Sudanese Man Marries a Goat

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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:34 pm

I noticed this article on line. PACHANGA needs to take note,since her avatar was used to illustrate the article:

Sudan man marries a goat

"This is an important security announcement for all of you, who plan on a) visiting Sudan b) engaging in sexual relations with farm animals, or c) both. Stay away from goats in Sudan!

"Let this story serve as a lesson to you. A man from Sudan has been forced to take a goat as his wife after he was caught having sex with the animal, BBC reports. The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders and they ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"The intercourse happened the night before Valentine's day (awww) and as far as anyone knows, they are still together. The newlyweds are registered at Pottery Barn (they should be, at least.)"

Bruin

Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:36 pm

Hope they live happily ever after.

Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:17 pm

Is it sad that my first thought upon seeing the title was - "good bait?" Shocked

Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:29 pm

The news item was first posted on Eater in February 2006 and has been posted many times since.
The original BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4748292.stm
for those that missed it.

Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:31 pm

That story has appeared several times as the top read story on the BBC news website, and there was even a eulogy for Rose, but I can't find it right now...

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:45 am

Oooo look Mildred, it's that man shags goat, gets her into trouble and has to marry her story again. Did they (ant)elope to Darfur and live happily ever after?

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:59 am

I have read this one before on snopes.com

What can I say? The man sure got what he wanted! xD

Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:29 am

@Tommo - You should be banned for that one Wink

The goat dying - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6619983.stm

Quote:

Sudan's famous goat 'wife' dies

Charles Tombe is refusing to comment on the affair

The best-known goat in Sudan has died months after being "married" to a man in the South Sudan capital, Juba, the BBC has learned.

Local elders ordered a man found having sex with the goat, later called Rose, to "marry" her last February.

"The idea was to publicly embarrass the man," says Tom Rhodes, editor of the Juba Post, which first ran the story.

The BBC's story of the "wedding" caught the public imagination and became one of the most read internet stories.

Rose, black and white, is believed to have died after choking on a plastic bag she swallowed as she was eating scraps on the streets of Juba.

'Sense of humour'

After the marriage, Rose had a male kid - but "not a human one" - Mr Rhodes said, hastily.

The "husband", Charles Tombe, said he was drunk at the time but has since refused to comment on the issue. The kid is owned by Mr Tombe.

More than a year after the BBC story was first published, it is still picked up by various web forums and being emailed across the world. Recently it got more than 100,000 page views for five successive days.

Over time, it has received several million hits - making it historically one of the biggest-hitting stories the BBC News website has published.

A Google search uncovers more than 1m different web pages, based on the same story.

Mr Rhodes, a Briton who helped found the Juba Post in 2004, was shocked when he learned how many people around the world had read the story his newspaper had originally published as a short, light-hearted account and not even bothered to publish on its website.

"Wow - what have we done? We have triggered a monster," he said.

He said that he had seen that it occasionally returned in the BBC's "Most read stories" and was worried that he would have trouble with South Sudanese, accusing his paper of tarnishing the image of the region - now trying to rebuild after 21 years of war.

But he says he has not come across any such anger.

"It doesn't portray Sudan in a bad light - it shows the Sudanese have a sense of humour," he says, referring to the elders' original punishment.

He has, however, had people come up and say to him: "Oh, you're the goat man."

Mr Rhodes explains that South Sudan remains a conservative society.

If a man is caught sleeping with a girl, he is ordered to marry her immediately in order to save her honour and that of her family, he says.

This was the basis for Mr Tombe's punishment, after the goat's owner found him with his animal and complained to local elders.

They ordered him to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50, at the time) and also named the goat Rose.

Afterwards, he left with the goat, not quite hand-in-hand, more hand-in-hoof, to his home in the Hai Malakal suburb of Juba - and not in Upper Nile State as we originally reported.

Edited to add there is also this - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6623895.stm

Quote:

R.I.P. Sudan's married goat
SUDAN'S MARRIED GOAT has, mercifully, gone to the heavenly farmyard, released from its suffering as a beast of burden.

The goat, known as Rose to close friends, became a web phenomenon when it was reported that she had been "married" to Sudanese man Charles Tombe. The wedding was enforced by elders after a drunken Tombe was found taking advantage of the poor animal. He was also made to pay a dowry to Rose's original owner. The elders hoped to shame Tombe, though did not spare Rose's feelings in doing so.

Rose found supporters around the world who, thanks to the internet and particularly this website's "Most E-mailed" function, kept her plight in the public mind for much of her short marriage. Friends would joke about how she had reached the end of her tether, about whether the couple would have any kids, and if they did, whether they would employ a nanny. Others pointed out that the tale got their goat, or wondered whether Tombe had become a "goatee".

Though forced into human institutions, Rose remained a proud goat to the end, doing what all good goats do and eating anything she could find. It was this, ironically, which led to her demise - she choked after eating scraps of a plastic bag.

Joking aside, she is actually survived by a male kid, evidence that despite her troubled past she found personal fulfilment with her own kind. Her human "widower" is perhaps wisely not commenting.

No flowers.

Your tributes

Bleated condolences.
Mitchell Harvey, London

Another victim of the nanny state...
John, Canterbury

You're kidding....
Stephen Bridge, Glossop, Derbyshire

A cheesy story, clearly thought up on the hoof and a distraction from the mountain of more important issues affecting kids today. The BBC should be skinned for acting so beastly. I'll get me goat.
Ali, Glasgow

Ewe will be sadly missed..
Max, Manchester

Did the aticle mean 'scape goat' rather than 'goatee'?
Melissa A, London, UK

Goodbye, Sudan's Rose...
Jamie, Bury St Edmunds

Maybe Rose could live on as the mascot of the no-more-plastic-bags campaign.
Nina, London

Eeewwwwwwwwwwwww
Daniel

Goat to a better place
Adam Spurrier, Birmingham

Gone, but not forgoaten
Tom OConnell, Nowmanton, West Yorkshire

Gruff justice.
Craig Thomson, Livingston, Scotland

Ewe people have goat to start taking this sort of thing more seriously.
Tom, Sheffield

It was very sad to have herd the ram-ifications, butt the motto of the tail is not to get horny with your goat.
Jonathan Hall, Magor, South Wales

This story is udder rubbish.
Gotang, London

Hoof-ought this was a good story
Adam, Darlington