We believe and it have to be that, marriage is a result of love and affection between two romantic friends, probably you have a romantic friend who is a citizen of Tanzania and you two want to contract a marriage and you wonder if there are any things you should know before enter into that binding contract, yes! binding contract.
Now it sounds a little bit serious, isn’t it?
If you ask me I will say, yes there is a bunch of things you have to know before enter into that binding contract with your romantic Tanzanian friend so that you two should not end up communicate through other people called lawyers not in a romantic restaurant but in Court corridors.
1. First thing first never marries a married person,
In Tanzania we recognize three types of marriage which are monogamous marriage, potential polygamous marriage and polygamous marriage, these two last types sounds like they are not a complete threat but trust me they are. Legally if a person has contracted a monogamous marriage and most of these are Christian marriages, he or she can not be able to contract another marriage without getting first divorce.
Now you may wonder how can I know that, this lover of my life have an existing marriage? It is not simple but it’s possible. First talk with him or her, then contacting a lawyer and you may contact us by clicking here. For conducting a due diligence and search at the office of registrar of marriages.
The legal consequences of contracting a marriage with a person who has an existing monogamous marriage is that you cannot claim to be his wife or her husband as your marriage with him or her will be declared null and illegal by the Court. You will lose everything which is entitled to a spouse and you can even be sued by his legal spouse for adultery damages.
2. Think twice about your personal properties, if you want them to become matrimonial properties.
There is a say which says that love is blind, I don’t know its inventor but it’s totally true, love is blind. But you should not be fooled by lovely words of your lover those words may later turn to be bitter words you ever heard of. So to avoid them to become that bitter you have to decide if you want your personal properties to become matrimonial properties and this is not about being selfish but it’s all about self-awareness.
You have to know that, there are those people who want to marry someone so that they can or may inherit their properties or having ownership status of those properties. And guess what your lover may be one of them who knows!. So you have to be very careful on this one too.
There are several cases of this nature and that’s why we let you know that it’s very possible that you are a potential victim too. We don’t want to see another cases of this nature so please consider this.
3. Know what type of marriage you two want to contracting
It is very important to know what type of marriage you and your lover want to contract. Most of foreigners contracted a monogamous and potential polygamous marriage under civil ceremony.
If you don’t want, you or your lover to have another marriage with another person make sure that you and your lover contracted a monogamous marriage, a one wife and one husband marriage.
It is very important as most of foreigners come to discover late that their husbands’ or wife’s have contracted another marriage mostly customary marriages with their long time Tanzanian lovers. The impact is when you two divorce he or she will be entitled to division of matrimonial properties and leave you like technically he or she come to rob you. To avoid all these to happen make sure you contracted a monogamous marriage with him or her. Don’t let him or her use marriage as a scam.
4. Make sure that your marriage is registered and certificate of marriage is issued
Yes, it’s very important for your marriage to be registered with the registrar of marriages. If it was not celebrated on his presence, make sure that your marriage is registered by the registrar of marriages. A marriage without certificate of marriage issued by the registrar of marriage is not a marriage at all.
5. Always engage a lawyer
Always engage a lawyer, don’t assume that your lover and potential spouse loves you and have your interest protected.
Have a word with a lawyer, tell him or her your worries and concerns, let him or her do a due diligence for you and let him or her help on making your marriage legal for both of you. Love should not lead us into a mouth of a hungry lioness who want to fed her cubs.