There are mixed feelings among Africans to what is decent and indecent dressing. A lady was complaining about the dressing of two young ladies. Her comment was "As a parent I would never allow my daughter to expose her body like this. This is too extreme, or am I just old fashioned? Have times changed so much? If you share my sentiments, who do we blame?"
The two ladies in question were wearing tight shorts which were shorter and tighter than the shorts worn by soccer players. There were mixed reactions to the above woman's sentiments. Some people said there was nothing wrong because the young ladies had a choice to choose what to wear while some people said it was not African and it was against our tradition to dress like that.
This was not the first time that I was hearing this kind of debate. I have participated in many discussions concerning what is appropriate for an African woman to wear in public and every time this topic pops up it raises the issue of tradition. What is the African traditional dress code? Do we we even have one and should it always be followed?
Many people argue that when it comes to traditional clothing, we do not have any. Everything that we wear was copied from the western world and our ancestors only wore animal skins which were just enough to cover the private parts.
Others believe African traditional clothing is the vibrantly coloured fashions found around the continent. There are many fashions that are associated with or were created in Africa. In East Africa men wear a traditional dress called the Kanzu. Women wear the Kanga and gomesie. South Africa has it's own distinctive shirts like the Madiba named after the great Nelson Mandela who liked to wear it. There is also the Safari suit which was famous in Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Ethiopia, men wear the Ethiopian suit and women wear the Habesha Kemis while in Somalia you can find people wearing the Khameez with a small cap called a koofiyad.
However, many people still dismiss the above as not legitimate African clothing because they are modern clothes made from modern technology.
The reason why our ancestors wore animal skins or clothes made from trees or reeds was simply because they did not have a choice. They did not have the technology or know-how to make suitable material to cover their bodies. Even the white man who brought clothes to Africa, at one time he wore animal skins to keep himself warm.
Last evening I was watching a documentary "World's Lost tribes" about a tribe in West Papua. These people wear no modern clothes and they do not mind at all. They have been living like that for a long time and they do not see the awkward side of walking around with just a small object covering your crotch. What if someone offered to give all of them clothes and shoes to wear, would they be comfortable wearing them?
I am sure even back then when clothes were first brought to Africa, our Ancestors who were used to wearing animal skins may have felt awkward and uncomfortable when they first wore "real clothes". But as they slowly got used to them, they may have started to like them and completely got rid of the old skins. The new clothes were warmer, fashionable and something new and exciting.
I know you can tell which part of the world someone comes from not only by the language that he speaks but also by what he is wearing too. But is a mini skirt synonymous to any particular continent?
I ask this because many Africans believe wearing short dresses or skirts that show too much of your legs is not an African way of dressing but something copied from the west. The miniskirt became very popular in the 1960s and it was a hot fashion trend. I am not sure if it caused so much debate back then but the miniskirt is fascinating because it suggests both empowerment and vulnerability, independence and a desire to please, an attempt to cover and to reveal at the same time, maturity and playfulness and also liberation and exploitation.
One thing about fashion is it is never always the same because it keeps changing with every generation. What was trendy just a few years ago may suddenly become old fashioned. Fashion also has a tendency of coming back. The miniskirt is not something that is new.
In fact, there is evidence that the 1960s was not the first time that the miniskirt made it's first appearance. Archaeologists unearthed ancient figures dating between 5400 to 4700 BC and the female figurines appeared to be dressed in miniskirts. This prompted some scholars to speculate that miniskirts were common in the earliest civilizations.
Like the woman at the beginning of this article, there are many people who do not like the miniskirt. In 1968, a barmaid was reportedly killed by an angry mob who stoned her to death because they disapproved of the short and tight miniskirt she wore. In Russia, a father was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill his own daughter. Twenty women were also reportedly killed in Nigeria for wearing miniskirts and trousers. Even governments have not been left out on fighting the miniskirt. Recently, the Ugandan government re-tabled in parliament a proposed Anti-Pornography Bill which involves banning the miniskirt.
The big question is; why are some people so angry with the miniskirt? Is it because they do not feel comfortable seeing a woman's legs? Is it really about culture? In Africa, it is common to see young ladies undergoing initiation wearing very short traditional skirts with bare breasts. These images are put even in local newspapers and no one seems to be offended because it is "our culture".
Culture is dynamic. It is highly variable and a constantly changing phenomenon but one thing for sure is that no one will kill the miniskirt.
Image courtesy of imagerymajestic, freedigitalphotos.net
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