Is polygamy in 2010 still relevant? Is there still polygamy today, or it has it evolved into something else? These are some questions I’m asking after attending a discussion in town yesterday. Polygamy, one person said at the discussion, was very dignified in the times of our long gone ancestors. It was meant to build unity and strengthen family ties. Men did not do it out of malice, or for want of more sex. The women of old had a choice of who would become Mrs Number Two.

But polygamy today is actually doing the opposite of what it did a long long time ago. Where polygamy looked at preserving the society before, it is destroying it today. We have HIV/AIDS these days so if Mr. Bhuru has eleven wives no matter how much of a bull he is, his ashes are not going to meet all the needs of a dozen women, half of them old enough to be his daughters.

Polygamy is not dignified today because it is now called small houses. Today it solves nothing but promotes promiscuity that has been legalized by our tradition. Polygamy for me is not right. It degrades women because women most of the time have no choice but to do it.  I say this because women are still at a disadvantage because they are not economically independent. Allow me to ask a question: if women of old were the ones who had the cattle, would we have had polygamy? If women of today are working and owning their own things would we still justify polygamy?

From what I heard at the discussion polygamy involves double lives and lies. What’s your take on polygamy today?

The passing away of Sam seriously hurts me. That young man was the most down to earth person on earth. He was humble to the core. I appreciated his music and him so much and I guess I should have told him all that when he was still around. I attended his funeral and I was moved by the crowd that came just to bid him fare well. To all the people that came to support the Mtukudzi family I salute you. However I would like to point out that not nearly a half of the people at the funeral attended his shows. If all of you came and supported him while he was still alive, for me that could have been the Zimbabwe I wish to be an artist in and live in. Not to wait for an artists death or any person in general to die before you come in throngs to support him or her. In the hundreds and thousands of people that attended Sam’s burial how many of you had his debut album let alone knew the title of his album. How many of you went to his shows and supported him. And above all how many of you have a pirated copy of his music. I am just saying lets not be semi supportive of anything in life. If you are going to come to someone’s funeral at least be there during their joys and trials while at least they are still alive. Come on Zimbabwe lets not be neither here or there. I suppose just like the way I did not tell Sam I appreciated him it’s the same way people did not come to his shows or buy his CDs while he was still alive. For the sake of the coming generation lets socialize our children differently and teach them its OK to tell and show a person how much we appreciate them while they are still alive.

REST IN PEACE Sam and Owen.

Marriages in Zimbabwe are not only about white dresses, twenty bridesmaids; colorfully decorated venues and long excruciating church services believe me. But before I get over myself let me start from the beginning.

There are only three recognized unions in our country. The first one is the 5:11 marriage, which is the civil marriage. The second one is the 5:07, which is the customary law marriage. This marriage is also called a potentially polygamous marriage. In this marriage the husband and not the wife is allowed to have more than one wife and that’s not all. He can have a civil marriage with his second wife. It means he can go to court or have a church wedding with his second wife and not his first wife. If he dies and he did not marry another wife under the customary law the wife is not allowed to inherit his land. What is given to her according to the law are her pots and blankets. The third is actually considered null and void. For example if you as a woman are impregnated and you go and live with him and he dies, the baby is the one who is recognized by the law. You as the wife are recognized as a girlfriend and not a wife even if you stayed together for five years. So the third one is recognized in the event that there is a child. If you just stayed with him without the 5:11 or the 5:07 you only get your pots and spoons in the event he dies.

As long as there is a duel system in Zimbabwe these marriages will always have loopholes. Even if a couple has a 5:11 marriage it has its own downfalls though it’s considered the one better than the 5:07. If it’s not done first it can be down graded to a 5:07 if the husband co-habits with a small house for a number of years and he happens to pass away. During the estate sharing, the two wives get the property of where they were living, and then the rest is shared equally among his children from both wives. Because the couple registered the 5:07 first when he went to pay rora.

This is the advice from lawyers. You must register the 5:11 first and stand a chance of not sharing your property even if he was cohabiting with another wife whom he married customary. The marriage will be taken as illegal because he had a one-wife one-man marriage. But this means you have to go to court and have the marriage registered before he goes to pay rora. With the judiciary system running parallel to the customary law, culture does not allow you to have the civil wedding before lobola.

My suggestion is to get all these things out of the way. We need to seriously make sure we get to participate in the rewriting of the constitution as women. I hope this happens sooner than later because with all this I know getting married now is kind of scary.

Reports of religious fighting in Nigeria are quiet saddening. There are many possible explanations for this violence, but one of the most controversial would be Muslim intolerance of Christians, as we have heard of several killings over religious beliefs. Some people may argue that most world suffering including wars are as a result of religious differences, yet Rich Deem on behalf of believers argues that religious wars are only 7% of all wars.

Whatever is the case, we now have to come to our senses as civilized humans and contemplate what we slaughter each other for. Religious massacres are uncalled for. Religion is merely a belief that manifests from association. If one is born among Christian he/she is more likely to become a Christian than a Muslim. He/she can only change when his/her belief in Christianity is not strong enough to warrant resistance to external pressure. The same can be said about someone born among the Muslims. Therefore the struggle should be that of trying to lure people from another belief to join one’s religion. It should be the battle of gospel spreading. That way it is more of a reason to share tables over and ultimately unite than to fight.

A closer look at the two mostly conflicting religions, Christianity and Islam, reveal that the difference in these religious is not that great. It is largely on who Jesus is. Christianity believes that he is part of the Holy Trinity, Muslims believes there nothing like the Holy Trinity and believe that Jesus was only one of the great prophets and not part of the God, hence their following of the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.  One can only understand this difference if he/she listens to and thinks over arguments from the other camp.  No one knows the absolute religious truth. In our quest to reach God, we should therefore seek the true religion by associating and sharing facts.

Mary Wallker in 2004 observed that people fight to prove who is right or wrong in their beliefs however there’s no real way to prove who is right or wrong without referring to religious texts or church doctrine. It is ridiculous that some governments and groups feel so strongly about their religion that they are moved to wage “religious” war on those who do not believe in the path that they follow. Surely if one believes that a person is created in the image of God, what justification does he/she have to believe that he/she has done better by killing that image of God simply because the image does not think the same as he/she does.

It is high time the human race realises that people differ in race, colour, geographical locations and backgrounds, and that justifies why they should also differ in their religions. Coexistence is a principle that even God likes. If it is true that He will have to separate people, having some destined for heaven and some for hell, based on His own criteria, He never gave us the mandate to separate ourselves here on earth. If we feel we should, then let us lead our lives in our religious sects and never give ourselves the right over other people’s lives.

A week ago Carl J Ncube announced to a press conference that he would be spending a week living on First Street in Harare to raise public awareness about how piracy affects the local music industry. The public response as compared to the online response was disappointing.

“I didn’t expect people in Zimbabwe not to respond to something as simple as moral support. All we’re asking them to do is sign and say that they appreciate Zimbabwean music. That even though they can’t afford to buy it, and they’re burning it, all we needed was just moral support, to say thank you, I’m burning your music, but thank you, I appreciate it.”

Very little has been made in the local press of Carl’s Street Campaign. According to Carl, junior entertainment reporters have submitted their stories about his campaign to The Herald’s editors. However they (the editors) did not feel that Carl’s Campaign, and by extension the welfare of local artists, was newsworthy.

As the country’s most widely read daily newspaper, I think The Herald has failed in its mandate to inform the public about our various entertainment artists and industries. I have seen columns and editorials indicting Roki and other artists for riding on combis, and lowering their status with fans. But, as the state media, they do nothing to promote local artists save for selling advertising space. Why was there no coverage for M’afriq’s last album, or even a profile of Stunner and the success that he has made of his career? And what about the underground music scene and fledgling artists who are yet to be discovered by the public?

I know the articles much like the one covering Carl’s campaign are written, but what use are they if they are not published? The Herald’s entertainment editors seem to only be interested in the type of journalism that destroys typified by the vitriolic and unsubstantiated article carried by The Herald last year about former Big Brother housemate Munyaradzi Chidzonga. The entertainment department of that paper should partially shoulder the blame for the state of our local music and entertainment industries.

It’s no wonder then that Sam Mtukudzi’s last performance was to an estimated gathering of 20 people and it is only now, in having passed away that he becomes newsworthy. Ironically, public sentiment about young artists can be summed up in what Carl was told on the street:

“People are saying its better if they just die, it’s better if they get broke, and we don’t need them. They’d prefer to buy and listen to Little Wayne.”

Even as the son of the virtually deified Oliver Mtukudzi, Sam only had a handful of articles published about him in The Herald since his career began with the release of his first album Rumwe Rimwe in 2007. Compare this to the media coverage received by Jamaican artist Sizzla, who was in Zimbabwe briefly for the President’s Birthday. He was featured in The Herald everyday for a week, and had a full double page spread on the weekend. As Carl rightly pointed out, we have become a nation that supports other people’s music industries.

“It really upsets me to see artists quitting their jobs. We know Zimbabwean artists have gone into industries like porn and prostitution. They’ve gone and changed careers, and at this rate, we won’t have any music. What we [as Zimbabweans] continue to do though is to build [other people's] industries. So people like Sizzla get paid forty thousand to perform in Zimbabwe, he goes back to Jamaica, he builds up ten studios and brings up fifty more artists, then those fifty artists start growing and then what do we do? We invite them again and give them another forty thousand. We’re the biggest donors to international industries.”

Carl will be on First Street for another 24 hours. I’m afraid his campaign has done more to reveal the negative and negligent attitudes of the State media and in turn the public, than what it was originally intended to do. That is, give our beleaguered and beggared artists the encouragement that they need.

Self interview by Mgcini Nyoni, Poet, Playwright and freelance writer based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. With poetry published in FIRE IN THE SOUL 100 poems for human rights (New Internationalist / Amnesty International UK 2009), Intwasa Poetry (Amabooks, Bulawayo 2008), Poetry for Charity Vol 2 (Nigeria 2008). Creative director of Poetry Bulawayo www.poetrybulawayo.webnode.com.

Q: Why poetry?
A: Poetry liberates you. There is no right or wrong way of writing poetry, really. I remember Loyd Robson saying you can paint a picture and call it poetry.

Q: Sounds confusing.
A: Only if you don’t understand poetry. I don’t appreciate hip-hop so I was a bit confused when a hip-hop person was trying to explain that there is good shit and bad shit.

Q: But hip-hop is poetry.
A: What aspect of life is not poetry?

Q: What inspires your poetry?
A: Life. Like if I am thing that I would love bacon with my bread and I can’t afford bacon; It sort of formulates into a poem, like:

they are eating
bacon and eggs
in the state house
The man in rags
eating burnt bread . . .

Q: That’s political.
A: Life is political. Everything can be traced back to a politician either doing well or messing up. Most times they are screwing up.

Q: Is there real hope for poetry?
A: The numbers of artists who write poetry is increasing. And because everyone is literate, there is a lot of self-expression using poetry. Poetry Bulawayo is trying to give all these people a platform.

Q: There is a sort of rebelliousness associated with poetry.
A: Not really. There are people who always take things too far in anything: eating, sex, poetry…

Q: Last word.
A: Brace yourselves; the poetry movement is about to take over the world.