THERE is something very striking about the book Coconut by Kopano Mathwa, reviewed by Gracious Mugovera in The Patriot of January 20.
One of the critical points Mugovera brought home was how the late pop music star Michael Jackson tried by all means to be a white person.
First, Jackson hated his skin colour and to do away with that, he bleached it white so he could be accepted by white people.
As a result, his myopic dream made him a very miserable man.
He died a very disappointed man and must be cursing himself in his grave because he had no identity.
He represented a section of black people who are still mentally colonised to the extent they see no fault in whites and develop a feeling of empathy with white beggars.
Today, most people, mainly women, will go to great lengths and spend thousands of dollars to beautify themselves.
There is a glut of fashion accessories ranging from hair weaves, false nails, false hips, fake buttocks and stomach trimmers that have ‘transformed’ the African woman.
I have listened many times to how a certain female Radio Zimbabwe presenter refers to herself as musikana mutema asingazore, literally meaning she does not use skin bleaching cosmetics and pigments; she is proud to be a natural African beauty.
There is nothing wrong with make-up or bleaching one’s skin, but there is everything wrong in trying to be what you are not.
Today, large straight white teeth are the mark of beauty, especially with more youngsters emulating the American Hollywood culture.
Not long ago, natural looking, slightly off-white teeth were the norm.
Honestly speaking, a tribe without culture is just as good as a nation without history, therefore, such a nation could be pronounced as non-existing.
In this instalment, I focus on the striking cultural hallmark of the BaTonga, which is the removal of their six front teeth.
Women, in their early years, take great pride in this practice of teeth removal.
Legend has it one of the secrets behind this was to avoid knocking against a cup when drinking anything as a married woman, but the opposite is true for men.
By tradition, the BaTonga women have their four upper front teeth knocked out to beautify themselves.
This is done when the girls leave childhood and are ready to get married.
If the teeth are not removed, no man would marry them.
The women wear beads on their heads, arms and tummies.
Sometimes they have sticks inserted through their ears and noses for decoration.
The removal of the teeth was, and still is, done by skilled men who work as ‘special’ dentists.
Blades of iron were, and still are, used to wobble and remove the teeth.
A hot, thick, sadza-like porridge was prepared in advance to heat the gums and stop the bleeding.
The treatment of the bleeding gums is a big task to elderly women who visit their patients as many times as possible in a day to administer traditional herbs to help quicker healing.
To be beautiful among the BaTonga people is of great concern.
It calls for an element of patience, as one would endure pain to obtain permanent marks of beauty.
Ageing women made holes through their nostrils to fit reeds of about nine to 10cm.
Some culturalists still argue all these marks were borrowed from the Gwembe Tongas on the Zambian side, but since the demarcation between Zambia and Zimbabwe, young women had beautiful marks tattooed on the front side of their tender thighs.
This process also called for endurance as the tattoos made the ladies bleed.
The tattoos were a sign that the young girls were ripe for womanhood.
It was quite common to see bare-breasted young girls as a sign of purity, but once tattooed, they started covering themselves up in preparation for marriage.
They also underwent a special female circumcision rite to prepare them to handle men.
After their graduation from this rite, which is often motivated by beliefs about what is considered proper sexual behaviour, linking procedures to premarital virginity and marital fidelity would begin.
This rite is believed to reduce a woman’s libido and help resist ‘illicit’ sexual acts.
The causes of this rite among some of the BaTonga include a mix of cultural, religious and social factors within families.
Where this rite is a social convention, the social pressure to conform to what others do, and have been doing, is a strong motivation to perpetuate the practice.
Among the BaTonga, the rite is associated with cultural ideals of femininity and modesty, which include the notion that girls are ‘clean’ and ‘beautiful’ after removal of body parts that are considered ‘male’ or ‘unclean’.
Although no religious scripts prescribe the practice, practitioners often believe the practice has religious support.
In some societies, recent adoption of the practice is linked to copying the traditions of neighbouring groups.
Sometimes it started as part of a wider religious or traditional revival movement.
Internationally, this practice has been condemned as female genital mutilation.
It is illegal in many countries.
In some societies, it is being practised by new groups when they move into areas where the local population is known to practise it.
The practice is often considered a necessary part of raising a girl properly and prepare her for adulthood and marriage.
The operation is mainly carried out in two types one is the partial or total removal of the clitoris (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals) and the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal.
The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the inner, or outer, labia with or without removal of the clitoris.
For example, the procedure that seals or narrows a vaginal opening needs to be cut open later to allow for sexual intercourse and childbirth.
Sometimes it is stitched again several times, including after childbirth, hence the woman goes through repeated opening and closing procedures.
After the operation, girls prepared fine powdery mud.
This reddish powder mixed with sap from a special bark called ‘musila’ was smeared all over the young girls’ bodies on special occasions.
This appearance was so admirable to young ladies.
Young men, not to be outdone at this time, joined the world of beauty by receiving marks on their cheeks and the centre of their foreheads.
These marks on their faces resembled the shape of a new moon.
They also made holes through the ear lobes.
The young men and girls would then join each other on the dance arena, each one picking a husband or wife.