As difficult as it may be for some to accept it, culture evolves over time. Who would have thought that our society would be able to get rid of destructive cultural practices like "kusasa fumbi" and "kulowa fisi”? Some old traditions, on the other hand, are still upheld and portrayed as part of our culture. Various conventions, rituals, and traditions have been utilized throughout history to legitimize abusive acts, notably those targeted at confining women and their bodies. Dress, like other components of culture, has always played a significant part in preserving people’s identity; nonetheless, it has been used to subjugate women in various societies: Women's clothing has always been political in different societies.
In Malawi, the 1973 Dress Act, passed by Dr Kamuzu Banda as a manner of "upholding Malawian values," triggered the concept of modest dressing as part of the Malawian culture . The act prescribed how women should dress, making it unlawful for women to wear clothing that did not cover their knees fully. Even after we moved away from this one-party system and the act was overturned in 1993, a lot of people still support it in the guise of "culture preservation."
Today women who dress in revealing or short clothes are considered uncultured and immodest and run the risk of being harassed and humiliated by men in public areas. There are some places where women purposefully avoid if they are wearing a miniskirt or anything of that kind since anything could happen to them.
A month ago, an image of an unknown woman dressed in see-through clothing ,going about her business became viral on a Malawian Facebook page, and several people criticized this woman for being uncultured. But, what kind of dressing is considered appropriate according to our culture?
If you look at how different tribes in Malawi dress for tribal functions, you might start asking questions about what it means to dress a s a Malawian and what is considered modest according to our Malawian culture. You might start wondering where we acquired the concept that entirely covering up is part of this culture. Even though we cannot accurately trace the evolution of African dressing due to the absence of records in our archives, we have a glimpse of how women dressed traditionally through what the different tribes managed to preserve over the years. During various cultural functions, the Chewa, Ngoni, and Lhomwe women are known to not cover up, in fact, most of them can be seen to only cover their breasts and private parts and no one seems to have any problem with it.
As a country, let us drop some of these petty practices which only seek to cause harm. We cannot still be using the length of clothes to describe what it means to be Malawian .
Comments