BEING A WOMAN - extract

As Majozi had planned, Hattie became grounded at home because of the eleven children that she had borne literally year after year. If he was not drinking opaque beer, Majozi's other form of entertainment was having babies with Hattie. On the birth of their eleventh child, Hattie had experienced unusual pain during child birth. After she had given birth to Gumie, she felt different and vowed to stop having children ever again after that birth almost cost her life. When Gumie was delivered, the doctors noticed unusually large clots of blood coming from Hattie's uterus. The inexperienced junior doctors who were attending to her did not exactly know what was wrong. They could not clearly establish Hattie's problem as most of the good equipment had broken down and the hospital had exhausted its allocated meagre budget. Dr Davies one of the senior doctors was the one who came to Hattie's rescue at the last minute. When Hattie had lost all hope of living and was saying what she thought were her last words, Dr Davies discovered that Hattie’s uterus had developed a tear. He carried out emergency procedures to remove the uterus. This is how Hattie’s life was saved.

Majozi knew that even if his marriage to Hattie became rocky, Hattie would never leave him. Marriage was never meant to be a bed of roses and African women hung on to their marriages for the sake of the children anyway. Majozi knew the flame had gone but Hattie was a very cultured woman, who stuck to her ideals and would stick to her man no matter what. She was the sort of person who knelt for her husband as a show of respect, and made sure he took precedence over any other family member. In any case, Majozi had paid 8 head of cattle and $800 to Hattie’s parents as bride price for her. According to African custom, she in turn had a duty to cook for him, do his laundry and fulfil the conjugal rights albeit in the right manner. At the time of marriage a woman was supposed to be well trained and to know how to please her husband in bed. At the local beer garden, Majozi boasted that although Hattie was of a slim stature, she had all the assets that he wanted in a woman to fulfill his conjugal needs. “Tete vake vakamuraira,” he was often overheard speaking in this way at the local beer garden. Hattie had been trained well to be active in all respects. She had been coached well before marriage on how to be a good wife. According to African custom, she had used traditional herbs to tighten her private parts and make them attractive. She tied traditional beads round her waist to compliment this. A woman had to be right for her husband. Hattie would never leave Majozi and in any case, even if she left him, no man wanted a woman with eleven children. Despite performing her duties well, Hattie had been worn out. Her sapless breasts were now sagging. They had become unattractive and lacked the suppleness that Majozi had known when Hattie was still as tender as a spring chicken.