Last Wednesday we began a series of interviews with representatives of the OneLove Campaign regional partners in the nine countries taking part in the campaign.

The aim of the series is to give you some insight into the issues that affect multiple concurrent partnerships in those countries.

This week we interview Caroline Majonga, the director of Action,  a health communication NGO in Zimbabwe.

Action is working with its partners to launch the OneLove Campaign in Zimbabwe. The launch is expected to take place around May this year.

OneLove: What does OneLove mean in your country?

Caroline: Zimbabwe is trying to promote the idea that it is possible to have a physically and emotionally fulfilling relationship with one person.

The OneLove Campaign is also promoting safer sexual behaviours, especially for people who are unable or unwilling to be involved in only one relationship at a time. The overall aim of the campaign is to reduce the number of Multiple and Concurrent Partnerships in Zimbabwe.

OneLove: What is the role of culture in love relationships in your country?

Caroline: Culturally men are permitted to be engaged in more than one sexual relationship at a time. It is almost a societal expectation that men will not be faithful and women are expected to understand and accept it.

Men and women do not always communicate openly about their wants and needs because they are afraid of how they will be perceived. If women admit to enjoying sex they are afraid of being labelled as loose.

OneLove: Why should traditional leaders in Zimbabwe support the OneLove Campaign

Caroline: Traditional leaders should support the OneLove Campaign because many times women are placed in a vulnerable position because of “tradition”.

Tradition is often used as an excuse to marry more than one woman or to engage in sexual relationships with more than one woman. Traditions were put in place to protect people and now traditions are being used to perpetuate harmful cultural practices.

Having the buy-in from traditional leaders will ensure that people don’t blame culture for their decisions to have multiple concurrent partners and spread HIV, but understand that it is the abuse of culture that is the real problem.

OneLove:  Tell us about one cultural saying in Zimbabwe which endorses the right of a man to have more than one sexual partner.

Caroline: In Shona there is a proverb which says “Bhuru rinoonekwa nemavanga…” The literal translations is that “a real bull is seen because of it’s scars.”

This basically means that a man is not a real man if he hasn’t had more than one woman and suffered a sexually transmitted infection as a result. The scars refer to the number of women and the associated infections. For you to be a real man, you need to have the scars of life to show for it.

OneLove: Why should religious leaders in Zimbabwe support OneLove campaign?

Caroline: Religious leaders should support the campaign because it is important that we have one message in our fight against HIV infection.

In Zimbabwe, the Onelove Campaign is supporting and encouraging faithfulness which is an issue that the church has always promoted.

OneLove is working with religious leaders because the church is very powerful. The people who attend church services look up to their leaders as role models and they seek to live and act just like their leaders.  They are therefore more likely to listen to their leaders when they tell them that they should make healthier sexual choices.

Related articles

Read last week’s interview with Hope Dolo, director of Phela Health and Development Communications.

You can also download a recent research report about the beliefs and practices about sex, gender and culture in Zimbabwe. The report is called Multiple and Concurrent Partnerships in Zimbabwe