Mr. Speaker Sir, in the past, we used to have situations whereby the elders would sit around the fireplace with either the girls only or the boys to talk about the good culture of our country. 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. What is happening now is that they are getting married at an early age. A good example is a young girl who does not manage to go through her ‘O’ levels, as soon as she drops out of school, the aunts will then ask this young girl to be proactive and even marry a widower or a lame person because they feel she should be married to somebody. They think that is the ultimate goal of a young girl.
Long back there was a programme of teaching agriculture to young children from Grade 6 to Form 4; this has been very successful. These youngsters are now successful farmers. They are working hand in hand with their parents and there is production. We are saying knowledge is power. We need to gain knowledge. There are also some religious organisations, when they are in that organisation, the elderly sit in front and young boys, girls and women at the back. What they do these people – especially these religions which believe in spiritual direction, they say the Holy Spirit has directed that this young girl should be married to so and so. We are saying this is misdirecting the function of the Holy Spirit. I think it should be working towards production such as farming or horticulture. Consequently, if we have enough food, we then drive out poverty. I am also saying that we need to open the Women’s Bank which will support women’s projects and this will support their families. When we look at the current banks that we have and the stories that are published in our local newspapers, the current banks are so cruel. What has been put across as collateral is sold if the farmers fail to pay up what has been borrowed. We need to support this motion brought up by Hon. Gonese. We need to support our people. We need to give knowledge to our people. We need to empower them in order to drive out diabolic cultures.
Unfortunately, Hon. Gonese was sort of going astray because he was talking against polygamy. According to our culture, at times you may have your wife but if your uncle or brother passes on, you are supposed to marry that widow. At times the late brother or uncle will come as a vision in your sleep and advise you to marry that widow so that she is not married by a foreigner who will inherit your wealth. We know that in our culture we have people who believe in polygamy.
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.
Let me give you another example of China and India. These people are so highly populated but these countries are highly developed. 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.
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