Chapter 3
The Haunted Trail explores the tragic experiences of Michael Denga, who comes from
a dysfunctional family background plagued by poverty, violence, disease, and death in
Mbare, Harare. As the text progresses, Michael, through his intelligence, temporarily
redeems himself as he wins a presidential scholarship to study at Fort Hare University.
He eventually becomes a shrewd and renowned banker. His success is partly built on
corruption and the assassination of opponents to keep his vast business empire afloat.
Nonetheless, the novel ends with Michael committing suicide after the collapse of his
business empire and the discovery that he is HIV positive
The moral principle is premised on the notion that, when human beings behave altruistically they
distinguish themselves from animals and order and peace prevail in society. It is applauded for bringing
societies into a homogenous fold. Morality is therefore essential to the existence of human beings as it
creates a civilised society. In this essay, I argue that morals fall away in the adverse of poverty and
hunger. In instances where human beings have to choose between morality and survival, the former
prevails. Using the Marxist feminist theoretical framework, I envisage that in capitalist environments the
poor disregard moral values for purpose of self -sustenance. Controlling women’s access to resources
and their sexuality in turn allows men to control womens’ labour power and their sexuality. Crimes like
prostitution, corruption and murder take a different meaning when committed by the subjugated
proletariat as opposed to the bourgeoisie who always has a choice between good and bad. Pragmatist
ethics is broadly humanist because it is the ultimate test of morality beyond whatever matters for as
humans good values are those for which we have good reason (Dewey,1999).On the other hand, the
African philosophy of Ubuntu believes that a persons’ behaviour determines their personhood and
immorality reduces the personhood of a human being. In the face of adversity, the poor find good
reason to be amoral.
Patriarchal societies set up moralistic principles, which act as measures to check the appropriateness of
human behaviour. These measures premised on the androgenic standard of what is good or bad are
then applied to both man and women. The androgenic society decides that prostitution is immoral as far
as the woman is the one selling sex. It neglects to define what the buyer of the sex who is a man is
doing. The woman is the one who is monitored for social reprehensible behaviour. This is evidenced by a
lack of a synonymy that aptly describes a man who buys sex from women. Words used to describe men
who have several sexual partners do not have the same negative connotations. While a man can proudly
call himself, a casanova, libertine, gigolo, ladies’ man or philanderer a prostitute may not do the same
In an ideal world (utopic society) both man and women would have an equal share to economic
resources, women would therefore have no need to sell themselves for money. On the other hand, for
one to be able to sell there should be a buyer. In situations where oppression prevails and in an unjust
society where systematically and over long periods one group denies another access to resources of
society immorality is bound to prevail (Collins, 2000).Sexual double standards and male control of access
to the means of production and reproduction control women just as surplus labour is controlled by low
wages. Men exercise their control in receiving personal service work from women, in not having to do
house work or rear children in having access to women’s bodies for sex and in feeling powerful and
being powerful (Hartmann, 1979).Until recently in Zimbabwe police would, arrest women for soliciting
but the solicited were never arrested. “The patriarchal nature of Zimbabwean traditional culture has for
ages relegated women to second class citizens. Activists say this resulted in women struggling to assert
equality even where it is enshrined in the constitution” (The Zimbabwean 3 June 2015).
Colonisation in Zimbabwe brought with it Capitalism and subsequent urbanisation. Since the resources
generated from the urban industry were swiftly transported to the mother country (Fanon, 1997) the
native country did not have enough resources to develop industry and create employment for all its
citizens. The lack of resources coupled with rampant mismanagement of the economy left the country in
distress. The majority of the citizens in urban areas live in poverty. Yifi Tuan (1984) in Collins (2004:144)
suggests that “power as domination involves reducing humans to animate nature in order to exploit
them economically and to treat them condescendingly as pets”. This is true of all colonised states where
the native was always treated as inferior and of women in relation to men. Marx has articulated that a
person’s beliefs and values are a reflection of that person’s economic interests (Leitch, 2001). For the
coloniser the main interest was to make much profit, however for the marginalised native person one
had to do whatever it took to survive. The protagonists in both novels are not averse to throwing
caution to the wind. They show that consciousness is over ridden by circumstances. In instances where
one is faced with adversities conscious is subjugated by the survival instinct.
From the beginning of the novel, we meet Michael, a self-aggrandizing, corrupt and uncultured boy who
matures into a decadent adult. Michael leads a reckless childhood. He sleeps with different women
some older than him from an early age. His family background does not give him any moral or ethical
values. His lust for sex is equated with his lust for power and control. His failure to control his lust results
in him losing Pentagon Bank, his empire. In spite of his success, the bank having opened branches in
major cities in Zimbabwe, Michael’s lust is voracious as he moves to buy Manrow Bank. The same lust is
exhibited by the truck drivers in Highway queen who are all keen to have sex with Sophie and without
protection. Michael orchestrates the illegal take-over of struggling banks and fraudulently amasses
funds to finance his schemes. He is pragmatic in his approach as he argues that, “We are registered as a
Financial Services Provider but owing to the economic crisis we are facing at the moment. It is advisable
to divert a little if we are to remain above water’’ (p.7).One of the clearest influences from the west is
the growing materialism in Africa (Mwikamba, 1992 in William, Moses and Awolowo, 2008). Money and
material wealth has become a semi-god that has led to the decay of morals, as economic activity and
success have become ends in themselves. African community has moved away from the communal way
of life to a Eurocentric individualism that makes it difficult to apply principles that worked in traditional
society. While in traditional societies the success of an individual translated to the success of a
community in modern day success is individualistic a gaining it is a competition.
Michael and Jackie are indifferent to the standards of morality set by a society whose premise is of a
privileged position. Jackie and Michael are two individuals from a impoverished background who are
non-conformist and have a prurient tendency to engage in sex. Both characters are caught up in what
Bohms (2001:115) refers to as “the primitive rebellion hypothesis”. Poverty stricken individuals are
prone to crime as a means of survival. Crime is a rational response to their situation and morality falls
away. Chiedza can easily judge Jackie’s behaviour as a “decadent and carefree woman of the city” (p.1).
Chiedza is looking at Jackie from a privileged middle class position where she makes assumptions about
the expected behaviour of a proper and decent woman. Ironically, in her naivety it is not Jackie who
becomes HIV positive but her. Chidavaenzi seems to heighten the irony in that, it is normally the poor
who are associated with disease and promiscuity
The background of poverty moulds and shapes Michael into a reckless adult. When he gets Pentagon
Bank, he is consumed by the love of wealth that he does not know when to stop his misogyny. As a child,
he did not get the grooming that Chiedza had. Chiedza controls her passion but Michael does not know
any better. Michael has not been taught to love. His home was not a haven of love and happiness as
such he does not know what love really is. He wants to possess Chiedza because of her beauty and good
character. To him Chiedza fits the role of perfect wife for a business tycoon. He does not share her
passion for a family. Michael is portrayed as a panjandrum as he believes that he managed to escape the
squalor of Mbare therefore he is above anything else that includes even HIV and AIDS.
THE MORAL WOMAN IN THE WAKE OF POVERTY AND AIDS Emmanuel Kant has stated that moral
judgments are binding to all human beings no matter what kind of society they live in (Stanford
Encyclopaedia, 2002). Chidavaenzi seem to argue against this view as he bring to light that a person’s
behaviour is controlled by their circumstances more than what society expects of them. Human beings
are generally egocentric and more often than not the golden rule, do unto others as you want done unto
you, is put aside for self-fulfilment and survival imperatives. Chiedza and Jackie are two graduates with
diverse backgrounds who meet at University. While Chiedza sits in her dorm room reading Jackie parties
until morning. In traditional African society, a shared morality was cement to the society (Kingongo,
1991). While the ultimate goal of traditional education was morality, the behaviour of both characters is
indicative that modern education unlike traditional education does not place emphasis on ethical
behaviour. Chiedza is a determined, hardworking, goal oriented and moralistic woman. She is highly
religious and believes that sex before marriage and “having a child outside wedlock was a sin against
God” (p. 95). Orphaned at a young age, Jackie is the exact opposite. She has street shrewdness and is
very independent. In spite of having multifarious boyfriends, Jackie takes exceptional care to protect
herself and becomes selfish. As a female gigolo, she dates man of her own choosing and whim. She calls
herself the ‘men’s lady’ taking away the Casanova masculine role to apply to her love for sex with
different partners. Like Sophie in Highway Queen, she assumes a new identity as a self-namer and self-
definer (Muwati, Gambaya and Chabata 2013:121). Jackie is liberated from patriarchal control and
learns from an early age to take care of herself. She has no remorse or regret of her decision even that
of sleeping with her best friend’s betrothed. She exhibits quality that is masculine in nature and uses it
to protect herself from patriarchal dominance. She uses men as objects for her own pleasure and
knowingly engages in adulterous affairs with married man. In this way, she adopts a process that Bell
describes as dis identification in which she challenges patriarchally ascribed gender roles of what a
woman should be.
Chiedza’s mollycoddled childhood has not exposed her to the debauchery that is found in the big city of
Harare. She genuinely believes that if she is good nothing bad will happen to her. She fails at
selfpreservation because of her naive belief that being good would protect her. Although she suspects
that Michael is an adulterer, she continues with the relationship. Even after they are engaged, she does
not take precaution to protect herself or insist on an HIV test before their sexual encounter. She
prophetically exclaims that, “you know what scares me HIV and AIDS, Jackie.’’ (p20) Chiedza seems to
fulfil Kant’s upshot assumption that a man has autonomy while the woman lacks the autonomous
capacity to reason for herself (Anderson2003). She inevitably authors her own tragedy by failing to
reason. For Jackie, Chiedza should not be fearful as she does not sleep around but she quickly cautions
her naïve friend and warns that, “a condom can make a difference between life and death” (p21)
Chiedza only realizes the importance and difference a condom would have made after she is tested HIV
positive. Chidavaenzi is suggesting that HIV is not always a result of loose behaviour or prostitution
therefore; people should not judge those that are HIV positive in a totalising and homogenising manner.
Chiedza’s status is different from Sophie in that she is innocent. Chiedza’s only one sexual encounter
with her fiancé, which leaves her HIV positive and therefore exposed to the stigma, associated with the
virus. Her tenacious hold on Michael is motivated by his success in business. She seems to be
substituting him for her father whom she lost as a child. She fails to act on her instinct that warns her
that Michael is not what she needs; she fails to make an ethical decision. Michael’s obscurantism is a
fascination that she enjoys to her own detriment.
Jackie and Michael coming from marginalized backgrounds have a proclivity to engage in sex with
different people. For Chiedza sex is sacred and a preserve for the married. Precocious sex for both
Michael and Jackie is inevitable as they are exposed to it both at home and in their neighbourhood.
Precocious sex for both characters ruins their view of love and the purpose of sex. Jackie’s first sexual
encounter is at fifteen. The early exposure to sex sets her apart from her best friend as she becomes
aware of what it entails. Chidavaenzi seems to be arguing that there is preponderance in poor families
to engage in sex from an early age and to use sex as an economic means. “Jackie then an innocent naïve
young girl did not know what that meant. She later learnt that a girl had something, a priceless
possession that any man would do whatever it took to have, including parting with his hard-earned
salary only for a few minutes of pleasure with a woman” (pp35-36). Jackie emerges as an ethical egoist
ready to take on the world but on her own terms. This realization is also an awakening for Sophie when
after three episodes of unprotected sex with men she realizes she has a commodity that man cannot
resist. “To achieve this I would sell my body. That was the only commodity that no one had control over
except myself” (Phiri, 2010:88). Selling sex is the best employment available; her body is hers to control
just as an athlete decides whether to run or not. Tate (1983) cited in Collins (2000:4) avers that, “this
type of change …occurs because the heroine recognises and more importantly respects her inability to
change her situation. This is not to say thatCharacters in both texts seem to justify their choices
reverently, however, morality should never be overridden, that is no one should violate a moral
prohibition or requirement for non -moral consideration (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2002).
Hammar (2008) argues that, Prostitution envinces the decline of the economy and of social and
ideological systems within which such matters can be regulated coherently. It neither indexes the moral
decline of people nor is it rooted in natural promiscuity. Sophie is not a prostitute under normal
circumstances she is a housewife. For Sophie however, no level morality can justify her family going
hungry and uneducated. Boss (2008:373) avers that, premarital chastity is the best way to guarantee
marital commitment and faithfulness. Chiedza strongly believes in fidelity and chastity before marriage.
Chiedza’s undoing is her respectable home; she is not taught how to handle men, alcohol and sex.
Michael who attempts a romantic date, which eventually leads to their premarital encounter, easily
traps her. She agonizes over the adulterous act, which seemingly violates the principle of fidelity (Boss,
2008). Fungai is closer to the centre of the moral community and has shielded her (pre-eminent)
daughters and watched over them like a mother hen (p13). While this might have been good for their
welfare, it does not prepare Chiedza to face the darker side of love. She is too trusting and believes that
Michael will do the right thing. She is so innocent that her friend flirts with her fiancé and she does not
see it as a threat. Fungai in some way lets her daughter down by not following through on her instincts.
She is driven by the nature of a patriarchal society that demands that all ‘good’ daughters should be
married. Hungwe, (no date) attest that, women would garner respect through marriage and bearing
children within wedlock and earning money for the patriarchal family. At the mention of an
engagement, Fungai lets her guard down. She feels her work is done. While she has been perturbed by
Michael’s character from the onset, the prospect of marrying her daughter off to a successful
businessperson overrides her scepticism. She welcomes Michael into her home. Michael is scarred and
does not have any standard to determine what is moral or immoral. It does not bother him to sleep with
other women while engaged to Chiedza. Life in the shebeen taught him that women are sexual objects
that are used for pleasure and the benefit of men. He adheres to the chauvinistic belief that women are
there for the gratification of men (Muponde, 2007:13) Women especially in cases where they would
ordinarily be inaccessible to the psychopath are regarded as chattels of sexual gratification and objects
of humiliation (Muponde, 2007:14). Beauvoir argues that throughout history women have been reduced
into objects for men because men have imagined women as the other. Women, in patriarchal cultures
are regarded as the other while man are the norm (Leitch, 2001:1404).Mrs Kanda, like Sophie falls prey
to Michael’s demands. Imperceptibly threatened with the loss of her job and a looming disciplinary
hearing, she had no choice but to comply even when she knew what the dinner date entailed (p.11).
Michael’s masochistic nature is unveiled in the fact that he is not even attracted to her but he sleeps
with her to show his dominance and machismo. Similarly, Dhuri abuses Sophie when she tries to
purchase goods for sale to feed her family. Muwati, Gambaya and Chabata (2003:126) attest that,
Through these heinous acts by unscrupulous masculinities, the author depicts how in a crisis women
become exposed to multiple risks and crises. Sophie finds it difficult to protect herself from such
powerful men who have access to scarce resources and commodities. She becomes a victim of the
excruciating decade long economic, political and social crisis in Zimbabwe. Women fail to protect
themselves from masculine autonomy, as they do not have the means to preserve themselves from
exploitation. Patriarchy is centred upon the conservation of patrimony, which implies that those who
transmit and own the wealth control the existence of property and its circulation (Beauvoir in Leitch,
2001). Theresia Mdlongwa “Pragmatism, Prostitution and Morality in the Haunted Trail Philip
Chidavaenzi (2012) and Highway Queen Virginia Phiri (2010)” 27 International Journal of Research in
Humanities and Social Studies V2 ● I12 ● December 2015 Michael is a sociopath who fails to empathize
with an ailing parent. He is a coward who fears responsibility and does not want to associate with a
diseased female. Instead, he neglects his mother and relocates to his friend’s house. Attree (2007:62)
argues that, “The failure to associate compassion with those suffering from AIDS and the resulting
distancing from the obstruction of those who are ill as enemies to be defeated leads to the
misunderstanding and miscommunication of the dangers and risk associated with HIV infection”. He
does not learn anything from his mother’s illness because he chooses to shut it out of his life. When his
girlfriend Lina is pregnant, he immediately threatens and chases her away. When Chiedza becomes HIV
positive and pregnant, he is not penitent but instead, he dismisses her and takes away his ring. Broodryk
(2002) believes that, caring for oneself and for others members of the community through human
labour is a moral imperative in Ubuntu. Michael lacks the ability to share in someone else’s pain and has
no sense of moral duty. His scapegoating strategy is indicative of anachronistic masculinity that
pathologieses the female body as the one that carries diseases. His mother, unlike Sophie who hides her
activities, does not attempt to hide her immorality hence he adopts the same strategy. Michael like
Stephen is bludgeoned by crisis and embraces a typically nihilist attitude to his HIV status and the loss of
his company. Both losses are metaphors of castration and emasculation as he has always regarded
himself as a bull powerful enough not to be scathed by anything. Michael is in the same trap that resists
the acknowledgement that ‘the strong healthy man’ is vulnerable to infection and disease (Attree,
2007). While Chiedza is devastated by her HIV status, she goes into a depression, cries and fails to eat.
Michael is resolute and conjures up some bluster and bravado, as he believes, “he is still on top of the
world. HIV and AIDS- whatever they called it would not touch him” (p. 101). Chidavenzi and Phiri both
seem to lament the lack of change in behaviour for most Zimbabweans. Sophie like Nora in Ibsen’s In a
Doll’s House discovers her own power to act in certain sense, autonomously. She is aware of HIV and
AIDS and makes a determined effort to use a condom but she realises that most of her clients prefer not
to. A reading of Highway Queen illustrates how this conception of the ideal autonomy misrepresents the
reality of individuals lived experiences and imposes a gendered identity, which subordinates women to a
masculine narcissism. For most men, for example a whore cannot be raped –they want it, and if indeed,
they were raped the injury would be smaller (Svanstrom, 2005). Historically women have been reduced
to be sexual objects for men as virgins, prostitutes, wives or mothers (Showalter, 1996). Men claim right
to womens bodies and claim right of command over the use of womens bodies because patriarchal
norms concerning sexuality still dominate the judicial system and public opinion (Paterman,1988: 17 in
Svanstrom, 2005). Most men like Michael think they are untouchable because they have money
therefore they are immune to the disease. Michael does not take into consideration that he has been
indiscriminately sleeping with different women. Michael is too ashamed to accept his status because he
has violated all moral principles in his quest to enrich himself at the expense of fellow human beings. He
has violated the principle of fairness to satisfy his ultra-ego. He foresees a bleak future, as he fears that
once it is known that he is HIV positive the golden rule will apply. All those he has treated harshly before
will also treat him the same. He has been treating people badly therefore, he cannot expect to be
treated differently. He realises very late that the man who is afraid of nothing at all, but marches up to
every danger becomes foolhardy (Olen et al, 2008). It is a truism that courage is not necessarily the
absence of fear but the ability to do the right thing at the right time and in his wilful narcissism, he
ignores this. He has habituated himself to have what he wants and is predisposed to seek gratification.
Because of his indulgence in every pleasure without refraining from a single one, he becomes
incontinent. One may then conclude that the biblical warning