There is probably one thing that most women can agree with, and that's that
'men are the same the world over'. And in those three quarters of the world where women are free, and alcohol is allowed, there is no greater reason for men to lie, than to make excuses for '
having a drink with the lads'.
But in the annals of male excuses for this event, I suspect that even in the ports of Europe, no man has ever used the excuse of
mermaids as a reason for a piss up, but certainly not in a land locked country. However, in what I can only continue to consider a world first, the builders of two irrigation pump reservoirs near Gokwe and Mutare in Zimbabwe, downed tools, claiming that they were being
'menaced by mermaids'. Apparently this belief in mermaids, aka
Njuzu, is very strong in Zimbabwe, where they are supposed to have supernatural powers and are bad
Juju.
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| Pictures of Zimbabwe Mermaids aka Njuzu are circulating the Internet |
The water resources minister Samuel Nkomo reported that "
All the officers I have sent vowed not to go back there, we even hired whites thinking that our boys did not want to work but they also returned".
The solution? Ah, well, this is where many women would share a knowing glance, the minister suggested that they would solve the problem the African way by
"brewing a traditional beer to carry out rites to appease the spirits" .... well we all know what those special rites are, don't we lads,
'wink'.
