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hilarious classic Tom Jones. This hero won accolades for mending the broken heart of the virgin that a cad had deflowered.
Jack Nightingale had promised to pluck the moon and surrender it to his beloved Nancy as a present on their wedding day. The troubled Mrs Miller, with the flood of tears pouring down her cheeks, pleaded with Tom Jones to salvage the honour of her distraught daughter. He didn’t stand on ceremony.
“Nancy’s interests alone, not yours, ought to be your
sole consideration,” said Tom Jones. “When you promised to marry her, she became your wife.”
“The opinion of the world,” answered Jack Nightingale, “won’t allow me. I should be ashamed of showing my face again.”
“False honour is the shadow of false modesty,” cried Tom Jones. “The world you would be ashamed to face is the vile, the stupid, and the profligate. There is not a man of real sense and goodness, in the world, who would fail to honour his promise.
“Think of what joy, with what transports, that lovely
creature would fly to your arms.”
“Alas!” responded the other. “Imagine how impossible it would be to my father. He has provided another for me.”
“Would you marry Nancy if your father were persuaded?”
“If I had any foolish scruples of honour, you’ve fully satisfied them.”
In the wake of his scandalous broadcast to the nation, the PM found his match in Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo. She proved beyond any reasonable doubt that she comes from the home of real people.
She has qualities that will make her the honourable wife to the man who will marry her. This astute businesswoman remains unfazed in the face of a scandalous smear campaign which is swirling around her.
The same can’t be said of the PM. His response to media hype has vindicated Lorcadia for whatever she might have told him. He can’t condemn her for telling him that she had a child, when she was the only one who knew her condition, at the time when she told him. Morgan Tsvangirai has a clear vision on the kind of woman that he wants. It was precisely for that purpose that he told the nation that Lorcadia Tembo has failed to fit the bill.
The PM should define whether his loyalty is to Zimbabwe first and to his would-be wife second. He should come out clean whether his loyalty would be to his would-be wife first and to Zimbabwe second.
He thinks that it’s more important to be a servant of the people than to be faithful to the woman who loves him. A man in Britain declined to be king so that he would marry a divorced woman of his own heart’s desire. She came from the United States.
And a sex scandal has tripped the man who wanted to be president of the US from next year. The PM runs the risk of becoming mired in similar scandals, if leaks to the Press can be sustained.
He used the media to show Lorcadia her place is in the kitchen. The psychological terror tactic that he employed is a subtle form of domestic violence. It subdued her completely.
One shudders to imagine how the PM would handle the intractable issues that have to do with gender, if he were to be President. The women of Zimbabwe are passionate about their rights.
The people across the political divide expect their leaders to spell out their position in respect of trust in the family. The revelations about his social habits are contrary to what people of faith expect of him. They make up 60 percent of the population.
He owes the people of Zimbabwe an apology without strings attached to it. The PM speaks of Lorcadia as having misled him, at one stage, into believing that she was with his child. That’s neither here nor there. His word against her word is beyond reproach.
Nobody would blame Lorcadia for saying what she said if she had seen that the PM wanted to use her in the guise of wanting to marry her, after which he would abuse her – like what he eventually did.
Yet he says he is a man of honour.
He might have wanted to deceive the nation. There was no need for him to rush to pay damage before their twins were born. In the circumstances, damage became the initial phase of the comprehensive package of lobola which he agreed to pay. He should have accepted that he wanted to marry her.
The PM points out the error that gossip reporters might have made. The onus is on him to produce evidence to the contrary. He could have been watching proceedings at Christon Bank from his office in Harare during the weekend when he paid damage.
The PM snubs the two families who want to see him and Lorcadia happy alone together, just the two of them. The sentiments coming from both Christon Bank and Buhera show that mothers are anxiously waiting to feast and rejoice on the day when they would tie the knot.
Henry Fielding laments the position he has taken. “Consider,” he says, “the exultations of her mother, the happiness of all. Think of this family made, by one act of yours, completely happy. By one generous, noble resolution you can raise them from the brink of misery and despair to the highest pitch of human happiness.
“The misery from which you will relieve these people is the misery which you yourself have wilfully brought upon them.”
The ancients have had their say. The PM is a disciple of the ways of the people. He might, perhaps, have a change of heart and honour his pledge to Lorcadia Tembo.