05-December-2024

Melodramatic Reunion Of A girl With Her Family

Melodramatic Reunion Of A girl With Her Family

By: Rogia al-Shafee

 

KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - It is natural for a woman to be upset when her husband just thinks of marrying a second wife, let alone when he actually marries one. What is unnatural is also when a woman asks for a divorce when she discovers that her husband was previously married to another woman and had fathered a girl from her, sometime before they got married. The plea for divorce looks more unusual when the woman insists upon a divorce even after she learns that the first wife had died a long time ago

As narrated to Sudanow by one of the relatives of the husband, the following story had occurred in the early 1970s:

Upon graduation from the University of Khartoum in 1970, my cousin was appointed in a government job and as usual he was obliged to begin his job career in what was known as a harsh environment. He was sent to Darfur for two years after which he would return to Khartoum or work in an easier environment elsewhere in the country.

He told his loved one, who happened to be his niece, that he would marry her when his mission in Darfur was over.

But after his first year in that part of the country he fell in love with a girl there and married and fathered a girl from her.

After his mission in Darfur was over, he returned to his home village in the Northern State and married his niece, always tight lipped about his first wife and his daughter. But he secretly stayed in contact with his first wife and daughter until the wife died. The girl then moved to live in the custody of her aunt.

The man and his second wife continued to lead a happy life. They had a number of sons and daughters who filled their life with utmost joy.

Years passed and the man forgot, or tried to forget, that he had a daughter in the far West. His sons and daughters grew up and reached university age.

In the meantime the daughter in Darfur also grew up and was admitted to university. At registration the registrar noticed a congruency in her family name with that of his own cousin. He asked her where she was from and she told him, but she said her father was from the Northern State.

“Where is your father now and where did you see him the last time?’, he asked.

Her reply was to the negative.

Confused by this situation and upon return to his home, the registrar asked his mother whether her nephew had ever travelled to Darfur and her reply was positive and that he had spent two years there.

Here he gave his mother the surprise that her nephew had married a woman in Darfur who gave birth to a girl and that girl is now an arts student in the university where he worked.

Correspondingly, the man (the girl’s father) had a son studying at the college of economics, the same university. What a co-incidence!

Both the registrar and his mother wondered how the father could be told about this and what could be the feeling of the father’s children and their mother when they learn about this.

At last he got an idea for introducing the girl to her brother. Early in the morning the next day and upon arrival to college, he called both of them. He told the boy that the girl was a relative of his (the registrar) and asked him to take care of her. The boy did as he was told and used to take the girl with him home at weekends after introducing her as just a college colleague. All the family members liked the girl. This situation continued for over a year.

“I used to long for seeing her and used to wait for her at the college gate to say good morning,” said the boy.

“I had a strange feeling towards her which I could not understand. Was it love or something else I could not tell”, he said.

When the registrar noticed that the relation between the two was going into deep waters, he told the boy that the girl was his sister and told him what he knew about the matter. The boy received this news happily and was grateful that he had come to learn these facts about the girl. He then told his family members about what he had found, all of whom had refused to believe him, save the father who was very happy that his daughter had reunited with him at last. For her part, his mother was upset by this news and insisted upon a divorce from her husband, considering that his marrying another woman was a betrayal of her love for him. She was also angry that her husband was hiding this affair from her all this time.

At court the judge ruled a divorce after all attempts to reconcile the couple went useless.

Though she was happy to be united with her father and brother, the girl had felt guilty for the family breakup.

After graduation, the girl married one of her cousins and left with him to Canada. There she completed her post graduate education and became a university professor, also acquiring a good academic fame.

All this time she was in continuous contact with her father and brother who one day told her his younger brother had contracted renal failure and needed a kidney transplant. She asked him to bring the young man immediately to Canada. She also asked all the family members, including their mother, to come to Canada with the sick boy.

After the necessary medical checkups were made it became clear that she was the only one whose tissues fitted those of the sick boy, who contrary to his other brothers and sisters, had sided with his mother in this affair. And she readily insisted to donate a kidney for him.

After a successful kidney transplant everybody was happy. The mother was so embarrassed about what she did with the girl and with her husband and heaped apologies on them.

 

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Sudanow is the longest serving English speaking magazine in the Sudan. It is chartarized by its high quality professional journalism, focusing on political, social, economic, cultural and sport developments in the Sudan. Sudanow provides in depth analysis of these developments by academia, highly ...

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