Nyarai Kaseke (not real name) is a secondary school graduate who got married in 2011 at the age of 25, to a wealthy businessman in the small eastern city of Mutare. Five years after marriage, she was yet to conceive. She was subjected to dehumanising treatments by her husband’s family. Nyarai’s mother-in-law suddenly became a thorn in her flesh, daily raining abuses on her, calling her all sorts of names, and even accusing her of being a witch that eats up the babies in her womb. That’s not all. At other times, Nyarai’s mother-in-law accused her of ruining her womb. This went on and on for years, that Nyarai’s husband became pressurised by the mother to get a second wife for himself. The claims were that Nyarai was to be blamed for her inability to conceive. However, on the advice of a neighbour, Nyarai and her husband, sought medical attention, and behold, it was discovered that it had not all been Nyarai’s fault but her husband’s, as he was diagnosed to have low sperm count.
Today, there are thousands of Zimbabwean women suffering these forms of dehumanisation due to their inability to conceive, and in most cases, the fault is usually laid on their doorsteps, without the slightest knowledge that the men could be the cause of the problems. A recent statistics by the World Health Organisation showed that more than 180 million couples (1 in every 4 couples) in developing countries suffer from primary or secondary infertility. WHO says infertility in Africa is caused by infections in over 85 percent women compared to 33 percent worldwide which emphasize the importance of prevention programmes in Africa.
Infertility has always been there and oftentimes blamed on women generally and witchcraft. Even today, the stigmatisation is evident particularly in the developing countries where people do not really believe in clinical tests as far as infertility is concerned…
THE LEO NATION 