By Tonderai Kundidzora and Takudzwa Mashumba
I have seen it all, when girl-child is subjucted to great abuse and no-one giving a damn about that as all is packaged in form of church doctrine.
Where women have no rights whatsoever, when a girl-child can be traded into marriage by her parents without her input into it.
Where a 14 year old girl-child can be ‘married’to a 70 year old all in the name of a church.
I have seen it all and have seen the pain of these marriages through the eys of my sisters who where ‘married’to their abusive, lazy and polygamous husbands. When a husband just acted like a wild bull to just made his wife pregnant and when mission acccomplished, looking after the child and food was left for the wife.
Where you see a heartless husband sitting all day following the shade of his numerous huts while sitting and enjoying the comfort of a folding chair whilst his wifes was sweating in fields working to feed him and the children.
Where grade 7 is considered the highest level of education, and where education is never given any significance.
This is not a short fictious story but reality which I witnessed while growing up.
My dad’s last wife was younger than my mom’s second born and I used to ask myself how come and how could these two have once been love birds, an unanswered question.
Anyway away from home, at the church a lot was happening all ‘grown-up’ girls 14 year old girls who they regarded as grown-ups were up for grabs at the hands of old men as old as 60-70 yrs, old enough to be grand-dads.
I saw girls of my age failing to go to school some crying but with noone to hear these crying voices at all.
Some of my friends cried again when arrangements of their marriages where done whilst they were not even consulted to accept or reject such offers, they heard about their intended marriages from the grapevine, what an abuse.
Women being bread-winners whilst the husbands did nothing but marrying more wives to multiply their broods which they never care for.
When women could be as many as 13 on a one man, as a husband, my foot!.
I saw women going around looking for manual work to sustain as many kids as they had without any help from the husband.
I witnessed deaths of newly born babies as my grandma was a mid-wife, many of those experiences first hand with some of those kids dying in my presence, dying from avoidable diseases all in the name of a church which denounces medical attention.
I saw women dying because of complications during childbirth and I could see that all this could be avoided if it was not for certain church’s doctrine.
This to me was the highest humiliation of children’s rights as well as women’s rights hidden in the name of a church. I saw all my sisters being married to old men who they never dated if it was not the influence of this sect.
I witnessed my sister who was academically gifted who outclassed the whole family at grade 7 including two of my intelligent brothers who are now a lwayers and a journalist,blowing all that potential she possessed when she was married to an arrogant man who respect no woman or kid as many his church fellows.
After seeing all these things I took all my white robes and put them in my pillow and swore not to wear them again and started fighting against the church’s doctrines by helping these oppressed children and woman.
“So my appointment as a Programme Officer of an ambitious human rights organisation Tarisai/Khangela iZimbabwe Trust Foundation is an honour to expose all these violations of child and woman rights in the name of a church” said Locardia.
Locadia Muzana is a 21 year old Programmes Officer for Tarisai/ Khangela iZimbabwe Trust Foundation.
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