Yesterday, an article by SDE purported that Eritrean government had asked men to marry two wives or face imprisonment was trending for all the reasons. Although the article was written 2 days ago, it has become quite the hit on social media where Kenyans joked about the matter on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. On Twitter for example, there were a lot of posts that made fun of the news
This is Mutua Mutua sold his property Mutua went to Eritrea Mutua married two women Mutua is wise Be like Mutua pic.twitter.com/DhP3V75q1Y
— kim (@_Musyoki_) January 27, 2016
I'm on my way to #Eritrea. Are you? pic.twitter.com/B7LyQgaBnH
— Ahmed Mohamed (@asmali77) January 26, 2016
Team Mafisi Members after getting the breaking News of men shortage in Eritrea. pic.twitter.com/uPdXTI06L1
— Atanas™ (@Atanasi_) January 25, 2016
The news went viral, not only in Kenya but in other African countries as well (Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa) where guys were showing their intent to visit the country, although as usual there were snarky comments about this made by other users.
#Eritrea offffff ✈️✈️ pic.twitter.com/0YUmdifpce
— DON JAZZY (@DONJAZZY) January 27, 2016
When Ghana boys got to Eritrea… pic.twitter.com/VDgHGUEQSW
— Kofi_Kontoloted (@HayfronEric) January 27, 2016
LOL! Yoruba Boys On Their Way to Eritrea to Marry 2nd Wives @Gidi_Traffic pic.twitter.com/lb7FLeaLBN
— Glory Duke (@GloryDuke) January 26, 2016
The story generated curiosity about the matter and no surprise people went to Google to get more information about the Eritrean story. Eritrea ended up being the second most searched item on Google yesterday according to Google Trends where it generated over 5000 search requests: This was only second to the top search item which was a Google Doodle. The interest started picking up on 26th of this month and hit its peak today.
An interesting factoid from Google Trends is the rising related searches about Eritrea which are:
- Eritrea girls
- Eritrea marriage
- Eritrea marriage law
- Eritrea men
- Eritrea polygamy
- Eritrea trending
- Eritrea two wives
As expected, an account by the name @EritreaStruggle tweeted to refute the claims made by the publication about the Eritrean story. He tweeted about the Eritrean penal code that talks about polygamy in the country so as to set the record straight.
Ridiculous tabloid rumors by @SDEKenya on #Eritrea wives has gone viral in Africa Polygamy is illegal but welcome those who want to visit
— Filmon Zerai (@EritreaStruggle) January 26, 2016
Here is what the new 2015 Eritrean penal code specifically states on Polygamy & marriage #Eritrea is a nation of law pic.twitter.com/12a6vgaZD4
— Filmon Zerai (@EritreaStruggle) January 26, 2016
The positive aspect of the story is that Eritrea got some publicity and it could have been adopted by their tourism docket to market the country to the world.
Read On Web → Eritrea is trending for all the wrong reasons on Google