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Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Reporter
A CHIMANIMANI man was left with egg in his face after it emerged that he was trying to divorce his wife after paying only US$30 as her bride price.
The man’s in-laws are demanding a lobola top-up before blessing the two’s separation.
The Mukwayo family is also demanding that the Chinyai family cleanse their daughter whom they allegedly bewitched as she now looks sickly and tired after only two years of marriage.
The matter appeared before Acting Chief Saurombe where Jacob Mukwayo was suing Douglas Chinyai, accusing him of bewitching his daughter, Praisemore.
Praisemore Mukwayo is married to the latter’s son, Tatenda Chinyai.
He said suspicions of witchcraft only came after his daughter revealed to him that the Chinyai family had performed midnight rituals at her homestead behind her back.
The rituals were performed at Mabizeni Village by Douglas Chinyai, his son, Tatenda, a white garment prophet and the rest of the family during ungodly hours while Praisemore was fast asleep.
“The rituals were performed after Praisemore’s skirt had mysteriously disappeared that afternoon. It only reappeared the following morning after the rituals and since then she has been sickly. Look at her, she is ill-looking and I demand that this court order my in-laws to explain what really happened.
“Praisemore was full of energy before all these rituals. It seems as if her spirit is being sucked out,” said the concerned father.
He said what her daughter has gone through at the hands of the Chinyai family was not worth the US$30 that he received as bride price.
“These people only paid US$30 as my daughter’s bride price and now they are now shunning her like a lapper. I will not have it. US$30 is nothing and her life is not worth that small money. I suspect that they did something to my daughter and I want that reversed.
“After performing these rituals, they tried to force my daughter out of their family. They brought her back to me twice. I refused to accept the divorce token on both occasions and told them to first remove the curse they cast on Praisemore and top up the bride price before divorcing her,” said the man.
The Mukwayo family confiscated Chinyai’s gumboot and kept it as a sign that they were accusing him of wizardry.
The boot was produced in court as evidence.
Narrating her ordeal, Praisemore said ever since she got married to Tatenda, she stayed with him for less than six months as he is always away in Mutare.
“When he comes home, he stays with his parents, even though we have a homestead. Sometimes, he visits to enjoy his conjugal rights and leaves to sleep at his parents’ home. He does not care for me. I had lost my skirt on the day they performed their rituals.
“I was fast asleep when I heard them chanting and shouting outside my house with a hired prophet. The skirt was later returned. What shocks me is that even after he tried to divorce me, Tatenda still pesters me for intimacy. I fear that he might be using me for rituals through that,” she said.
In his defence, Chinyai admitted that his family had conducted the rituals.
He, however, said he was not at liberty to stand trial before Acting Chief Saurombe’s court over the issue as his son should have been the one dragged to the court instead of him.
“Of course, we performed the rituals, but I thought she was aware. We were only cleansing our homestead. My son has tried to divorce her on countless times, but her parents refused to take her back,” said the man who refused to comment on anything further, saying it was his absent son’s responsibility to do so.
Acting Chief Saurombe castigated the Chinyai family for conducting the rituals at Praisemore’s homestead without informing her. He advised them to use the proper channels to divorce her.
“Do not be fools by using the wrong channels. Follow the right and proper channels. Take back this woman to her father while she is still alive, once she dies, you will have a hard time doing it. It does not make sense that you would keep your son’s clothes at your own home while he has a wife and a matrimonial home nearby,” said Acting Chief Saurombe.
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