When I worked in Harare, I met an interesting character, Kedha (the coloured one) nicknamed for his lighter skin tone.
He was almost my age, tiny-framed and almost boyish with a goatie beard.
Kedha was a delivery truck driver and a devout member of the Marange sect from Manicaland province
Half a decade now and from another African capital, I can still picture him in the corner of my mind – always in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops.
But the pith of this ‘short man of Africa’ is, he had three wives.
Not that polygamy is a novelty in many parts of Africa. No! But wait for it.
Two of his young sweethearts were blood sisters from the same womb. They came from Murehwa literally a stone’s throw away from the infamous Chivake Bridge, the scene of one of Zimbabwe’ s infamous bus disasters that killed many students.
Kedha’s in-laws too attended the Marange sect.
His other wife, the first, came from another family also believer in the Marange way of life.
Upon meeting Kedha for the first time, his story as told by him left me in wild wonderment.
How could he manage such a harem of wives at a tender age? He was barely 35 years old. To what benefit? Old ochtochtons in the church, he said had a role to play as guides on marital issues.
The younger women too were whipped into line by elder women in the church. It was a walk in the park to be in such a union for Marange church-goers, he said.
Additionally, for Kedha, the puzzle of it all as seen by outsiders like me was he shared the same roof with all his wives, they cooked together and took turns to be in his bedroom. They were the best of friends.
I was flummoxed! How Insane!
To me, managing women under such an arrangement was akin to running a whole government complete with ministers, director generals and a hyperactive spy agency.
Yet, Kedha boasted with the authority of an army general during his adversaries for combat. He was the man of the house and had children from all his wives.
I had the pleasure of sharing innumerable trips across Zimbabwe with Kedha. I relished with gusto as he narrated animatedly how he took hold of his family affairs with an iron fist.
On one trip from Nyamapanda Border Post, he called his in-laws who set up camp by the roadside waiting for us just before the infamous Chivake Bridge on our way back to the capital, Harare
We arrived at the rendezvous just before sunset and Kedha stole the show. There were just too many people to count. All sat and Kedha whipped out a wallet and doled out US dollar notes to everyone.
To the father-in-law, a Marange follower, not-so-old, pot-bellied and grinning, he said ‘This is for maize seed’.
The country then was approaching planting season and the first rains had nourished the rich Murehwa soils. There was a whiff of urgency in the air to many rural peasants.
Looking at the father pocketing the notes, I saw a man who had married off his two young daughters to one truck driver in the name of religion. I found that to be zealotry. Probably himself had been married the same way, given little girls, I wondered.
To the mother Kedha said, “This is for sugar and other groceries”, while many shabbily- dressed siblings to his two wives pranced about. To each, Kedha gave some notes or a coin according to their ages and told them to buy cookies.
The mood was jovial, reminiscent of political rallies when Members of Parliament visit long-forgotten constituencies for re-election dishing out cheap Chinese trinkets like bicycles, cup-measures of rice and party regalia.
There were so many heartfelt hugs and goodbyes as Kedha and I hit the road again towards the big city.
“We are all family”, he said gesticulating across the windscreen with his minute hand towards me as he manoeuvred the wheel.
I marvelled at it all yet my inquisitive mind was piqued.
This little man did not take alcohol, and neither did he like fizzy drinks much. He preferred a catalogue of maheu brands brewed locally. The man’s caucus under the Marange sect, he said brewed a potent brew of maheu that turned man into stallions in the bedroom. Men are encouraged to drink lots of water by church elders, he added.
There was never any jealousy amongst the wives as the eldest acted as his deputy and prefect of the house. Whatever he brought home was for everyone, often shared equally.
In some instances, he had said, bedroom ‘Olympics’ were an intimate affair with all parties in tow.
I found that only endearing to perverts.
But why Kedha now, you ask?
Because this man then was deeply involved with the shenanigans of Marange sect that married off little girls to older men.
He had been given young girls that I saw with my very own eyes to be wives, to bear children for him. They had abandoned school for a life of polygamy and obedience to a man.
Only last month Zimbabwe has been engrossed with the case of Madzibaba Never Muzorora (65) of village 7 Matedzi, Chiredzi who allegedly penetrated his first wife’s 10-year-old niece. His wife had brought the girl from rural Bocha. She had allegedly pinned the girl down while he ravaged her with the intention to make her his seventh wife.
The matter came to light when a WhatsApp status showed a picture of him and the minor awkwardly together with the girl’s hand on him. That torched a social media storm resultantly leading to his search and arrest.
He was arraigned before the courts and was under house arrest pending further investigations by police.
The girl had been sent back to Bocha by Muzorora to avoid police investigations but police found her and she corroborated the mischief on her.
This case is not the first from the Marange sect. They are innumerable. The mysterious death of 14- year-old Memory Machaya of Kwekwe who died July 15, 2021 is not forgotten. She was married off to Evans Momberume in the Marange sect at such a younger age.
Kedha easily springs to mind.
Allegedly, Memory was forced to drop out of school when she was in form 1 to get married.
She died during childbirth at the church’s shrine in Marange leaving a bouncing baby boy.
Her grave remains unknown. No proper burial involving her family had been done.
The family had been at loggerheads with the church needing closure on their daughter.
And the government came hot on the case albeit belatedly.
This brought into sharp focus the abuse of under-aged girls in the Marange sect and elsewhere nationwide.
What’s worse is the stupefying denial by church authorities of the practice. The church is at pains to deny the practice of marrying underaged girls is commonplace with the church blessings.
When one sells eggs at the marketplace, they don’t start a fight and Marange sect leadership has been doing that for aeons.
Their constant denial of such incidences sending officials from pillar to post is worrisome. It is rubbing every well-meaning citizen the wrong way.
So much heart- wrenching things were done leading to Memory’s death from being made to drink paraffin, denied medical attention and maternity care at hospitals.
One is left shaken.
I have beautiful daughters from my loins and such cases
become personal. It comes closer to home.
Those without daughters will probably not understand the fear and nightmares we go through daily trying to raise normal children in a world full of rapists, murderers and all manner of perverts.
The government through its judiciary arm plays a watchdog role in society. Previously it has been somewhat conspicuous with a lackadaisical and sloppy handling of such grotesque matters
Oftentimes, citizens across the board have to sign petitions to jumpstart government machinery into action.
It even took social media socialites like Mai Titi to literally take matters into their own hands and vow a follow-up on the case to the very end.
Non-profit organizations operating in the sphere of women empowerment and the girl child have to literally shout themselves hoarse to solicit a government response.
Subsequently in the wake of a protracted public outcry against child marriages and in a case bright forward by two women married off as children, the Zimbabwean government through the Constitutional Court (Concourt) ruled on the 24th of May 2022 that the legal age of sexual consent be raised from 16 to 18 years of age.
The government also brought forth a newly-minted Marriage Act that safeguards little girls against sexual predators.
But to everyone’s surprise, the Marange church members are continuing with the shameless practice of taking young girls despite the law.
The judge struck down a Criminal Law that set the age of sexual consent at 16 years as unconstitutional.
How can sexual perverts run rampant in a modern society such as ours? Fathers and mothers cannot look on in astonishment as a cult masquerading as a religious outfit continue abusing young girls, marrying them off unilaterally to old men in the sect.
That practice is archaic and has no place whatsoever in the contemporary universe. It is for Barbarians.
There is overflowing zealotry in the sect. We have too many all- too powerful and unchecked holier-than-though men and women in robes. It is time to take them off their high horses using the law.
The Marange sect is ages old, the traditions so entrenched and this abuse of young girls is against the law? What does the Constitution say? Are there no lawyers in the sect to read the riot act to congregants and church leadership? The UN Charter on Human Rights is a cornerstone.
I remain shaken. I would love to see my girls bloom into beautiful adults, independent and sensible beings unchained by limiting religious and any other societal conventions.
I cringe at the thought of marrying them off to senile geriatrics in the twilight of their lives.
Every little girl in the country needs protection. Kedha has a lot of soul-searching at this hour wherever he is.
