/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-SWAZILAND: Wives Tackle Spousal Drinking Habit

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

MBABANE, Feb 12 2002 (IPS) - The classic domestic dilemma of the irresponsible husband heading for the bar on pay-day and drinking away his wages, leaving nothing for the wife and kiddies when he returns home, has a solution in law in Swaziland.

. A statute on the book permits wives a way to forbid drinking establishments and liquor outlets from serving or selling booze to their spouses. Perhaps because Swaziland has always been such a hard-drinking place — a white visitor a hundred years ago described life in colonial-era Swaziland as “one long drunk” — such a law was deemed necessary to ensure domestic bliss. Heavy drinking by King Mbandzeni’s warriors in 1889 was responsible for the location of Swaziland’s first capital, Manzini, which is today the kingdom’s most populous town. As recounted in the history, Speak Manzini: “To white stepbrothers, Elerington Bayly Rogers and William Bayly, opened a trading store near the king’s royal village. The problem was the warriors of the king’s regiments bought liquor there, got drunk, and caused chaos in the barracks on the outskirts of the village. “Mbandzeni told the traders to relocate their shop at a location far enough away that by the time the warriors returned to the royal village, they would have sobered up. The stepbrothers chose a spot on a hillside above the Mnzimene River, about 10 kilometres to the east. Because of the store’s riverfront location, local Swazis called the place ‘Manzini’, which means ‘on the water’.” Today’s Manzini women are delighted to discover a long- forgotten law that gives them some influence over the drinking habits of their husbands. “When I heard of this law, my heart shouted ‘Hallelujah!’ because now I have a way to keep my good-for-nothing husband from losing the money he should use to support me and our five children,” exulted Anna Magongo, a housewife at the sprawling Ngwane Park township outside Manzini. Magongo, like virtually all Swazis, had little idea that a law existed that permits wives to halt the sale of spirits, wine and beer to their husbands. In fact, the law is old, dating back to the decades (1902-1968) when Swaziland was a British protectorate. A former government health minister, Dr. Samuel Hynd, who came to Swaziland in 1931, explains, “During the British administration, it was easy to monitor people’s drinking habits. Swazis were initially forbidden to use alcohol, and white people who sold spirits to Swazis got in trouble”. “But later, Swazis of a certain stature, such as a chief or king’s counsellor, could purchase liquor at a handful of outlets. At the time, Swazis were not permitted in hotels or bars in towns, and their purchases were handed to them through trap doors cut into walls to the outside,” he recalls. At the time and under those circumstances, it was relatively easy to cut off any Swazi’s liquor supply at the request of a spouse, who under law could petition the local authorities, and give reasons why her husband should be denied liquor. Acting Principal Parliamentary Counsel, Sabelo Matsebula, explains, “The provision was retained when the existing law, the Liquor Licensing Act, was passed in 1964. A wife or even a husband has the right even today to request that the regional administrator issue a notice in the government gazette which will effectively prevent a spouse from being served in any bar or battle store.” When existence of the “spousal control” law first came to light during a parliamentary review of old laws still on the books, some women rushed to their local police stations and town administrators, seeking restraining orders on bars their husbands frequent. Detective Superintendent Aaron Mavuso said the women did not receive the immediate service they wished. “The process is lengthy, because if the petition is approved, it has to be published in a government gazette. That takes time. Before this happens, the woman has to demonstrate that her husband’s drinking is damaging the family.” But such efforts may be moot, because the existence of the law was raised so that it and other laws considered out of date can be voided by parliamentary action. “We now have so many bars and battle stores, it is almost impossible to ascertain where the alcohol bought by a person originated from if there is a violation,” says parliament’s counsel Matsebula. Swaziland’s licensed drinking establishments and liquor outlets cannot be expected to carry lists and photos of people banned from being sold alcohol, law enforcers say. In addition, most of the kingdom’s drinking goes on in unlicensed informal bars, such as township shebeens and rural brewing huts. Many poor families sustain themselves by preparing and selling homemade concoctions to neighbours, whose drinking habits at home are well known. Making enforcement of spousal liquor prohibition more problematic is this month’s buganu season, when the traditional Swazi beer brewed from fruit that ripens this month becomes abundant. Reputed to be an aphrodisiac, buganu has been known to inspire legendary public sexual spectacles which overextended police are powerless to stop. Stock theft also increases as cattle and goats disappear to satisfy cravings for meat those accompany buganu drinking. The brew flows so easily in February that any would-be imbiber cannot be deterred. “A law that allows a wife to stop her husband’s drinking, especially if he is abusive or irresponsible with money, is a good idea if it could work,” says David Pritchard of the Swaziland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council. But he concedes the current law was written when the population was much smaller and manageable. “Other ways will have to be found to get husbands to be responsible,” Pritchard says. “But the good news is it is finally understood that heavy drinking is a health and social hazard, and it is not tolerated as it once was.”