CLAIM: You cannot sleep with your cousin (hanzvadzi) in Africa
SOURCE: Hopewell Chin’ono
VERDICT: False
Incest is something that’s frowned upon in almost all cultures. But is the definition uniform throughout?
This question arises from a debate on social media on cousin marriages.
Zimbabwean influencer, Hopewell Chin’ono, led this debate in November 2024 when he posted on X a long commentary on the Equatorial Guinea man who had allegedly slept with 400 women.
In the post Chin’ono writes, ‘This guy is mentally ill. You cannot sleep with your cousin (hanzvadzi) in Africa, your uncle’s pregnant wife, and your brother’s wife and be considered normal!’.
He continues with, ‘Engaging in sexual relationships with close family members is not only taboo in many cultures, but it will also have severe emotional and social consequences on everyone involved including the spouses of these people’.
The post had over 425, 000 views; over 2,000 likes and 241 reposts.
There were numerous responses to this post.
One talked of Venda culture, ‘The Venda culture allows cousins to marry. It’s not a taboos (sic) to sleep with your cousin according to them….’ while another referenced SeSotho culture, ‘My brother get close to different cultures, In Zimbabwe Mat South, not sure if it’s Sotho /Birwa or Sarwa around Lubangwe close to Kafusi in Gwanda, According to their culture you mary your uncle’s daughter…your cousin (sic)’.
Another response referenced SeTswana culture, ‘In my family we historical intermarry cousins to preserve possessions and royalty. Batswana and Bapedi say ‘dikgomo di bowela sakeng’ when you marry you cousin the cows are brought back home. But I agree with you on this guy’s behavior, it’s a pathology (sic)’.
On 11, December, 2024, Sky News ran an article headlined, ‘MP speaks out against proposal to ban first cousin marriages’.
Chin’ono responded to this with the post, ‘Dear @iqbalmohamedMP You are reported by @SkyNews as having said that “an estimated 35% to 50% of all sub-Saharan African populations ‘prefer or accept’ cousin marriages.” You made this statement during your parliamentary intervention, where you argued that it was wrong to criminalise first cousin marriages.
Could you kindly provide the source of these statistics for first cousin marriages in sub-Saharan Africa as I have failed to find them’.
Not all cousins are created equal
Chin’ono in his first post translates cousin to ‘hanzvadzi’. This is defined as Shona for ‘a sibling of the opposite sex’. This article says that, ‘As an example, there is no such thing as a “cousin” in Zimbabwean culture. Cousins are referred to and understood as one’s brothers and sisters’.
However, this is not true of all Zimbabwean cultures. Some cultures recognise children born of siblings of the opposite sex – as cousin, not brother/sister: ‘umzala’ in iSiNdebele and ‘mtsoala’ in SeSotho.
A cross cousin is the child of one’s mother’s brother or father’s sister. Scholars of kinship distinguish the different types of first cousin as follows: the children of a father’s siblings are patrilateral cousins, and those of a mother’s siblings are matrilateral cousins; the children of a mother’s sister or of a father’s brother are parallel cousins (sometimes called ortho-cousins); and the children of a father’s sister or of a mother’s brother are cross-cousins.
Whereas the English word cousin covers all of these relationships, many languages place parallel cousins and cross-cousins in separate categories; in such cases, the terms used to denote parallel cousins are frequently the same as those denoting siblings. A smaller group of languages places the parallel cousins in one category but distinguishes the patrilateral cross-cousins from the matrilateral cross-cousins. Still another group of languages uses separate words for each of the four possible kinds of cousins: patrilateral cross-cousins, patrilateral parallel cousins, matrilateral cross-cousins, and matrilateral parallel cousins.
Some societies consider first-cousin marriages to be ideal. In those that differentiate between cross-cousins and parallel cousins, cross-cousin marriage is usually preferred or sometimes even obligatory, while marriage between parallel cousins often falls under incest taboos.
Are there African cultures that allow cousin marriages?
Contrary to Chin’ono’s claim that ‘you cannot sleep with your cousin in Africa’, you can. Not only in Africa, but in Zimbabwe, too.
Research has been done on various cultures that allow cousin marriages.
In a research paper titled Traditions of kinship, marriages and bridewealth in southern Africa, published by the London School of Economics and Political Science, Adam Kuper writes about Nguni and Sotho-Tswana traditions.
‘A man might acquire a wife with the cattle received from the marriage of a sister in the same “house”. The woman then had a claim on her brother’s house. It was, in a sense, her house, and she could make free with its goods. She would also require an appropriate return for the bridewealth she had brought in: among the Nguni, a co-wife to live with her in a subordinate position; among the Sotho-Tswana, a daughter to marry her son’.
He goes on to say that, ‘Among the Sotho-Tswana, a bride was ideally a cousin. Often bethrothed in childhood, her future father-in-law would send a cow to provide her with milk as she was growing up. She was courted at her father’s home, and the main ceremony marked the delivery of the bride wealth cattle to her father’s cattle-byre. She then entered into her marriage with little formality, and usually without being subjected to special restrictions’ .
This is supported by another publication which states that, ‘The most common type of marriage among the Sotho speaking community is the one where cousins marry each other. This is a marriage between children of a brother and a sister. It is called cross-cousins marriage. This type of marriage was preferred because it was believed that it strengthened the bonds between brothers and sisters’.
Legality
Section 75 of the Criminal Law ( Codification and Reform) Act regulates sexual intercource within a prohibited degree of relationship. The Act defines first cousins as ‘the child or any descendant of the child of the uncle or aunt of such person’ and second cousin as ‘the child or descendant of the child or any descendant of the great uncle or great aunt of such person’.
Section 75(3) states that ‘it shall be a defence to a charge of sexual intercourse within a prohibited degree of relationship as between first or second cousins for the accused to prove that the cultural or religious customs or traditions of the community to which they belong do not prohibit marriage between first and second cousins’.
The Marriages Act states in Section 7 (1) (a) that no persons who are related to each other in any degree of relationship specified in section 75(2) of the Criminal Law Code shall be capable of contracting a valid marriage, unless, in the case of persons who are related to each other as first or second cousins, they satisfy the marriage officer that they belong to a community referred to in section 75(3) of the Criminal Law Code.
This effectively exempts people belonging to SeSotho-SeTswana cultures in Zimbabwe from the prohibition to marry first or second cousins.
In Lesotho, the situation is similar. Q. Letsika writes in The Place of Sesotho Customary law marriage within the modern Lesotho legal system; ‘As a general rule of Sesotho customary law, a person can be married to any person of his or her choice. Following this formulation, cousins (batsoala) may enter into a legally binding marital relationship. The word “cousin” in the context of Sesotho customary law is restricted to any child of a brother’s sister and vice versa’.
Conclusion
The claim by Chin’ono that ‘You cannot sleep with your cousin (hanzvadzi) in Africa’ is false. Firstly, because not all African cultures consider cousins as siblings. In some cultures like SeSotho, SeTswana and iSiNdebele, cousins are cousins. They differentiate between parallel cousins (children of a father’s brother or mother’s sister) who are considered sisters/brothers and cross cousins (children of a father’s sister or mother’s brother) who remain cousins. Cross cousin marriages for some of these communities happen and are legal under Zimbabwe’s laws and other countries, such as Lesotho. However, it remains unclear if ‘an estimated 35% to 50% of all sub-Saharan African populations ‘prefer or accept’ cousin marriages’ as stated by Iqbal Mohamed MP.
