Maravi

Chilufya’s death has injured me, cries Sata

Chilufya’s death has injured me, cries Sata
By Chibaula Silwamba, Kelvin Tembo and Mwila Chansa
Friday May 02, 2008 [04:00] Print Article

Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata yesterday said the death of his son Chilufya has left a wound in his life. And St Ignatius Catholic Church priest Charles Chilinda said Chilufya was a rebel and difficult child who looked for happiness in wrong places.

In a message read on his behalf by his niece Monty Tembo during a requiem service for the late Chilufya at St Ignatius Catholic Church in Lusaka, Sata said that as he lay in his hospital bed in South Africa where he received specialist treatment following his heart attack last Friday, he struggled to come to terms with Chilufya’s death.

“It is very difficult to say anything on death, especially death of your own child, a child who is very close and dear to you, I grieve greatly knowing that I have not been able to give you goodbye in person.

Life can indeed be very difficult to understand, it deals you severe blows when you least expect it,” Sata said. “I loved you in womb, I loved you in life and I still love you in death, my namesake Chilufya.”

He said he remembered Chilufya’s birth like yesterday and now he had to say goodbye.

“I am glad God gave you to me as a son; I will always remember your cheerful smiles. My words are few, not because I have nothing to say but because of the great pain that I feel inside,” said Sata. “Mwana wandi wansha nechikonko, wansha nechilonda. My son, you have left me grieving and wounded. I pray that you may find rest in the loving hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, may your soul rest in peace.”

And Fr Chilinda described Chilufya as a rebel who tried to seek happiness, joy and fulfillment in wrong places.

“He Chilufya wasn’t coming to Church and some of you might say ‘but why now should Chilufya come to church that he has died?’ And for me the answer is very simple, Chilufya is a beloved child of God.

Chilufya didn’t come from any of you, Chilufya was not sustained in this life by any of you, Chilufya came from God and he belongs to God. He belonged to this holy space we call church.

The Father Himself has welcomed this difficult but beloved child,” Fr Chilinda said. “If you were to describe Chilufya, how would you describe him? He was a little bit of a rebel, wasn’t he?”

Fr Chilinda recalled Sata being asked during the run up to the 2006 elections how he would manage Chilufya’s behaviour, if he was elected Republican president.

“I think the answer was, ‘president Kaunda had Kambarage and then president Chiluba had Castro and then my Chilufya’. Is Castro here in church? Aah Castro is not here…he is here! You are hiding Castro, I will see you. The last time I saw Castro was at UTH,” said Fr Chilinda, as former president Frederick Chiluba listened on amid laughter among the people. “You know, people come in different forms, some are very difficult, Chilufya was a rebel but the mother loved him. The mother’s love.”

He said even for a difficult and rebellious child, the mother was always there for him.

“You didn’t close the door; did you lock the door when he was out with Castro going to drink? They loved to drink, isn’t it? Even the last thing he was doing the day before he departed from this world, I think it was a drink,” Fr Chilinda said. “He had gone out but here is the mother who has never given up on her own child because beyond the difficulties that she had experienced, there is something of love that she experienced from him. The brothers and sisters and all you friends that knew him, he was not the package of difficulties and problems only, there was some goodness in this young man that will bring to church today.”

He said if Chilufya’s mother and father loved and cared for him, then God loved and cared for him even more.

“God’s is bigger than Margaret’s and Michael’s hearts. God loved Chilufya whom you have brought to this church today,” he said.

Fr Chilinda observed that Chilufya had experienced moments of darkness in life.
“Chilufya was trying to find happiness, joy and fulfillment in wrong places,” Fr Chilinda observed. “His father said he was a rebel, and sometimes he would discuss certain things and he would even challenge his father. And I said ‘Mr Sata, he takes after you, Chilufya must have taken something of Margaret and something of Mr Sata and then he had his own personality’.”

Fr Chilinda said when he received the news about Chilufya’s death, he thought of Sata, who is in South Africa for specialist treatment, not being able to attend his son’s burial.

“I was thinking of Mr Sata whom I went to see before he was flown to South Africa, to anoint him. When I arrived he said to me, ‘father am I dying?’ I said to him, ‘no I am not a messenger of death… I haven’t come here to kill you’. And then he said ‘in the village, when a priest arrives, that means that the person is dying’.

I said ‘no do not be afraid, I have just come here to pray for you and anoint you so that you may get better’,” Fr Chilinda said. “I was thinking of him being away there in South Africa not being able to bury his own son but I think he is present here with us.”
Fr Chilinda urged people to turn to God because he was their creator and sustained their lives.

However, Fr Chilinda said he did not know Chilufya’s encounter with God.
“We don’t know what happened to this young man, he came back in the night, the mother thinking he has just gone to sleep and only then things were not the normal usual thing, then they started finding out what had happened to him,” he said. “Death is a mystery.”

And a family representative, Alexander Chikwanda said Chilufya’s demise had left a huge gap among family members and friends. Chikwanda said Chilufya meant a lot to the Sata family and friends.

“The death of a young person at the prime of their age such as Chilufya is an acutely painful and exceedingly traumatic experience for the community and in particular for family and friends,” Chikwanda said. “Death, whatever the circumstances and irrespective of our tour duration on the transitory habitat mother earth, is always a shattering event.”

Chikwanda described Chilufya as a cheerful person who was always available for all. He thanked mourners for not only turning up in huge numbers to pay their last respects but also for offering solace to the family in its time of distress. Chikwanda also urged mourners to pray for Sata who, because of illness, was unable to see his son put to eternal rest.

“Mr. Sata, who is ever fond of his children and indeed all children lavished Chilufya with affection. Mr. Sata who is embraced by large segments of our society essentially for his compassion and generosity and endless fight for the cause of the weak and disadvantaged in our society has had to bear the agony and anguish of not burying his dear son. He deserves our prayers,” Chikwanda said.

Chikwanda also thanked, on behalf of the family, the government for promptly evacuating Sata to South Africa for treatment.

“The action by government went beyond the symbolic issue of call of duty. It underscored the strength of our country that when the imperatives of our common humanity, fellowship and compassion so dictate, we can put aside our political differences and do the needful, our duty to mankind,” Chikwanda said.

And Chikwanda said Sata sounded encouragingly strong when spoken to by phone. He said Sata was discharged on Wednesday but still had a few weeks for his condition to be monitored. Hundreds of people attended Chilufya’s requiem service.

Among them were Chiluba and his wife Regina, All People’ Congress (APC) president Ken Ngondo, FDD national secretary Newton Ng’uni, PF vice-president Dr Guy Scott and several members of parliament from both the opposition and ruling party.

Labels: CHILUFYA SATA, FAMILY TRAGEDY, SATA

posted by MrK @ 6:01 AM