Postcards from Around the Globe
MAY 26, 2007 - SOUTH AFRICA - Jared Green
Women in Traditional South African Culture
Apartheid in South Africa and the civil rights movement in the United States mirror each other in many ways, and many of the crucial events in each nation's evolving times of the 20th century were similar in their timing and effects. After touring the Lesedi Cultural Village and Cradle of Mankind outside of Johannesburg, it is clear that amidst the battle for civil rights, women's rights in traditional South African villages have not been considered.
Today, we visited South Africa's Cradle of Mankind, a giant underground cave that has been the location where some of the world's oldest ancient artifacts have been discovered. Among these artifacts is "Ms. Ples," the skeletal remains of the oldest hominid found in the world. This means that possibly the oldest human in the world was found in South Africa-and was a woman. Apparently, the tradition-rich African tribes of the Zulu, Bashoto, Xhosa and Pedi didn't get the memo.
While visiting the Lesedi Cultural Village today, we toured replica villages of each of these tribes, and all of them were overwhelmingly discriminatory against women. In the Xhosa village, the one woman who was touring with our group was required to walk in and out of the huts after all of the men, and wasn't even able to sit on the same side of the hut as the men. Our guide, the village's chief, told us that women were rarely allowed to speak to men unless spoken to, and even remarked, "If a man comes home at one or two in the morning, his wife has no right to ask where he is coming from." The most extreme case of feminine subordination was displayed in the Pedi tribe. Here, we watched in awe and disgust as a woman practiced "boloko" and smeared cow dung all over the floor with her bare hands. Our guide explained that this task was reserved for women only. Another tradition that I could never imagine being practiced in the United States took place in the Zulu tribe, where a woman was required to serve beer while on her knees for as long as the man was thirsty.
Throughout every village, there was the theme of complete male dominance over females. Whether it was women being required to wear heavy clothes to prevent them from running away, or serving a husband who takes a new wife annually, women get the short end of the stick in tribal South Africa. At first I was thinking to myself that these must be old tribal traditions that are no longer in practice, but upon asking the guide I was reminded that 80 percent of South Africa's population resides in rural areas, so the majority of these rituals are still practiced today. This is almost unimaginable, considering that I'm used to seeing women on a nearly even playing field with men in the United States. Male domination seems like a thing of the past, but this is obviously not true everywhere.
More Postcards
JUNE 18, 2007 - SOUTH AFRICA - Richard C. Jones
MAY 29, 2007 - SOUTH AFRICA - Mauri J. Robinson
MAY 29, 2007 - SOUTH AFRICA - Kelechi Kalu
MAY 28, 2007 - SOUTH AFRICA - Kweku Arko-Gilbert
MAY 28, 2007 - SOUTH AFRICA - Freddie Wilkes
