My Ghanaian King Saved Me From Hopewell Chin’ono

Talking of Zimbabwean hashtags, there is another Zimbabwean hashtag trending, its called #FreeHopewell. The hashtag trend came after Hopewell Chin’ono, an award winning Zimbabwean journalist was arrested more than two weeks ago on charges of inciting public violence, though critics say he is being punished for helping to expose high-level corruption in Zimbabwe.

However, when I heard he was arrested, I reminded my King, ” Remember Hopewell, the guy you saved me from, he’s now some kind of hero in Zimbabwe and all over the media.” We had a good laugh about the good old days when I met my King.

Hopewell takes me back about 5 years ago, when I was going through the most painful traumatic ordeal of my life. Oh, gosh, I can’t help but pen this little chapter of my life that includes Hopewell, on my journey of pain and abuse, I sort of met this man along the way…

Though I sympathize with Hopewell’s current plight, sadly when I see Hopewell, I don’t see a hero, he always reminds me of my vulnerability as a single mother, and how Zimbabwean men were just ready to exploit me and take advantage of me, until my Ghanaian knight in shining amour came along to redeem me and take away my reproach.

When I say Nino saved me, he really did. I never get why black African women worship pastors or spiritual “Daddy’s” as they call them. I don’t get why they idolize these men, yet they can never do that to their own husbands. For me, my spiritual father is my husband, he has protected me from all sorts of vultures, especially Zimbabwean men who called themselves celebrities. My Facebook inbox was flooded by all sorts of so called “celebrities” the moment my story of abuse went viral. One so called “celebrity” called Nox pestered me and when I showed him no interest, he then blocked me.

However, when I received a Facebook message from Hopewell, he caught my attention because he expressed how he had been following my ordeal and wanted to do a documentary about it which he said would bring justice to my story. He showed me his portfolio and I watched one of his award winning documentaries and was really impressed with his work.

Over time, Hopewell then said he wanted to come to my house to do an initial interview of how we would go forward with the documentary. He told me he was based in Zimbabwe but traveled to the UK frequently. We agreed and arranged a date for him to come to my house for the interview scheduled for when he would next be in the UK.

It was during this time that I met my King and Boaz, and I went public about him on my blog and Facebook.

However, for some strange reason, Hopewell’s communication with me changed. He wrote to me and said he was concerned that I now had a “boyfriend” and wasn’t sure if the boyfriend would interfere with the documentary.

I said to him he shouldn’t worry about my boyfriend, as he’s a calm man who supports me in everything I do.

Then on the day he was scheduled to come for the interview at my house, he never showed up and I sent him a whatsapp message to ask what was going on because I had made arrangements to accommodate the interview, not to mention how he had wasted my time for months. His reply was simply…

“Ko muface wako mu Ghanaian haazo jamuka here ndikauya,” meaning, “If I come to your house, won’t your Ghanaian man kick off.”

I was like, “Why would my man kick off, you are coming here for an interview, its not like we have anything going on…”

When I told Nino, he was like, “He wasn’t coming for any ‘interview’ or ‘documentary’. He just confirmed what he was coming for and his true intentions.”

All the respect I had for Hopewell as a journalist just vanished like that. I couldn’t believe how unprofessional he was. Talk about trying to create an entanglement which is not even there. I wondered if that is how he worked with women he featured in his documentaries, did they need to be “single” for him to do any “work” with them?

Everything was good when I was a vulnerable single mother, the moment I had a man next to me, Hopewell couldn’t work with me anymore.

I have had a journalist from BBC in my house. I have had a journalist from Daily Mirror in my house. The one from the Daily Mirror was a man, he had no business being concerned about who my husband or boyfriend was, in fact it was Nino who let him in the house. That is professional journalism.

But as for Hopewell, he just saw me as a vulnerable single mother, and he wanted to exploit my position in life and society in the name of filming a documentary about my abuse, the irony of it all. Sometimes it makes me even angry when I think of what would have happened with Hopewell if Nino wasn’t with me.

All I could say to my Ghanaian King was thank you for saving me from Hopewell.

So as Zimbabweans hashtag #FreeHopewell, my hashtag is a testimony of how #IWasSavedFromHopewell

The Genesis Of the Revelation By

Mary-Tamar was Jean