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Opinion Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies occur at an alarming rate among school-going children, resulting in some government authorities suggesting that condoms should be made available to all school children of the appropriate age-group.

That suggestion has revived a lively and controversial debate about whether or not parents should openly allow their children and guardians their wards, to indulge in sexual intercourse.

The debate’s origins lie in the mid-1980s when Aids was showing its tragic results in Zimbabwe after playing havoc with people’s lives in Uganda, the DRC and one or two other central and east African countries.

One school of thought at that time held that people should use condoms and continue with their sexual lifestyles as if nothing was amiss among them.

The other school of thought said people should indulge in sexual intercourse only after marriage and not before. The Roman Catholic Church was very emphatic on this, a position that reminded social science scholars of that church’s traditional oath of celibacy in certain circumstances.

One of the prominent founders of the Christian Church of Rome, Saint Paul, lived a celibate life. But he advised his converts to get married so that they could avoid passionate sexual pressure.

Those calling for the use of condoms may be described as permissive or liberal people who accept the promiscuous reality of the world, and say it is futile to try to change the very lifestyle that spawned Aids.

Those are the same people who are now calling for the state to encourage school-children to carry and use condoms.

There is virtually no difference between their attitude and that of Boko Haram whose activists kidnapped some schoolgirls last year to turn them into their wives.

The only message that a child gets from a parent or guardian who directly or indirectly gives that child a condom is that the child may go and have sexual intercourse. Period.

Why give anyone who is not licensed to drive car keys?

Those who call for the distribution of condoms to pupils and students are in effect calling for the turning of this country’s future generations into whores. Why? Because they care sowing a seed of sexual immorality which will become a habit that will become Zimbabwe’s national character that will end up as its fate.

It is socially and culturally wrong for anyone in a parental or guardianship position to act as a facilitator for the commission of an immorality by their children or wards. Pro-condom groups must realize that unscrupulous teachers are likely to take advantage of that permissive policy and play havoc with school kids.

The people of Zimbabwe have traditional and cultural values they hold dear to their hearts. We may be members of church groups some of whose leaders are very dubious characters, but we are Zimbabweans.

However, when it comes to the moral worth of our daughters, we are all agreed that virginity is one of the qualities we highly value. That is why in our traditional set-up, a virgin is worth more than one who is not in lobola (roora, malobolo) terms.

In olden days,in the Korekore community, a young man who wanted to marry a maid was required to take a new woolen blanket to his prospective parents-in-law on his first visit.

He would be allowed to spend the night in the same hut with this wife-to-be. If he found that she was not a virgin, he would cut a big round hole in the centre of the blanket, fold the blanket and place a penny coin in it, and put it on the doorway of the hut.

Early in the morning, an aunt referred to as ‘mubvana’ or ‘mbvana’ would collect the blanket and present it together with the penny coin to the family elders. Roora (malobolo) would be considered on the basis of that blanket with a hole. By the way, a penny had a hole in its centre. Twelve pennies made one shilling, and 20 shillings were the equivalent of one pound sterling.

If the young man found that his prospective wife was a virgin, he would place a 10-shilling note in the blanket, fold the blanket neatly and place it on the doorway.

On collecting the blanket early in the morning the ‘mubvana’ would ululate (epululudza, ukutshaya umpululu) and then respectively kneel, clap hands and ask the young man whether he had had a pleasant night. The young man would squat, clap hands and respond affirmatively. Roora (malobolo) would be charged accordingly thereafter.

This practice and a number of others have been abandoned as we are getting grafted into the Judeaeo-Christian culture embodied in the Bible.

Talking about the Bible brings us to the inevitable question: what do the churches say about this condom-for-school-children issue? I am referring to those churches that administer some of Zimbabwe’s schools and those that value education even if they themselves do not have any school. What position have they taken on this issue?

What about traditional leaders such as headmen and chiefs? They have the duty and responsibility to promote and protect Zimbabwe’s traditions, customs and mores.

They certainly would have failed the nation if they allowed this irresponsible and immoral suggestion to be implemented.

The suggestion is supported by people who have abdicated their parental and guardianship role. What is required is plain and unyielding firmness so that the nation is steered along a respectable and self-respecting path, away from drugs such as mbanje, alcohol, as well as prostitution, thievery and from the path of falsehoods.

Church and traditional leaders have a responsibility to instill into the minds of the people that one of the good qualities of any community, indeed any nation is self-restraint. That is a virtue found in culturally and socially sound nations. Our children must be trained to restrain themselves from pre-marital sex, the consumption of drugs, from thievery, from laziness and from extravagance.

l Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734328136, or through email [email protected]