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Leroy Dzenga Features Writer
When Samuel (35) of Kambuzuma 4, Harare, befriended Melody Makota (36) of Budiriro on Facebook, a virtual spark flared between the two.
As fluid conversations spread over two months gathered momentum, they decided to take their communication to the next platform, WhatsApp. It was there that Samuel proposed love to Melody, before they had physically met.
Melody responded favourably, igniting an Internet romance. “We started talking on Facebook for two months and we grew closer during that period. “We later exchanged numbers and continued with our interaction on WhatsApp,” Melody said.
Their first meeting confirmed what they had been imaging. “Samuel invited me to his house on May 4 this year, and asked me to spend the night. He said I could not go back home since he had long yearned for my company from the time we started chatting,” she said. It was during their first date and night together that Samuel decided he wanted Melody to stay with him. “The following morning after I slept at his house, he asked me to go home and collect my belongings. We were to live as a family.” As someone who was looking to settle down, Melody obliged oblivious of what would go wrong, transforming their digital relationship into a physical one.
The fairytale they had lived since becoming friends on Facebook was about to be aligned with reality. “When I came here, I realised that some of the things I had been told by Samuel were not in sync with what I was seeing. “He told me he was in the army, but when I got here, I learnt that he borrowed his friends’ uniforms for social media images.” Despite her misgivings, Melody was not deterred from pursuing the relationship.
Since being widowed in 2006, she had not found someone as serious as Samuel. In Samuel she found a curious character, a member of the Johanne Masowe who also had a known penchant for indulging in nicotine. “I thought we had something in common, we both have two children from our previous marriages and both smoke cigarettes,” she said.
Problems emerged when Samuel, under the influence of alleged “divine guidance” discovered a secret his lover had kept from him in their three months of cohabitation. “After Melody moved here, she insisted that we visit her aunt to notify her of the decision we had made to stay together. I told her that I could not go before consulting the spiritual sages at my church,” Samuel said.
He was told to delay the visit which would give some legitimacy to their “union”. “Our prophet at church told me to wait a bit as there were indications that the relationship would not last,” he said. According to him, signs started revealing themselves to that effect. “I am a dreamer, that is my spiritual gift. During my sleep I would get blurry visions on Melody but I just brushed them aside,” said Samuel.
It was one particular dream on May 28 that made him discover things about his partner. “Melody had gone to a party at her sister’s place with my children when I decided to take an afternoon nap. “As soon as I slept, I saw a vision of Melody’s bag with anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs hidden under her clothes.”
Samuel claims that he found a sachet with plant-like matter he suspected to be juju. “I woke up just after the dream and went to her bag. The things were set exactly the way I had seen them.” Samuel says he read the book and learnt that his new partner had been on medication since 2012. “I took her book, one pill from the container and the juju. This was to make sure that her attempts to deny would be futile,” he said.
Samuel is livid. He is accusing Melody of being heartless by not disclosing her HIV status. “I have two young children; the first born is three-years-old and the second born is barely eight-months-old. She should have considered that before putting me at risk. As a mother, she should not have been heartless,” a visibly reeling Samuel said.
After confrontations, Samuel says he sought advice, but their differences are beyond counselling. “We called elders from my church to talk about this issue, but the problem is Melody is rude. She speaks to me in a disrespectful tone and threatens to fix me with unspecified action,” he said.
Samuel says another problem is Melody had befriended his enemies. “We share the house with my niece and she is poisonous. She says bad things about me all the time and Melody kept entertaining her, defying my clear instruction to stay clear of her.” Samuel added: “I just want her to go back, this relationship cannot be fixed. How can I live with a person who kept such grave details from me?”
Melody blames her failure to communicate her condition on Samuel’s rushed approach. “When I came here for the first time, Samuel wanted us to sleep together. I refused, but he insisted. After realising that there was no convincing him I requested that he uses protection, a request he denied,” she said. She says she assumed that he was of the same status as her, considering his recklessness.
Melody claims that Samuel is being melodramatic. “After he found the pills, I told him that I am HIV-positive, but I could not tell him before things got serious because that is my secret. “His insistence on unprotected sex even stressed me until I thought maybe he was positive as well,” the soft-spoken Melody said.
According to her, on the day Samuel discovered the pills, he promised to be there for her. “Samuel told me he is fine with my HIV status. He just said I should keep it a secret,” she said. As Melody narrated this part, Samuel tried to interrupt, but she stuck to her script. “The night he found the pills he even asked for unprotected sex as he assured me that he was fine with my status. I do not know where he got this anger he has today from,” said Melody.
Neighbours have told her that Samuel has a habit of bringing in women with no intention to marry them. “When I came here, I overheard people laughing at me asking how a woman like me had decided to be Samuel’s 10th live-in girlfriend.”
This jest made her curious and prompted her to go through her man’s phone. “Every woman he stays with, he takes pictures and I have seen all those pictures in his phone. There are more than 10 women; he even has mine in his phone,” a teary Melody said. She added that she recently had an encounter with one of his women. “A woman named Carol came here and started doing household chores. I asked her who she was and she said she was the woman of the house. “Samuel had left the house. When he came back he failed to properly introduce us and I left them to sort their issues,” said Melody.
Melody says Carol later left the house after a day of performing house duties. When Melody moved in, she was told that the bag in the bedroom with female clothes belonged to Samuel’s sister, only to find out that it belonged to Carol. She was told that Samuel always looks for a slight excuse to get rid of a woman he brings after a few days of cohabiting. “I am tired of being abused, I want to go home. There is more to life than being with a man. How have I lived for all these years?” she said.
She wants to return to her family house in Budiriro where her two children aged 15 and 17 are, as well as her younger sister. “I can gladly go back home; I am waiting to do a pregnancy test then I go home. Samuel is an inconsistent character. If I leave without testing he can deny the pregnancy,” said Melody. On claims of juju, Melody says she uses herbs to enhance her femininity. “I use the medicine to work on my body. I did not even hide the sachet as he claims. He is just looking for faults,” Melody said.
Melody said she used to be a vendor before Samuel asked her to move in with him and she intends to go back to her trade after the “disastrous three-week marriage” collapsed.
Melody returned to her home on Tuesday and Samuel says she did not disclose the results of the pregnancy test to him.
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