The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
MR AMOS Juru (not real name) worked in the mines in Kimberly, South Africa back in the day trying to eke a living for the young family he had just started.
He worked tirelessly to give them the fine things in life since he would return home after lengthy periods. However, his return home was rather sudden and he came with just a few clothes and belongings. To his family he said the mines were no longer as productive and he felt he should come back home and watch his family grow, but alas, he had committed a heinous crime which had him escape under the cover of darkness and found his way back to Mwenezi, where his family resided.
Life went on and he even secured a job but the misfortunes that befell his family were unimaginable. His twin sons fell into a well and died when they were just three years old, they all assumed it was an accident.
One of his daughters took her life, despite having grown to be a young astute woman. His brother disappeared without trace.
His wife then began giving birth to children with disabilities and who would eventually die. Death was becoming an everyday occurrence for the people of the Juru clan.
However, the elders of the clan who knew of Mr Juru’s hand in the death of a fellow miner in Kimberly sat him down and asked him to visit the family of the deceased and explain that he was involved in his murder so that the clan would be saved from death.
He did just that and came back home with the news that the man’s clan wanted a virgin girl as compensation for their loss.
They said the spirit of the dead man wanted to rest so the virgin would “seal the deal”. This is a challenge that sadly exists in some communities in the country and sadly none of the Juru family members wants to sacrifice their daughters as they do not want their family members to continue perishing.
The Shona speaking people believe that when one of their own is killed they must be compensated. Historian and cultural activist Mr Pathisa Nyathi explained the concept of kuripa ngozi and why a girl child was used.
“A woman is a child bearer, and this is why a woman was used to go and appease the avenging spirit. A woman will go to the bereaved family and be given a husband who she would then bear children with and when a son was born in the event that a man was killed, he will be given the name of that person and the spirit would rest,” he said.
Mr Nyathi said the idea of a woman being given to the avenging spirit was to ensure that she gives birth and increases the blood line of the wronged clan.
“The wronged people wanted to ensure continuity in their clan, thus a woman being the one who gives birth had to go. It must be noted that it was not a force matter, families would ask which virgin was willing to go and on the other hand the receiving clan would also be asked who among them was willing to take the woman,” added Mr Nyathi.
He also said in the event that there was no compensation to the aggrieved family, their clan would continue perishing and having many misfortunes. Mr Nyathi said the Shona used this method of kuripa ngozi as social justice in their set-ups, he said it was also done to instil fear.
“People were kept in line by this practice, one would not commit a crime like murder because he knew that they could lose a whole clan through death if they did not compensate using a virgin girl. One would not want to see his clan perishing because of their crimes, again even the innocent family members would die because of one’s sins,” he added.
Mr Nyathi said the moral fabric was still intact back then and people respected the sanctity of life.
Chief Chiwara of Gutu also concurred with Nyathi saying the girl child was the giver of life and as such she was taken to go and appease the avenging spirits but that had since changed as people now demanded cattle or cash.
“Today we now have people paying compensation or kuripa nemombe nemari. The pledging of the girl child is no longer practised much as it used to be. The people have evolved, these girls have rights too but there are isolated cases where the appeasing is kept as a closely guarded secret in the family, owing to its criminal nature,” he said.
Ms Prisca Dube, a gender activist from Bulawayo said pledging of virgin girls was now criminal.
“According to the Domestic Violence Act it is a criminal offence, no one has the right over someone’s life like that, how can we be controlled by the spirit world to the extent of pledging human life?. We need to dismantle such patriarchy if it exits in some places, those girls have the right to choose who they marry, not to be pledged,” she said.
