Honorific Affixes and the Preservation Shona People’s Marriages

Abstract

Masvingo’s local newspapers and records at the courts indicate a high increase in gender-based violence as well as divorce cases involving young couples in Masvingo urban area. It is apparent that most of the fights and divorce cases are over very insignificant issues which make most of the affected quick to regret immediately after. In an effort to come up with the reasons behind the increase as well as a possible solution, the paper reports on efforts to assess the contribution of the elimination of the honorific affixes in the affected couples’ addresses. The research involved some qualitative analysis of data gathered through interviews carried within Masvingo urban area. Purposive sampling was done to select participants for the interviews which were basically modelled around the question: “What “has destroyed the sacredness and calm that used to characterise the Shona marriage institution? It came out that the majority of the couples who fought or ended up divorcing addressed each other without using the honorific affixes. As a result the disagreements they usually cite arose from very simple things which ended up getting off hand due to the nature of the language of address in use. The research recommends some emphasis on love and respect between married people that is marked by the constant use of the honorific affixes at all costs.

Keywords: honorific affixes, divorce cases, gender-based violence