Chimutsamapfihwa torments rich hubby’s new wife

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Following the death of her aunt, a Mutare woman who was offered to the widower as his chimutsamapfihwa is now at loggerheads with her uncle-cum-husband’s new wife.

Chimutsamapfihwa, according to the Shona tradition, is a woman’s younger sister or niece who is offered to her husband upon her death.

In a case that was heard at Mutare Civil Courts last week on Thursday, Elizabeth Makate went to replace her late aunt five years after her death, only to discover that the man (name not revealed in court) had already married someone else.

This did not go down well with Makate.

The two women’s incessant fights led them to wash their family’s dirty laundry at the Mutare Civil Courts last week.

Makate applied for a protection order against Mercy Kamangaise, accusing her of being all over her husband.

She begged the court to bar Kamangaise from meeting with her husband.

The duo appeared before Mutare magistrate, Mr Xavier Chipato.

Even though Makate insisted that she was the man in question’s only wife, it came to light during the court session that Kamangaise is also married to him.

“This woman is very persistent. She visits my husband every morning before he leaves for work intending to prepare breakfast for him. She calls him unnecessarily and visits him even at midnight.

“I feel she is harassing my husband because I have never seen him entertaining her. Whenever I ask him about their relationship, he tells that she is an ex-girlfriend he had after my aunt’s death. I want her barred from communicating with him. He is my husband and mine alone,” said the visibly angry Makate.

Asked on why her husband had not applied for the protection order if he was against Kamangaise’s actions, Makate remained mum.

In her defence, Kamangaise said she got married a year after the death of Makate’s aunt.

Kamangaise said she and her husband have already built a rural home in Odzi.

She said if she had known that the Makate family wanted to give her husband a chimutsamapfihwa she would not have married him.

“Since my husband and his late wife had children, we agreed that I would not live at the Dangamvura house as it belongs to their children. We built a rural home and I live there. When I come to the city, I stay in Hobhouse where he rents me a house,” she said.

Kamangaise claimed that when the Makate family learnt that their well off son-in-law had married a new wife, they decided to offer him Makate, an offer that the man did not turn down.

“This is causing chaos because Elizabeth does not want to share the husband, yet I was married for five years to this man before she came into his life. She came to our rural home and destroyed my property. She removed some of my personal stuff from the bedroom, but I never complained. In fact, I respect her as a co-wife. She should continue staying at her aunt’s house. She should just accept me as a senior wife as I was married before her,” said Kamangaise.

Mr Chipato granted a binding over protection order to the two women. The order bars them from disturbing each other’s peace.

He, however, did not bar Kamangaise from visiting, calling and talking to her husband.

– Manica Post