The Sunday Mail
Sekuru Friday Chisanyu
Virginity testing from way back was done on both girls and boys. There were designated meeting places where elderly men and women would meet up with boys and girls respectively, teaching them what it means to be a virgin.
They painted a picture of a girl either preserving or losing her virginity and left them to choose what they preferred.
Elderly women would ask a girl to imagine how her parents would feel if they discovered she lost her virginity before she got married. It was done for girls to be disciplined and so that they would not rush to engage in sex.
This culture was also rewarding to the parents who received a cow from the son-in-law to honour them for providing a virgin as a wife.
It also helped marriages to be strong because the husband would live with a wife he knew was his only.
So it was a way to protect our children, teaching them to not willy-nilly engage in sex and encourage parents to watch over their children. That’s why even sexually transmitted diseases were not prevalent during that time.
When the girl discovered the husband she married was a virgin she would be happy that the man was hers only. It built trust and a strong bond.
That culture is important because it is a way to protect our marriages as it equips our children.
Our elders counselled these girls and boys at the age when they were able to herd cattle, understanding what is good and bad. By the time they got to puberty they would already be in the system.
This has been destroyed because we are adopting foreign cultures.
As Africans, each tribe and religion has its own culture such that if you met a girl from a certain area, you would know where she came from just by observing her behaviour.
But now with immigration, changing of cultures and laws of the Government, it’s eroding our culture; people don’t know what to follow anymore.
Ripping apart our African culture (in the name) of human rights is destroying marriages because children are doing whatever they want.
Our culture does not give a tough time to a girl, but if she is married by a man who knows she is a virgin she preserves her marriage.
And in this era of HIV and other infections, if we ignore girls they will die because girls can be loose without anyone knowing until they fall sick. So girls have to be happy that our culture is preserving their future.
If there are churches still doing such tests we are proud of them. We are saying if those churches are 50, they should spread to thousands so that our girls are protected and get married in a proper manner.
We don’t want to promote a right to dignity while doing wrong things. We desire a right to dignity for our children while they do good and they are protected.
You should also note that to those girls who witnessed the humiliation of girls who were not virgins, it instilled fear in them.
If you are worried about men, then they can always be tested before marriage to check their HIV status because with this age of majority, who can pursue a man when already he is certified as grown up?
So we look for the soft spot, being women who are vulnerable to abuse. And we say let’s protect them.
- Sekuru Chisanyu is the president of Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association
