You must be living under a rock if you are not familiar with the name “Jonasi Gomora”.  Jonasi is the antagonist of the popular Netflix series, the Polygamist. Warning spoiler alerts. Do not read if you have not watched the series.

Jonansi comes from the dusty streets of an informal settlement to become a well-established businessman who lives with his wife and three children in a fancy house, driving fancy cars and living it large.

Jonansi was a playboy during his school years but had his life stabilised by “Essie”, a close friend who eventually became his girlfriend before shipping off to university. We will explore “Essie” in detail later.

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The Opening

The series opens with “Matipa”, the girlfriend of his brother “Magesh”, who relentlessly pursues Jonasi to obtain a higher position in the company and eventually pursues the boss.

Matipa’s character is that of a woman desperate for money, status and power and pursued Magesh knowing he was “married”. She is portrayed as a Jezebel with no moral compass. She did not care that Magesh was working at the same company and was Jonansi’ s brother so long as she got the executive job and eventually the boss.

Jonasi and Matipa eventually falls in love and moves in together. Jonasi leaves his wife “Joyce” on the eve of their twentieth wedding anniversary.

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A Faithful Wife

The story anchors around his wife “Joyce”, a social media influencer and wife of Jonasi to whom he was married for nearly twenty years. The woman who credits herself with helping Jonasi build his empire. To be fair he does later acknowledge her part in his success. The name of Jonasi’s company “J&J” is most likely a nod to this partnership.

Joyce met Jonasi whilst he was at university. Joyce seems to come from a more privileged background and was used to the lavish lifestyle.

Joyce has three children with Jonasi during their marriage, and it seems after the birth of their third child Jonasi gave in to temptation.

When Jonasi’s affair with Matipa first surfaces, Joyce like any woman, felt betrayed and angry and wanted Jonasi gone. However given the public persona of social media influencer that Joyce had, she compelled Jonasi to attend their twentieth anniversary as a condition to signing the divorce papers.

The affair becomes complicated by Matipa’s pregnancy, and she shows up to the Jonasi and Joyce’s anniversary but is publicly humbled when Jonasi plays the part of the perfect husband. This round seems to go to Joyce.

There is this rollercoaster where Jonasi kind of lingers between Joyce and Matipa. But the worst was yet to come.

Matipa became pregnant and gave birth to twins. This seem to be the tipping point for Joyce.

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The Proposal

Jonasi wants to proceed with the divorce, so that he could move forward Matipa. Despite all the hurt Joyce feels, she counters with a better proposal. This may have been fuelled by pride of maybe it was a brilliant strategy.

This allowed Joyce to continue to have a major say in Jonasi’s life.

Joyce and Matipa were constantly at each other’s throats which made this proposal even more difficult to understand. Were these two women so in love with Jonasi that they sacrificed themselves and their happiness to be with this man?

Joyce proposes that Matipa becomes part of the family as the second wife.

Despite the damage to Joyce’s public persona, she deals with it gracefully and tries to up sell the idea of polygamy to her audience.

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Polygamy

Polygamy as a legal marital status is contradictory in South African Law. According to the Marriages and Civil Unions Acts, only monogamous unions are recognised. The recognition of Customary and Religious marriages has made polygamy legal in South Africa.

This means that these multiple spouses all enjoy the same rights and privileges as the first wife, irrespective of the way the marriage was conducted.

Joyce was prepared to share Jonasi if she could keep the family together. This did not mean that everybody was getting along and they were one big happy family.

For a while you could be forgiven for thinking that Jonasi had it all figured out and was living the perfect life, despite the drama.

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The Children

Menzi and Mpume are the two eldest children of Jonasi and Joyce. They deal with the fallout of Jonasi’s betrayal and his abandonment of the family. Despite this drama, Mpume remains sensible and makes the right choices. She set to suffer a betrayal that is even worse that the affair her father had with Matipa. Mpume puts her past behind her and goes on to university.

Menzi struggles to deal with the pressure of being the man in the house after his father left. He is also facing peer pressure of “Freedom”, the eldest son of Essie, who is that bad influence sitting on his shoulders all the time. Menzi gives into the stereotypes and becomes doomed to repeat the sins of his father.

These this uneasy tenseness between Jonasi and Freedom throughout the series that initially one would think that it was just a father protecting his son from a bad influence but there was more.

Then there is Sarah, the youngest daughter of Essie, with her eighteenth birthday approaching, wanting her father to public acknowledge her. When he fails to do so, she rebels and ends up exacting revenge against Mpume for something Mpume had no part in. She has an intimate moment with Mpume’s boyfriend in, Mpume’s bedroom.

Mpume walks in and is devastated by this seen. Their relationship never heals.

The storyline is that Magesh and Essie are married to each other, with Freedom and Sarah being their children.

So, it was not unusual that Sarah and Freedom spent a lot of time with their cousins (Menzi and Mpume) at the Gomora mansion.

Then there is Lindani, a close friend of Mpume, who frequents the Gomora household and comes from a poor background.

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The Curve Ball

The drama did not stop there. You would be mistaken to think that Matipa was the biggest secret. A twenty-year secret was about to come to light.

It began with Sarah and her long for her father to accept her publicly. Why was this an issue to begin with? Magesh embraced his children publicly and supported Sarah all her life.

This is where the secret would come out.

Essie was Jonasi’s girlfriend when he went of to university. In fact, she helped him financially to get into university. At first, they would communicate all the time telephonically whilst Jonasi was at university. They were making plans for a life together.

The Jonasi went silent, but whilst Essie was sitting at home waiting for Jonasi, he was busy courting Joyce. Essie would come to read of the marriage of Jonasi and Joyce in a local newspaper.

In the meantime, Essie has given birth to Freedom. This is a red herring as given the timeline it almost appears that Jonasi could be the father. This is however clarified later that Freedom is not Jonasi’s son but also not Magesh’s.

After about seven years, Jonasi shows up at Essie’s front door with a brand new convertible Red BMW. Fulfilling a promise he had made to her, that he would buy her one, the day he was successful as a nod to her contribution she made to his success.

This is the start of the deceit. Jonasi was clearly still in love with Essie, and she still had feelings for him.

Jonasi lies to Essie and marries her despite being married to Joyce. He convinces Essie that Joyce had given her blessing for this union. Sarah was born out of this marriage.

Whilst pregnant with Sarah, Jonasi and Essie goes shopping for baby clothes and runs into Joyce in the store. Jonasi introduces Essie to Joyce as Magesh’s wife.

This makes it abundantly clear to Essie, that Jonasi had deceived her too, but she plays along with Jonasi’s lies. Magesh now gets caught up into Jonasi’s web of lies.

This is the reason why Freedom and Jonasi don’t get along. Freedom does not like the way his mother is being treated. A dirty little secret being kept from the public.

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The Enabler

Hero or villain? Without Magesh, Jonasi would not have been able to pull of this twenty-year deceit. He is the faithful brother that puts his entire life on hold just to support his brother.

He is literally a father figure to Sarah and a great uncle to the Menzi and Mpume. Even when Matipa dumps him to have an affair with Jonasi, he remains his brother’s closes ally.

Even though, publicly, Magesh was having an affair with Matipa, this seems the only real relationship he had to that point. He was never married to Essie but played the role hoping Jonasi would eventually come clean with Joyce.

One would be forgiven to think that Magesh is nothing but a fool who played along with his brother’s sick games, but he eventually takes Menzi and Sarah to Diepsloot, where he and Jonasi grew up. He explained their life story and how grateful he was for Jonasi taking them both out of that.

Was this fair for Jonasi to expect his brother to put his whole life on hold, just so Jonasi could have his bread butter both sides?

Jonasi demonstrates a disdain for his brother and constantly reminds Magesh that Magesh would have nothing without him. He calls his brother weak.

The strain of the secret bears hard on Magesh and it can be seen in his character. I must say that is brilliant acting by Kenneth Nkosi.  Eventually even Magesh has a breaking point but continues to look out for his brother and Jonasi’s legacy.

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The Bombshell

Sarah has been aware of her father’s true identity and for years had to look on as her siblings lived a lavish life while she had to make do with a modest existence. Begging for scraps.

As her eighteenth birthday approached, she did not want gifts but a coming-of-age ceremony. But there was one snag. Her father, being Jonasi would have to present her to the world.

This was the one gift Sarah longed for most of all. She wanted to be acknowledged by Jonasi and accepted by her other siblings.

Jonasi and Essie refuses to capitulate to this and Sarah starts rebelling which leads to a physical confrontation between her mother and her. Essie has a terrible fall and ends up in hospital.

Joyce comes to the hospital, and an emotional Sarah blames her for Essie’s hospitalisation. And when Joyce demands to know why she is to blame for Essie’s condition, Sarah explodes.

The truth is out!

Joyce informs Matipa about Essie and Sarah and they turn on Jonasi.

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A Leopard

There is an old saying, that a leopard never changes his spots. After the birth of the twins and Jonasi’s marriage to Matipa, things between Joyce and Jonasi improved. At some stage, Jonasi moved out from Matipa and stayed with his family again.

But another deceit was taking place, Jonasi started having an affair with Lindani. Lindani who was the same age as Mpume and her best friend. The girl who Menzi had a crush on and was trying to court.

Lindani was aware of this and often manipulated Menzi into doing things for her.

Menzi is the one who discover this affair. At this point in time Jonasi has six children and is married to three women.

Menzi is out drinking at a club with Freedom and steps out to make a phone call to Lindani to invite her out. He moves of to a secluded section of the club but is soon crushed by what he walks in on.

Jonasi and Lindani are having an intimate moment.

However Lindani becomes pregnant but miscarries. Lindani ends up at their home. Joyces walks in on Jonasi washing Lindani in the bath discussing the miscarriage.

Joyce informs Matipa of the affair that Jonasi is having with Lindani and they turn even more against him. Joyce refuses him sexually and then he beats her up and forces his way with her. He does the same to Matipa.

Lindani may have also given Jonasi a sexually transmitted illness that all three of his wives got.

Joyce with the aid of Magesh, throws Jonasi out of the house for good and Matipa leaves the twins with Joyce before making off to start a new life.

Jonasi first tries to move in with Essie but by now Essie also had enough and he ends up with Lindani in the place he and Matipa shared.

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A Woman Scorned

When Joyce first found out about Matipa, she was angry and wanted revenge.  One day she went to the house where Matipa and Jonasi was staying. However, fuelled by jealousy, she set a picture on fire in an ashtray. She was unaware that Jonasi and Matipa was upstairs in the bath and was startled by a noise which led her to dropping the ashtray and the house catching fire.

Eventually Joyce is arrested and spends a night in jail. Here she meets another inmate who conveys her reason for being in jail to Joyce. Her partner cheated on her and gave her HIV. This woman then keyed his car as an act of revenge. This was before Matipa became the second wife, well actually the third.

Joyce explained that she was in jail for burning Jonai’s house down with him and Matipa in, this other woman was impressed.

This chance meeting in that jail cell would lead to the demise of Jonasi.

This is where the opening scene of the series starts to make sense. The entire series starts with the funeral of Jonasi.

Joyce uses this woman to exact a revenge so cruel and yet so fitting for a man who used women for his sexual pleasure and never respected the sanctity of marriage.

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The End is Near

Once again Jonasi is living it up with a mistress, this time Lindani. Then one day there is a knock at the door.

A friend of Matipa comes looking for her and Jonasi is alone in the house. Jonasi invites her in and soon is up to his shenanigans. This woman is a willing participant and they get intimate.

That chance encounter, fuelled by Jonasi’s endless sexual desire was his final undoing.

Soon Jonasi starts getting sick and eventually consults a doctor. The diagnosis is that Jonasi has pneumonia but worst of all tested positive for HIV.

He goes into denial and refuses to use any modern medication but drinks a traditional remedy. This only causes him to deteriorate faster.

Lindani gets sick of having to take care of him and eventually tells Joyce to come and fetch him.

At first this may appear to be that Joyce is still a good wife willing to take care of her husband despite what he did.

After seeing the opening scene this time after Jonasi’s passing, it seems that Joyce may have enjoyed seeing Jonasi suffer like he did.

A man once powerful now barely able to care for himself. There was another sinister reason and that was Menzi.

Joyce had ensured that Jonasi changed the will so that Menzi would be the greatest beneficiary of Jonasi’s Estate.

Lessons Learned

Polygamy can be a wonderful experience for individuals who are truly committed to making things work. It however is not a cover up for extramarital affairs or infidelity. It is not meant to legitimise wrongdoings.

The adults in polygamist marriages often forget about the children born out of these marriages and however these often-unhealthy relationships can damage them.

The truth is that polygamy may have been a useful tool when the king wanted his bloodline to continue but in modern society this is no longer viable.

There are many alternatives to procreation and ensuring people can have children of their own to continue their legacies.

Practising polygamy as a status symbol or to fulfil your lust is a bad idea.

However, this is South Africa, and people are allowed to practise their customs and religious beliefs as seem fit.

Status and money do not equal happiness.

Magesh should have learnt that putting your life on hold for some debt you owe to some one else will only harm you. His brother was using him all the time. Loyalty at the expense of your own happiness is misplaced.

The sins of the father is destined to be continued. The series ends with Menzi having and intimate moment with Lindani in a toilet with Lindani at his father funeral.

Promiscuity will end you