An eligible bachelor may be the best farmer, most-skilled hunter or heir apparent to the throne of chiefdom. Sometimes, or most times, this bid is with the active encouragement, even arrangement, of relatives, including aunties, her mother, sisters, and, at times – behind the scenes – brothers and her father. Such a woman may do anything to marry.
In this way, single women want to outdo their opponents by marrying up and will go to great lengths. This can be seen when women fall pregnant in order to win the bachelor in their sights. In more even tragic circumstances, after being deemed unfavourable for a till-death-do-us-part union, some women end up committing suicide.
Therefore, in the bid to marry up, caution is very, very key. The decision to marry or not really lies with the male suitor, doesn't it? In exact terms, the one who pays the bride price?
But what happens when the envisaged bachelor is the Prime Minister of the country, whose wife died in a tragic car accident a few years ago? When Mai Susan Tsvangirai passed away, I could anticipate the women who would flock to the Prime Minister’s side. The Premier’s opponents were always waiting to extract political mileage from the tragedy. In any case, a second courtship was always going to be challenging with Zanu (PF)’s secretive machinery and scandal-for-opposition-savvy state media.
Little wonder, the recently flaunted ‘wife’ of the Prime Minister has strong Zanu (PF) links and it is Zanu (PF) that is spreading the story of marriage in the state media.
Some advice for the PM’s female suitors who want to marry up: Mai Susan Tsvangirai’s shoes were too big to be given to reckless suitors. Meanwhile, the nation waits for the most eligible bachelor to make his pick because he knows, as Mai Susan whispers to him in dream, children want a good mother. None the less, the nation expects a worthy first lady in waiting, with a calm respect for her national leader and Prime Minister.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis