide decorated drinker.
He was a jovial companion whose presence lit up many spaces from newsroom corridors to dimly lit taverns that we drank together. I did though I would sometimes run away from him for his behaviour yekudenha, ini ndokwata dhudhu!(I would leave him if intoxicated because he was foul mouthed ). I first met Jemwa through my homeboy Taona Jonhera a senior photo journalist at ZBC and our acquaintance deepened when I discovered that he worked alongside my ex-wife Rumbidzai Musarurwa and mother of my lovely daughter Maita in theatre productions.
With time, he affectionately called me Tsano a title that carried through that he called Mai Maita a sister. We then got more acquainted when he worked under my son-in-law Cyrus Nhara who is married to my daughter Tanaka Mazura at Al Jazeera. Our paths often crossed at watering holes like The Quill Bar and most recently Tawaz Balcony Bar where our conversations flowed as freely as the bottles on the table.
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Tsano Jemwa was a decorated drinker proudly in my league though, let me confess that it is a bad habit that my fiancée (whose name I’ll wisely withhold lest opportunists strike) and the prayers of my spiritual father Apostle Rodney Chipoyera are helping me overcome that habit that is retrogressive to development.I however take solace in the FACT that the first synoptic gospel say that the first miracle Jesus turned wine into water has espoused in John 2 Vs 1-11 if mu Biblical knowledge serves me well having being born and the grew in the Seventh the Day Adventist church founded by revered Ellen White! Tsano Jemwa was a man of people of the office I may say it in China Achebe’s voice.
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