Today is the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Bus accident survivor ANGANILE MSUKWA relives her journey beyond the wreakage. Road accidents have become a leading cause of preventable disabilities in Malawi.
My world utterly changed on August 14 2018.
That fateful Tuesday marked the genesis of my journey living with one arm.
I was 16 years old and I had grown up using two arms.
It has been a journey laced with resilience, hope and some bittersweet moments.
The day started as any other normal day.
Despite the blistering sunshine, I was thrilled with the prospect of returning to school after a long holiday at home.
The anticipation to reunite with my schoolmates and start a new term made the experience more exciting.
I bid farewell to my family, letting them know how much I was going to miss them. We hugged and then I boarded a Mzuzu-bound Interline Bus from Chitipa via Karonga and Rumphi.
Tenenthe tragedy
Tragedy struck before hitting Mzuzu where I was to board another bus to Blantyre where I was in Form Three at Maranatha Girls Academy.
The setting was Tenenthe, a notorious accident spot along the hilly Chitipa-Karonga Road. It was around 9am.
When we reached the slope with a hairpin bend, the bus suddenly sped uncontrollably and it was scary.
Like all terrified passengers, I shrieked and shouted at the driver to slow down.
But, unknown to us, the driver had lost control of the bus and it missed the road and overturned into a cliff.
There were screams of agony and anguish.
The next minute, I woke up to a painful reality—I had lost my right arm on the spot.
It hit hard in my face. My strong arm was gone—just like that! I felt sad and hopeless.
It took long for me to pull myself out of the wreckage due to the excruciating pain. There was no rescue mission in sight.
Everyone on board, except the driver, survived the tragedy.
I was taken to Karonga District Hospital where I was admitted for days before being referred to Chitipa District Hospital to be closer home.
The road to recovery was lengthy, filled with multiple surgeries and emotional turmoil.
A different world
Getting discharged from hospital opened a new chapter, a step into a different world with a litany of unfamiliar challenges.
It was not easy to adjust to using one hand to bathe, wear clothes and train myself to write using the left hand.
Some insensitive people subtly ridiculed me for losing an arm. I also had to worry about some people staring at me curiously or others unnecessarily feeling pity for me.
It was discomforting to be suddenly labelled disabled as if disability is inability
Of course, I had a strong support system, comprising my family and the church where I belong.
During that tough period of adjusting to new life, my aunt I lived with in Blantyre did everything to ease the emotional pain, including showing me videos of individuals who had overcome greater challenges in life after losing parts in various accidents.
The videos helped me realise that losing an arm was not an inability. They made me determined to soldier on.
With faith that could move Mulanje Mountain, I embarked on a journey to adapt to new realities.
I trained myself to do such domestic chores—mopping and cooking with one hand.
Even when Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe gave me a prosthetic arm and trained me how to use it, I discarded the artificial arm because I did not feel at ease with it.
I had fully adapted to ably using one arm when executing most of the routine tasks.
Hope against adversity
While I was still admitted to the hospital—shortly after being discharged—there were moments when I felt like giving up on life, but an inner strength refused to surrender.
There was this burning urge to fight on and rewrite my life journey.
I did not let adversity define me. So, I went back to school at Maranatha Girls Academy in 2019.
My class performance dropped largely due to trauma. I could not concentrate on studies.
Living among my peers who had known me to have two arms was also depressing. The stares of unwarranted sympathy did not help matters.
So, in 2021, I changed schools. I transferred to Ilinga Private Secondary School in Chitipa where I sat for the Malawi School Leaving Certificate of Education examinations.
Against all odds, I successfully passed the national exams.
In 2023, I was selected to pursue a bachelor of science in communication and Journalism at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
I am currently in my third year of studies.
Who knows? I could end up becoming Dr Anganile Msukwa! My dream lives on.
