Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Of sweethearts and wives....

I would like you and my sweetheart to be friends
Becuase that is the way the jealously will end
Even though you are my wife, my sweetheart you will not fight
So that's the reason you should be friends.
Stanley and The Turbines
Sweetheart and Wife Can Never be Friends
Listen on Youtube

And no, just in case you are wondering if my silence has been because of my pre-occupation of being in either category mentioned in my title line, it has not been. Also by way of explanation, in Jamaican terms a 'sweetheart' is the common term for mistress, not a term of endearment for the wife.

Was listening to this old time mento song done by Stanley and The Turbines, be-fittingly entitled '
Sweetheart and Wife Can Never be Friends'. Here in Ghana where the second wife phenomenon still seem to be popular, Ghanaian men would do well to listen to the song and learn a lesson or two - though yes, this is where some will tell you that a 'sweetheart' is in a different category from a second wife. Hard to buy especially when you are not Moslem isn't it?

There seem to be some men that accept and encourge this friendship. I have a friend who was seeing someone who was already married. All seemed to have been proceeding well - well as well as they can do under those circumstances - until he invited her home for drinks with his wife! He just wanted them to know each other, and in fact thought they could have been good friends as it seemed they had a lot in common - besides him that is.


The song in itself is quite funny and basically takes one through the conversation that a man has with his wife as to why she needs to be friends with the sweetheart. From the sweetheart's point of view, and as shared by the man, '
my sweetheart feels you should be friends as she has to help you now and then'. One wonders with what - the cooking? cleaning? Somehow I think the help offered is not related to general domestic chores, do you?

The song ends with the wife expressing the same sentitiments i.e. '
I would like you and my sweetheart to be friends' to which the man angrily replies ' never dear to use those words to me again!'.

Hmm, I guess when the shoe is on the other foot then a sweetheart and a husband can never be friends can they?

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