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Rosenthal Mutakati Ghetto Blast
NOW half-naked owing to merciless beatings, the blond initially offered resistance, but was dragged by the jeering crowd like a sheep on its way to slaughter.
“Husband snatcher,” “Prostitute,” “Killer,” “Mharadzi,” part of the crowd shouted as others lunged into her with half-round chicken kicks. Others struck the girl with bare hands. Children who were in this crowd giggled and poured scorn on the member of the fairer sex as she was being led to the police station.
“Shameless creature. She has lost value. How could she do that? Chatove chiseko chedunhu rino. Ende ndanyara,” a woman who claimed to be the girl’s aunt said while throwing her hands about in disgust.

As all this was happening, a certain old lady, whose voice had gone hoarse due to shouting, made it her business to tell whoever cared to listen that the teenager had been caught between the sheets with a married man and had to pay the price for her immorality.

Barely an hour after this, women could be seen holding all manner of plastic containers heading to a prophet’s shrine on the outskirts of Glen Norah.
Donning white regalia from head to toe, the women did not care who was looking at them.

“Handei madzimai tinoshandira dzimba dzedu,” they could be heard saying as they were being buried deeper and deeper into the forest with distance.
Some tune in to radio programmes by agony aunts, the Mai Gunguwo type and other recordings on the institution of marriage.

While working women disappear in groups almost every lunch hour to consult prophets, n’angas and herbalists on the best way to tame their husbands, Thursdays are notorious for these sessions.

Called “kuChina,” women meet in their churches or even hold inter-denominational meetings every Thursday to find ways of keeping their marriages intact.
At these meetings, gentle reader, yours truly is reliably informed that women are taught to be meek, God-fearing, how to prepare healthy dishes for their families and some bedroom tricks to keep their husbands happy and kill the prospect of small houses destroying their families.

But why all this concern? Is this not an inferiority complex?  And why is it that women seem to be on the forefront of seeking advice and muti to keep marriages intact?

One prophet who operates behind Gwinyai Primary School in Mbare, Harare, told this writer that women were his major customers.
“They come here seeking to know who is bedding their husbands and why? At times they come here seeking muteuro to make their husbands pay towards the upkeep of their families.”

“Even girls seeking marriage partners bring photographs of their suitors here for vetting. They do not take kindly to sharing a man and the chances of being divorced keep them on their toes,” he added.

Gentle reader, so given to n’angas and prophets have some women become that each free second is spent kumasowe nekun’anga.
Half the time you arrive home to find your wife away, throw away thoughts that she could be running after boyfriends.

Hell no! She will be singing at the shrines seeking God to intervene in your marriage to ensure it stands the test of time.
Such is the value that women place on their marriages, they would go to hell on foot and back just to preserve the matrimonial bed.

A husband cannot be shared — no wonder they will do anything to have it that way.
“Marriage is an emotional attachment.

“There is need to ensure the husband remains focused on providing for the family while I, as the wife, will also be providing for his physical and social needs,” a certain lady told me.

She said there is nothing as respectable in a woman’s world as being called Mrs So and So.
The woman described men as fickle-minded, saying they need to have their movements monitored for the good health of the family.
They are approaching church leaders, prophets and n’angas to make the unions work.

But are they winning the battles?
Is this the right way to go?

As I commit pen to paper gentle reader, men are being made to eat some indescribable things on the prescription of herbalists and village doctors.
Yours truly is told that water used to wash corpses before burial is being funnelled into bottles for sale to married women.

If your meals are prepared with this water, you will be just like a dead man who barks no orders at anyone.
At times your meals are prepared using all sorts of muti to tame you and keep the mother of the house in control.

Women should not be blamed for seeking ways to keep marriages intact.
However, they should be mindful of giving poisonous stuff to their husbands in the hope of winning control over them.

A sad scenario I heard off in Mabvuku some years ago was that of a woman who had a meal specially made for the husband.
Under strict instructions she was that no one could eat of the said meal.

She was not even allowed to taste the meal as she prepared it.
Since she lived with the husband with the children in boarding school there was no danger of anyone sampling the meal.

After preparing the meal the woman took a bath and during that time her teenage son was sent back home for school fees top-up. T
his was during the inflationary era when schools kept asking for top-ups.

The hungry son saw the scrumptious meal and cleaned the plates. The mother fainted on seeing the son through with the meal.
Since then, the son has been following the mother and prophets have failed to undo the damage.

So be warned the meal does not end in the wrong tummy.

Inotambika mughetto.