Who knew that 19 years after the death of Prince Paul Job Kafeero; the legendary Kadongo Kamu genre singer (music played with a single guitar) would literally rise from his grave and make headlines?
It was all about a long running paternity dispute. Kafeero was a very charismatic, adroit, prophetic and captivating story teller of immeasurable dexterity.
He still had the exuberance of youth by the time he died at the tender age of 36. He had a huge fan base and a vast album collection that resonated with day-to-day aspects of life.
He spiced them up with idioms, self-deprecating humour, and relatable, empathetic anecdotes.
About relationships (Omwana w’omuzungu and Bisirikirwa), the adverse effects of alcohol (Dipo Nazigala), the intricacies of urban life (Kampala mu Kooti), and even paternity and family disputes (Nantabulilirwa and Buldina Ndi Bakooya).
He sung in the widely used Luganda language. A lot of his slang is now part of Kiganda lexicon.
He was the Elvis Presley of the provinces and like most super stars, he was a pot of honey that attracted the beautiful bees.
When he died many came forward with children they claimed were his. The ensuing battle for his vast estate has been running for almost two decades.
There have reportedly been a series of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) tests till it was decided on a comprehensive exercise with all the concerned children involved, at once.
With the gauntlet thrown, the list of 25 went down. When the results returned out of the 25 children who came forward only four were certified as Kafeero’s offspring.
A serious debate ensued. While some outrightly dismissed the culturally ‘alien’ DNA testing because many of the children resemble Kafeero, others set their sights on women in relationships.
They made a meal of them. That men are said to be cheats but DNA always nets the women! Others suggest that it is time to make DNA testing mandatory immediately the child enters the world.
If trivialised or sensationalised, an opportunity to interrogate an important aspect about the station of women in society is missed.
Granted a woman being human may also find a kick in having multiple relationships and for pleasure like men or even for economic reasons and conceive without being certain about the father. It happened to someone with a black African husband who gave birth to a half caste.
By the time you have a paternity dispute, it is highly likely that the woman is in multiple relationships.
Whereas multiple relationships for men are usually for pleasure seeking, for many women it is mainly two major factors which place a high mountain in their paths.
In most African cultures, women in marriage are expected to bear children if not, they are considered ‘useless’.
They endure ridicule and domestic violence for ‘fraudulently’ taking bride price and dowry and not delivering.
The blame for a childless marriage is placed on the woman even when the husband is sterile or infertile or has a low sperm count.
In fact, many men will not even accept to seek medical assistance to establish if they are the cause of the couple not having a child.
It is frowned upon as weakness and almost impossible for a man do. They may instead opt to take on a second wife.
In such circumstances, the married woman may seek ‘help’ outside the marriage to settle the issue of childlessness hence a DNA failure.
If the man starts another relationship for the sole purpose of getting a child, the new partner may also deceive him by conceiving from another able man. So that is another child on the DNA failure list!
In patrilineal societies, boy children are considered important and unfortunately in some case, more valuable than girl children for the sake of expanding the clan. When girls get married, they ‘join’ another clan.
Now if a woman in a relationship conceives multiple times but does not have a boy child, she may be tempted into infidelity to solve the issue of ‘giving’ the man an heir before he tries his luck elsewhere. Such children join the list of DNA failures.
Many girl children in African societies have the disadvantage of being at the bottom end of the pecking order.
They are likely not to go to school and therefore be short of skills for independent survival.
So in whatever relationship they contract, they hardly have a say on matters of contraception. If say a man paying her rent does not want to use protection she may have no option. There are cases of abandonment.
Or she may later discover that he told her lies and made false promises just to sleep with her. He may not have the economic means -to look after her and the child.
The next man of means especially if she signs up to another relationship immediately is likely to be assigned the fatherhood. Another DNA setback.
Similarly, it happens in cases of infidelity by a married man who wants to save his monogamous Chrisitan marriage or political standing in society.
One may be on the Father’s Union committee or a Minister and may not want to spoil his ‘pious reputation.’ It happened with a priest. He will conveniently accept to see the woman getting a man to accept the pregnancy.
The trouble with polygamy in a modern setting is one of the sources of the DNA conundrum. The basic structure of such relationships was that a man intentionally and not accidentally made the move.
He ensured that each wife had a proper home for her security and provided for her. He even had a timetable for matters of the bedroom.
In that way, the woman was not a ‘free agent’ who occasionally acted as a wife. She was secure and out of bounds to other men.
Now if she is not formally in a permanent relationship or is a side chick of an inconsistent man who is not present and does not provide housing plus all other help to run a home but occasionally turns up once in a blue moon for sexual healing, some amorous men occasionally ‘stand in for him.’
Even the children he does not father are usually tied to him. They will obviously crumble in under the weight of a DNA test.
Children failing DNA tests is not just a problem of unfaithful women. If men were biologically capable of conceiving children many of their offspring would also fail DNA tests.
This is especially if society disadvantaged them in many aspects making it at times necessary to stray out of a monogamous arrangement.