Man commits suicide after being pressured to marry village girl

A 20 year-old man has hanged himself to death after his parents forced him to leave his wife and marry a girl from their village in Mchinji district, Malawi24 understands.

The man, Ganizani Lupiya, killed himself on Monday at Robert village, Traditional Authority Zulu in Mchinji. His body was discovered hanging from the roof inside his small rented house, according to police.

Mchinji Police Public Relations Officer Kaitano Lubrino said Lupiya’s parents were against his decision to marry a girl from the boma where he lived and worked.

According to Lubrino, on Monday Lupiya woke up as usual and reported on duty at restaurant where he was working as a cook within Mchinji Boma.

“Few hours later Lupiya returned home and gave his wife a sum of K5,000 and instructed her to deliver the cash to his boss at the restaurant,” said Lubrino.

After doing the assignment, the wife, 19 year-old Tesha Chuma, went back home but she was shocked to find her husband hanging from the roof.

According to the police, before committing suicide Lupiya told his boss that his parents who stay in the village reprimanded him for marrying Chuma whom they described as a town girl. The parents wanted Lupiya to marry a girl from the village instead.

This development to divorce his wife of two weeks did not go well with him as such he left the village unhappy. But when he went back to work, Lupiya’s sister came with the girl his parents had found for him.

“Regardless of his efforts not to welcome the two, his sister insisted to leave behind the aforesaid lady at his house where the real wife was staying,” said Lubrino.

Following this episode, Lupiya sought permission from his employer to be allowed to go home to sort out the issue but he ended up killing himself.

An autopsy examination conducted at Mchinji District Hospital revealed that death occurred as a result of strangulation.