Mzansi Afrika

The Male

The African male's obsession with masculinity is disconcerting. For one, it leads to war and strife. Most African men, most of the time, are in the process of showing somebody who's boss--usually their spouse, who's usually the literal homemaker. Without these women the blokes wouldn't know their left hands from their right feet. But it is precisely with those left hands that the women are slapped around and violated, and with those feet that their arses are kicked.

Most African men think they should screw every other woman -- excuse my French -- plus their spouse for good measure. This tends to belittle women in general and encourage the spread of VD and AIDS. The popular belief among such men is that donning a condom is being a sissy; few African men believe that dying from or transmitting the virus of death is being a sissy. Pity. They have probably never thought of it along those lines.

To be sure, the male can also be found elsewhere. The too-cool rapper or the red-necked hillbilly. Every continent has its share of the male. Africa just seems to have more than its share.

Madonna kiss vs. Janet Jackson breast

According to Powell, Justin Timberlake's exposure of Janet Jackson's right breast during the closing moments of the halftime show "wasn't even the most offensive part." Powell claims that "the whole performance was onstage copulation." Onstage copulation? Isn't that the definition of "music video?" Apparently Mr. Powell is unfamiliar with most of the MTV oeuvre. Was the halftime show unsuitable for the millions of small children watching? Sure. But so are half the shows on prime-time television. And more importantly, the First Amendment provides that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech." How, then, can the FCC impose fines on the halftime performers and broadcasters, as it has threatened to do? The late Justice Hugo Black, who fashioned himself a First Amendment absolutist, liked to dismiss arguments for censorship by waving the Constitution and exclaiming that "'no law' means no law." But his brethren did not agree, and so, notwithstanding the First Amendment, Jackson, Timberlake and the broadcasters may indeed find themselves in hot water.
[Read on]  

Jackson. That name again. But let me roll back a bit. I was preparing a course on harassment the other day, when I came across an article talking about the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake incident. During the Superbowl's half-time events, Timberlake had ripped off Jackson's bustier toward the end of their raunchy number, revealing her right breast. This BBC article further tells us that 

During the half-time show, Timberlake reached out and grabbed at Jackson's leather bustier, forcing her to cover herself up* before the stage lights were quickly dimmed*. CBS said officials had watched rehearsals and had no indication of the nature of the performance during the half-time show. And NFL officials were also angry at what had happened during the broadcast, watched by millions of families.*  

The course I was preparing was going to be about harassment and America's First Amendment. I decided to use the article as an additional angle, a different way of looking at how the First Amendment considers harassment. For example, don't other laws duct-tape the mouth of the harasser, thereby denying him or her their right to free expression? Nevertheless, I went digging for more material. I stumbled onto the Madonna/Britney/Christina tongue kiss performance of "Like a Virgin." Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were dressed in white, "like virgins," while Madonna was dressed in black leather. The latter first gave Britney Spears an open-mouth kiss, then gave same to Christina Aguilera. An excerpt from CBS News says, 

Twenty years after the first MTV Video Music Awards, and not much has changed — Madonna still makes jaws drop and cheeks blush. Just like her first time, the superstar upstaged everyone at the 20th annual MTV Video Music Awards, only she had help Thursday night from the latest generation of video divas, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Proving they've come a long way from their Mouseketeer days, the young pop tarts gave a gyrating, writhing tribute to Madonna to open the show. Dressed in the same kind of white bustier wedding dress Madonna wore while performing "Like a Virgin" during MTV's inaugural awards broadcast in 1984, Spears and Aguilera sang a cover of the not-so-innocent tune. Then, while Madonna sang her new "Hollywood" in a masculine, all-black groom's outfit*, she shared an openmouthed kiss with both Aguilera and Spears*. The two smooches rivaled the Michael Jackson/Lisa Marie Presley kiss at the awards in 1994 on the shock meter.
[Read on]  

I have not seen the Michael Jackson/Lisa Marie Presley kiss, but I wonder what it was like, for it to reach such heights on the shock meter. It is of course clearer than a bell to me why the three-girl kiss went up the same meter. The same goes for Janet Jackson's peek-a-boob. USA Today, among others, says that 

It was the climax of an opening number that began with Spears and Aguilera, both in bridal attire, crooning 'Like a Virgin,' the hit performed by Madonna at the first VMAs. But it was ultimately stolen by Madonna herself, by comparison a model of old-school glamour and class*, even in a modified groom's outfit that made her resemble a well-heeled dominatrix.
[Read on]  

I discovered with stupor that there actually weren't that many journalists who had written articles to the effect that it is bad to have three girls tongue-kissing on a show that is more than mainly for kids. Two girls is bad, too. A boy and a girl isn't all that great, either. On the other hand, there are quite a few articles that trash Janet's peek-a-boob, although we learn that it wasn't rehearsed and that she immediately covered it and that the cameras immediately zoomed onto something else. Is it the Jackson name, or is it the racist issue? The white trio of girl/girl/girl is actually praised in many of the articles, while the mixed-colour duo of boy/girl is heavily trashed, and required to apologise, and to pay a fine. Don't take my word for it. Read a few of the articles yourself.

On The Trio:

• MADONNA and Britney Spears stole the show at the MTV Video Music Awards when they shared an open-mouthed kiss on stage.
• Spears said she was surprised that the lip-lock garnered so much buzz -- and that the moment was more than a quick peck.
• But the trio did have a surprise in store. Madonna had come as the man—the sugar daddy, maybe, twirling the little girls, keeping them in line, and finally kissing Spears. She also kissed Aguilera, to be fair, but the camera barely registered it, and we all know that Madonna has long leered at Britney. Britney swooned into the kiss, her mouth soft.
• "I find it hornier looking at women then [sic] men. Sorry, I love experimenting with my sexuality. If that means girls then so be it. "I'd kiss a girl again. The Madonna thing was a one-off but girls are nice to kiss -- nice and soft. I was up for kissing Britney but Britney wasn't." Christina also admitted: "I have casual sex, I love casual sex. But that doesn't mean I'm incapable of keeping my legs together."
• The kiss proved to be a real showstopper in last month's awards ceremony, with 21-year-old Spears' former boyfriend Justin Timberlake watching dumbfounded from the audience.
• A gum-smacking Britney Spears told CNN Wednesday that she has never before kissed a woman and never would again -- unless the woman is Madonna. The pop star exchanged a prolonged, open-mouth kiss* with the Material Girl during MTV's Music Video Awards show last week.
• Who's the better kisser? Madonna or actor Colin Farrell? "Oh my gosh!" Spears exclaimed. "They're both amazing kissers!"

On The Duo:

• Powell said he was watching the game Sunday evening with his two children and found the incident "outrageous." I knew immediately it would cause great outrage among the American people, which it did," [Powell] said, citing "thousands" of complaints received by Monday morning. "We have a very angry public on our hands.
• CBS, MTV, the NFL, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake all say they're sorry -- but none of that is deterring the federal government from looking into the Super Bowl's too-revealing halftime show.
• "I am outraged at what I saw during the halftime show of the Super Bowl," Federal Communications Commission chief Michael Powell--son of Secretary of State Colin Powell--said in a statement issued on Monday (2/2). "Like millions of Americans, my family and I were gathered around the television for a celebration. Instead, that celebration was tainted by a classless, crass and deplorable stunt."
• Most Americans think the exposure of Janet Jackson's right breast during the Super Bowl halftime show was crass, but few believe it's a federal case.
• Justin Timberlake has apologised after ripping off Janet Jackson's top and exposing her right breast at the end of her live Super Bowl half time performance.
• Janet Jackson's boobylicious performance with Justin Timberlake     at the Super Bowl halftime show has sparked a federal investigation and set new standards for raunch in an entertainment industry that seems to be setting new highs -- or lows every day.
• Jackson later admitted the stunt was devised beforehand, but "went further than she planned". According to her spokeswoman, a red lace bra was supposed to remain when Timberlake tore off the outer covering. Timberlake blamed the incident on a "wardrobe malfunction".

* The italics and the asterisks are mine, and serve to bring out what I find controversial, telling or important toward a better understanding of the discrepancy I find in these two similar yet so very different issues.

Freedom is indeed an elusive concept,and one that is also hard to describe. I think that every man and woman who is truly free feels it, feels the liberty, and the one who is not free also feels the non-liberty, so to speak. It is describing it that is hard.

One can make a list of little freedoms to describe the parent concept, but there's always that grey area. It is one of the reasons the subject of the American First Amendment vs. Harassment intrigued me, and got me on the Internet doing research. In the particular cases of the Trio and Duo, is the former not freer than the latter? Why are so many people gunning for the man/woman duo who showed a girl's breast, and bravoing the woman/woman/woman trio who tongue-kissed?

Is it just possible that if Justine, who is white, had ripped a white woman's bra off, the uproar would have been much less, or inexistant? Or is the discrepancy due to gender? Three women doing things on stage in front of millions are appreciated mainly by men, while a man/woman couple doing things on stage is not for the exclusive enjoyment of men. Since men run most all institutions...

(NB: This article was written a short while after the events took place, and updated on 3 April 2006.)

Afmalesy

I have not yet identified the source of the strain in African leaders that makes them go awry, that makes them want to hang onto the reins of power despite evidence that they should not do so. This is often at the expense of their country and their country-people. I do not intend, however, to dedicate such behaviour only to African men, first because other continents have known the same fate, albeit to a much lesser degree, and secondly because African leaders have exclusively been men. Who knows how African women leaders would have turned out?

Here's a quick exercise to do right this minute. Get an atlas. We'll wait for you.

One theory I back is that the African family structure has seeped into politics. At home, the father is all powerful, and his word is carved in stone. The mother and the children are his subjects, literally. Let me quickly point out here that I in no way intend to dedicate this pathology to black, African male leaders only. The Afrikaner has it, too, although not of the same origin. His is tinted with religious overtures, whereas the black African male's has a traditional bent. But, indeed, the woman is treated not in a better way by the Afrikaner, and that fact shows in the way he handles politics.

Got that atlas now? Ok, open it to a political map of Africa. Shut your eyes. Place a finger on the map and move it about for the sake of randomness. Now, open your eyes. Your finger will rarely fall on a country that has not known the African Male Leader Syndrome. Call it AFMALESY for short, and for the fact that it sounds like the disease that it is. Alternatively, do this other exercise: listen to African news on the radio, as I did this morning. What do you hear? So what do you think gives?

Another theory is based on the fact that to date, African leaders have largely been freedom fighters. Put "freedom" in inverted commas for some of those. The result is that you end up with all these heads of government whose main skill is toting a machine-gun and rallying people to fight. In the long run that's exactly what most of them do as heads of government. The bush did not teach them about health insurance and about how to curb unemployment. It taught them how to subjugate others. No wonder they run their countries into the ground. Lech Walesa was a bad president because he was such a good something else, having learned and mastered the art of bugging a regime. President Lech Walesa had  absolutely no regime to bug.

I rather like the idea of having a charismatic freedom fighter run the country she's helped liberate, for a term or so. I rather liked seeing Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa for a while, and I liked seeing him leave the political arena to politicians. Okay, the country's free now, I can go back to doing what I do best. Who can I bug into submission? The same thing happended in Lesotho when Ntsu Mokhehle led the country for a term, following the first free elections in that country, then stepped down and handed the reins to more agile politicians.

Yesterday was Women's Day. It would be good if we used it to remember that there are only 11 female heads of government in the entire world, that Africa has just 1 (one out of 52 countries), and only since November 2005; that numbers for women approach 50% within badly paid sectors of the job market, but remain low in other sectors; that in the Arab world, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Venezuela, Argentina and other places, men still commit what they call honour crimes and killings.

When will this stop?

This is so sad and so sick that it's difficult to find the words to comment. Sapa reports that a thirteen month old baby was raped earlier today:

"A 13-month-old baby was raped on Sunday morning at her home in the Wolmaransstad area, North West police said. Superintendent Louis Jacobs said the baby's mother, 19, told police she left the house around 1am to go to the shops. The family stays and works on a farm outside Wolmaransstad. She returned an hour later to find her child naked and covered in blood. The baby was then rushed to hospital. Jacobs said police were questioning three men who had been in the house at the time the attack."

This comes a few days after news broke about a primary school in Thokoza on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg where no less than 52 liitle girls have been raped in the past few years. 52 girls in one school?

"Eleven-year-old Violet* [not her real name] couldn't contain her excitement about a birthday party with her friends. But instead of a few hours of balloons and cake, she came home traumatised. Violet is just one of at least 52 pupils in Tshwaragano Primary School in Thokoza who have been raped in the past few years - raising fears in the community that the children are under siege by rapists.

Principal Mmathoto Tlou said the rapes had been taking place steadily over the past three years. When 15 children confided in their teachers, the school had decided to call in Childline representatives and the Ekurhuleni metro police to hold a workshop in October."

Those are two of the more extreme cases, but a further five rapes were reported in the media today. One of the cases involved a 52 year old woman who was raped by a 15 year old boy, another of the victims was a 13 year old girl. What is going on in our society? Why is this happening? And why do we seem unable to address this problem?

One of the sad parts about this whole horrifying situation, is that as a society we seem to have become totally desensitised to rape - you read these stories and it's just like, oh well another rape, you read about it everyday. The story about the 52 girls did somehow shock me, but the other reports, well, it's just more of the same. That is the horrible and honest truth. It seems that we are no longer outraged by the consistant onslaught of rape and violence against our women and girls.

One study commissioned by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Recociliation provides a partial explanation of why so many girls are being raped. Obviously there are other reasons, and it is a complex situation.

"This review also identified an additional linkage between violence against women and HIV / AIDS not typically identified in the international literature. This was HIV infection as a factor precipitating sexual assualt.

The belief that sex with a virgin (who will usually be a young girl) can cure HIV / AIDS appears to be widely believed in Southern Africa, with one in four young South Africans not knowing that this is a myth (LoveLife, 2000). The choice of younger victims is, perhaps, also a pragmatic one; rapists may be targeting younger girls in the belief that being less sexually active, they are also less likely to be HIV-positive."

Between two laws

Women remain discriminated against in Africa, despite what national constitutions may claim. Part of the blame should go to the fact of following two laws: traditional law and common law. I consider it a fallacy, and I consider it equivalent to following the law of two different countries. It cannot be done, if not at the detriment of part of the population. African countries, Lesotho in particular, should drop traditional law and adopt common law, based on the constitution adopted in 1993; or it should stop pretending, follow traditional law, and have but one, solid and legal reference. The constitution of the kingdom of Lesotho, clause 19, states clearly that, Every person shall be entitled to equality before the law and to the equal protection of the law [Source].

Modern life adds to the dilemma women in Africa are often faced with. Today women work, and some have high positions as civil servants, or in the private sector, but they remain subjects to their spouses, and can hardly undertake anything without their husband's or father's green light. According to customary law, they cannot enter into a contract, such as opening a bank account, without their spouse's permission. After the introduction of colonialism, customary law was reconstructed to serve the political interests of capital; even now, post-independence governments use the law as a tool to oppress women [Source].

Slapping women around, or going as far as forcing sex upon them, is not uncommon. Funny, in a region where some of the biggest insults are aimed at the mother; the insultor knows for certain that the insultee will get hurt. So mothers do hold some kind of respect, but only when it's one's own mother. A spouse, who may also be a mother, gets slapped and insulted in front of her children. In Sesotho, a pregnant, unmarried girl is said to be spoilt (O senyehile, we say), as in "not good anymore." The guy who got her pregnant, on the other hand, is considered a regular stallion. That's just one example. A husband has complete authority over his wife and may punish her as he sees fit. Wife-beating is regarded within the culture as a disciplinary measure, not as a crime [Source].

Either we're a common law-abiding country with courts, a parliament, and a constitution to refer to, or we're a traditional country that hangs onto its customary law, come what may. Then we would know what to turn our sights and our attention to. Alternatively, we could also be a theocracy, and make of the Bible our constitution, although I do not think we should. We cannot, in whatever case, be two or more things and get away with it.