Zimbabwe has too few people because many children died during the liberation war so people should be encouraged to marry more than wife because if God wanted a man to be in a single marriage he should have created him with one eye so that he would only see one person, a Member of Parliament said during the debate on child marriages.
Though he was totally against child marriages, Uzumba MP Simba Mudarikwa said: “We need to be involved in polygamous marriages because during the war of liberation, we lost many of our children and our population is very low. We need to multiply like what the Bible says – multiply like the sands of the sea.
“I was talking to one of my aunts and grandmothers here and they were saying that they do not like polygamy. I was telling the Hon. Member who is my aunt that if God wanted you to be in a single marriage, he should have created you with one eye so that you would see one person but what we know is that there are some people who are very progressive and successful. These people came from polygamous families.
“Even the people who were involved in the first Chimurenga, they were people who came from polygamous families. These include Chingaira, Lobengula and Mzilikazi. These were polygamous so that they could have many children who would fight wars of the day – and not only military war but fighting against poverty through family.”
Mudarikwa said one of the major causes of child marriages was poverty so the government must provide funds for skills training so that girls can marry when they are mature.
“In Zimbabwe, we seem to be going astray at some other time and people are saying people should not marry early. In the past, our culture was saying women would marry from the age of 25 years up 30,” he said.
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