Zimbabwe: Jacob Zuma - Polygamy vs Promiscuity
Fay Chung
13 February 2010
FOR some weeks the press has been regaled with reports about President Jacob Zuma's recent marriage, his fifth, and the recent birth of his daughter out of wedlock, his twentieth child. This is a familiar story in Zimbabwe too, where many rich and powerful men do indulge in both polygamy and promiscuity. Generally these rich men are involved with girls and women from poorer families.
These girls and women, and often their families as well, welcome their liaison with rich and powerful men. This is their opportunity to improve their financial and social position in the world.
Many poor men also indulge in both polygamy and promiscuity, as having many "wives" may be seen as a prestigious status symbol. Some people think this is good, as it is part of our "traditional culture". Others think it is very bad, as it is fuelling the spread of HIV and Aids.
This is a good time for all of us to examine this "traditional culture". Culture does develop according to the needs of the people, of society and of the times.
Clinging to an inherited culture may be good or bad, as a cultural trait may be progressive or it may be retrogressive. There are many aspects of Zimbabwean culture which are wonderfully progressive.
There is no doubt that polygamy and promiscuity remain prestigious status symbols for men in Zimbabwe.
Having more than one wife is still taken as a symbol of wealth and power by some Zimbabweans, both men and women.
A man may be admired for having many wives, particularly if they are beautiful and talented. They are objects of admiration and envy. However, a woman who is promiscuous is not praised.
She is regarded as a shameful person, a disgraceful person, a sinful person, a despised person, and even a criminal person.
Yet sexually transmitted diseases, including the much feared HIV/Aids, are spread by promiscuity, whether of men or of women. Why should men be praised for promiscuity, and women be condemned for the same behaviour? Should the rules of society not be more equitable?
In traditional societies everywhere, marriage was used as a way of cementing social relations.
It is a well known phenomenon that the kings and queens of Europe are related to each other, as marriage formed social cement which united the different nations.
The same thing happened in Africa, where a king or chief would marry a wife from every clan or from every district, in this way ensuring that the nation or the ethnic group remained closely bound together by blood. This is common in all feudal societies.
Modern societies are larger than the small kingdoms of the Middle Ages in Europe and Africa.
So the idea of linking polygamy to national and tribal unity can no longer be utilised as a good reason for its continuation.
Citizenship in the modern world is not due to the fact that everyone is a blood relation. Unity in today's world can no longer be based on marriage or polygamy.
Thus African polygamy can be seen as a hangover from the Middle Ages which does not serve the same purposes, social unity, that it served then.
In fact, it can be said that perhaps polygamy today serves social disunity. Yet there must be important social and economic considerations for its continuation in modern Zimbabwe and modern Africa.
For the poor, obviously it is economically and socially useful for a poor family to become linked up with a rich and powerful family.
Since more than three quarters of the population are poor, it is not surprising that there is a lot of energy spent by girls and women, often backed up by their families, to become involved with rich and powerful men. Hence the thousands of small houses.
Is a girl or woman who goes for marriage and polygamy for economic reasons equal to a maid servant?
Should society recognise the status of the wife or girl friend in the "small house"? And is the man who marries what is called a "trophy wife", that is a wife whom he can show off, rather like how he shows off his fine Mercedes Benz, treating his wife like a prize possession rather than like a human being?
Is polygamy good or bad for society? Why do we condemn a prostitute for selling her body for money when other women may be praised for doing the same thing through "small houses"? Is polygamy good for society? Are the known sexual practices of President Zuma good for society, for example?
In Zimbabwe, it is a well known fact that many women who are "small houses" may in fact entertain a number of other "husbands" or boyfriends.
This is generally economic necessity, as they may find it difficult to survive with only one source of income. It is unusual to find the many wives being absolutely faithful to their shared husband.
It is difficult for the husband to police them all, especially when they number a dozen or a hundred. Thus the idea that the many "small houses" are faithful is happy fiction, but problematic in reality.
The women who seek such positions are many, and they are of all ages and all social classes.
What are their values? What are the values of Zimbabwean society as a whole? Is the current high level of corruption not linked to the need to support many wives, many "small houses", and a few dozen children? Can a Big Chef really afford to support all these people without some form of corruption?
A responsible father of say three wives and twenty children needs a pretty high income, not possible when you are earning the minimum wage or even a ministerial salary. How to do it? How is it done?
