adminHarmony Agere
Imagine if your husband slept with or raped your daughter and sired a child with her. Just what would you call the baby? Would it be your step-son/daughter because your husband is the father? Or grandchild because your daughter is the mother?Whatever you might settle for, it is an agonising and shaming dilemma that no one wants to experience.
As such, in both secular and religious cultures, sex within close relations has since time immemorial been largely condemned with children born out of such incestuous affairs facing severe stigma. Some fringe subcultures allow incest, and they are roundly condemned for it.
And while it has never been much of a problem in Zimbabwe, more and more cases of incestuous rape are being brought before the country’s courts.
Stories of people raping or having sex with their children, siblings or grandchildren resulting in pregnancy have been making headlines lately.
In June, a Murewa court heard that a 43-year-old man had been forcing his 17-year-old daughter into a sexual relationship for the past two years. She fell pregnant.
Threatening the girl with violence, it was alleged that the father raped his daughter between 2014 and 2016 and the victim is now five months pregnant.
While the trial goes on, the magistrate presiding over the case judged the pregnancy could be terminated.
In another case, only last week, our sister paper The Herald reported that a man from Epworth was jailed for 18 years for bedding his daughter for five years, siring a child with her in that time.
And in an aggravating defence the man unashamedly told the court that: “I actually proposed love to her. I wooed her for some time. Initially, she refused, but later told me she also loved me like any other woman would do to a man who asks for love.”
It sounds surreal.
As if that was not enough, the man’s 70-year-old father demanded to have intercourse with his granddaughter when he heard what had been going on.
The court heard the elderly man promised to settle the issue at family level and summoned the unfortunate girl, who is now 20, to his place of residence, where he allegedly threatened to report the incest if she refused to sleep with him too.
She gave in and her grandfather abused her.
In August, police in Tsholotsho arrested an incestuous brother and sister who, after being separated by family, allegedly murdered their love child and revived their romance.
While the perpetrators may go on to be tried in courts of law and get sent to jail should they be found guilty, social commentators say no sentence can erase the damage done to children of incestuous unions.
How will these children fit in their families and society? Whose surname will they assume? How are they raised? How do they cope when they discover the reality of their parentage?
Traditionalist Sekuru Friday Chisanyu says incest is not a new phenomenon. “It happened in the past where a father could rape or sleep with his daughter, sons would also sleep with their mothers and relationships between a brother and a sister also happened,” he said. “But obviously this was a big offence and there were big penalties because the offence did not affect the family only but the entire community.
“If the perpetrators were to be found they would be reported to the chief and made to pay a huge penalty. The matter was, of course, dealt with in high secrecy so as to protect both the child and the affected family from being stigmatised by the community.
“The child was raised just like any other in the family, if it was father to daughter, the child would be raised as if it was a grandchild. If it was the son to mother relationship, the child would be raised just like any other in the family. The same would apply if the relationship was within siblings. But at no point was the child told about this. This was done to protect him or her even if they had grown up.”
Sekuru Chisanyu said efforts were made to ensure the guilty parties were separated.
Clinical psychologist Bharat Patel said incest is a shock which needs to be dealt with cautiously both in the family and the community at large.
He said those affected should receive counselling to avoid things like suicide, mental breakdown and crimes such as murder.
“Learning that a son has impregnated his mother or that a father has impregnated his daughter is not something that the mind is not immediately ready to deal with,” he said. “All the close family members affected could suffer severe depression with some even losing their minds to the extent that they can commit murder.
“It is best that the community should be prevented from the secret because the reaction could be very dangerous especially in this era of social media.”
Incest has been held to be repulsive, dangerous, and illegal among many civilizations, even some of the most primitive.
In ancient Rome, Augustus implemented a law against incest, and children born to incestuous relationships were deemed illegitimate.
Online medical references say genetic disorders are a high possibility when incest occurs.
Online Reporter