The Sunday Mail
Edwin Mwase and Shamiso Yikoniko
Are marriages and love relationships in the country drifting into death enclaves?
Rudo Bakasa
If tragic events that have been taking place in the country are anything to go by, then the bane of domestic violence which experts in family issues identified as one of the major causes of marriage break-ups, has continued to tear apart the previously sacred marriage institution.
So bad is the situation that cases of people in relationships killing and maiming each other make headline reading on a weekly basis. Passion killings have sadly become the in-thing.
And the damage has not spared innocent children and other unfortunate dependants.
In the just ended half year, several cases of passion killing of a horrific nature were reported in and around Harare.
A preview of some of the murders would even leave Hollywood horror film script-writers in awe.
>> A Chitungwiza woman, Fortunate Nsoro (36) allegedly stabbed her husband, Petros Mutasa on February 26, 2015 with three kitchen knives, killing him instantly over a girlfriend’s text message.
>> On June 14, 2015 Pamela Bhowa (46) allegedly brutally axed her sleeping husband over an ordinary argument.
>> Thembinkosi Gumbi (41) of Mbizo, Kwekwe, allegedly fatally assaulted her wife Nyarai Moyo (28) on New Year’s Eve after she received a phone message accompanied by images of a male lower anatomy organ.
>> Mitchele Chiteure (25) of Kuwadzana on March 22, 2015 allegedly struck her husband with a pot and killed him after he said he had no money for groceries.
>> A married Botswana-based Harare pastor, Reverend Rosbon Munamba, allegedly drenched her now deceased lover, Rudo Bakasa, with sulphuric acid after she had ended their extra-matrimonial alliance.
>> A Glen Norah man, Collen Jamu, last month struck his lover Mitchel Chipere (21) in the head four times with a hoe before wrapping her in a blanket and stashing her body under the bed with suspicion rife that he had raped her as she had no undergarments.
>> Three years ago, a Chitungwiza man, Pritchard Zimondi, stabbed and killed his girlfriend, Monalisa Chinomona, after she had refused to be intimate with him. Zimondi has been incarcerated for 18 years.
However, this sharp increase is against the backdrop of the Domestic Violence Act, which among other things, seeks to make provisions for the protection and relief of victims of domestic violence.
Nevertheless, deterrent sentences and fines designed to curb incidences of domestic violence-linked murders seem to have failed to produce the desired results.
Experts in the family and social issues argue that the continued militarisation of homes has to be viewed in the context of culturally and traditionally held norms and values against the changing society.
They argue that the previously patriarchal dominance attitude no longer holds in the obtaining societal discourse.
Sociologist Ms Miriam Makono said the advancement of women rights has had far-reaching implications on relationships.
She said while women want to assert their new found socio and economic rights, men want to maintain their cultural hegemony over women.
“The modern woman has far more rights than that of yester-year, who was raised up under male dominance,” she argued.
“The stereotypical woman is one who submits to the needs of her hubby or boyfriend, but there has been a paradigm shift to the modern woman, who has gained financial, economic and social rights through the education system”.
However, she said, it is prudent to note that the trend of domestic violence and subsequent passion killings are unisex and both sexes have been found to be equally guilty. But traditionalists still believe that the woman’s rightful place is under the control and dominance of their husbands and that those that fail to respect the tenets of marriage will always reap violence.
“The marriage contract requires the observance of fidelity, love and subservience towards the husband in the African culture,” said a traditionalist, Sekuru Mhofu Nyashanu from Chitungwiza.
“The betrayal and disregard for the said virtues results in individuals resorting to violence as emotions run high when these culturally constructed norms diverge and traditionally, a wife may be ‘punished’ for that.”
Social commentator, Ms Mary Nyahunzvi, argued that modern women’s pursuance of materialistic values in relationships was causing a lot of friction resulting in confrontational incidences in relationships. She said it is in such relationships that the “said woman” will either leave the relationship or engage in immoral activities when the men start to show signs of failing to provide as before.
“That is not love in the first place and such couples will not have been in love from the onset,” she said.
However, she vehemently attacked some cultural tenets, which she said were being abused by society as instruments for oppressing women
“Unfortunately, our African culture frowns upon womenfolk with an attitude of pursuing the legal route against abusive husbands,” she said.
Women rights activist Ms Sally Dura said most passion killings are a culmination of the normalisation of violence in a society.
“Passion killings are a symptom of a chaotic society which has nurtured, normalised and embraced violence especially gender-based violence as part of the norm,” she said.
“Culturally women aren’t supposed to confront their husbands while at the same time men harbour a lot of frustrations that are economically based and eventually each of these’s state of mind would have consumed a lot without a proper system to offload their stress. As a result passion killings become the end result.”
Ms Dura, however, encouraged partners and couples to engage in dialogue and discuss about the problems they will be facing in an amicable way.
Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe chairperson, Mrs Virginia Muwanigwa, castigated passion killings.
Fortunate Nsoro
“Passion killings are an unfortunate situation that this country has to face. Whether it’s a man or a woman, killing someone doesn’t address the problem they are fighting for but it actually worsens the situations whereby in most cases, children who are left behind bear the consequences,” she said.
“People must find ways of resolving their conflicts and not resort to violence as a conflict resolution measure.”
Clinical psychologist, Innocent January, said crimes of passion were mostly triggered by men’s patriarchal nature.
He said most relationships were democracy deficient.
“Man’s nature leaves them more vulnerable and unprepared to manage emotions”, he said. “Consequently, they struggle with insecurity, pathological jealous and emotional dependence, thus the violence they unleash is detrimental.”
Passion killings have been with mankind for ages and in medieval France, crimes of passion were taken as valid defence during murder case trials involving couples. In some instances, custodial sentences below two years were passed.
In the United States of America civil courts, the law refers to perpetrators of passion killings as victims of temporary insanity and this is used as a defence mechanism in court.
Although crimes of passion are as old as mankind, what is worrisome is the increase in the number of cases and the gruesome nature of the murders.
