By Drew Ddembe
In the 1970’s Idi Amin banned the wearing of mini’s. Its a decision that Uganda has never ever lived down.
At the time the world was just coming out of the permissive 60’s where sexual liberty, feminism, and liberal dressing were all the rage. Skirts even in Uganda were so short you would be hard pressed to find them that short today… certainly not in Uganda. For the most part what to many Ugandans passes for a mini, would not even make the grade anywhere else!
Today, Uganda has made an about turn and gone back almost 40 years to return to the days of prescriptive dressing for women using the excuse of culture and provocation.
This comes along shortly after an NRM minister, a one Kibuule declared that it was ‘Ok’ to rape a woman who was dressed provocatively. Father Lokodo a former Catholic priest and Minister for ethics went further and even suggested that raping a female child is preferable to being gay as at least this was “natural”. This was in the context of another controversial bill sponsored by him, the “kill the Gays” bill! While the bill has been altered to take the words ‘mini skirt out, it still makes reference to dressing “indecently” and “provocatively” as prosecutable crimes!
Reports suggest that in downtown Kampala, disorderly men have interpreted new bill and the ministers comments as license for them to undress women they deem to be dressed indecently specifically in mini skirts! This kind of behaviour is likely to continue and may even escalate! Some of you may believe that this is alarmist but as I am going to demonstrate, it is not.
Sylvia (not real name) was a classmate in medical school. She was “hot” as in piping smoking hot; with large eyes, a smooth skin and a shapely figure, she left many a medical student and non medical students hot under the collar… and am sure elsewhere! The beauty of it all is that she acted quite oblivious of the effect that she had on men … and of course other girls hated her! Whether or not she really knew what she was doing is a matter for debate but not the subject of this note.
One day she turned up at my place of work in the city. You see unlike many Ugandan university students then, I was a working student, a fact only known to a very few of my friends. As a private medical student, the first one in the history of medical school as well as one of the first private students in Makerere University, unlike other students who received free accomodation and “boom” as well as funding for projects, I was a fee paying student without entitlement to any of the “freebies”. I therefore run a business in town in addition to several other businesses. Sylvia was one of the few classmates who knew where to find me.
Pleasantly surprised (stop smirking, I know you have a dirty mind), I asked her what I owed the pleasure to. To which she responded that she needed my help to get through the park as she had business downtown but felt intimidated by “bayaye” who had been harrassing her. Sylvia was not indecently dressed. She just happened to have one of those bodies that are just simply “indecent”! You know, the ones that set mens minds racing off to dark corners! She apparently had to wade through men harrassing her verbally, and even taking the liberty of touching her bits and was clearly distressed. She explained that she would not be subjected to such harrassment if she was with a guy whereas alone, she was actually in fear of getting assaulted sexually or physically nevermind this was broad daylight. Indeed when I walked with her, while men would stare, they kept their hands to themselves!
You see women have always been assaulted downtown if they are deemed to be dressed indecently. Many middle class women and men who have never been to downtown Kampala may find this hard to believe but having spent a fair amount of my time in the city, I can attest to this. I have more than once witnessed a woman being attacked by a mob of men and getting undressed. On one occasion one run into my mothers shop, minus her skirt and panties that had got torn by a rowdy mob and my mother ever the protector of women, had to donate a kitenge leesu to cover up her shame!
As a teenager, a cousin came to live with us. He was older and into girls and discotheques. I had to share a room with him. Unknown to my parents, he used to sneak out at night to go to a nightclub and come back in the early morning. I had to open for him. Soon I too went along. We had to climb over a high wall to get out of my parents place but had placed a ladder strategically on the outside. One morning my father found the ladder, put two and two together, grilled us and got a confession out of one of us. That was the end of my night time escapades!
But on these escapades I got introduced to another side of humanity! On more than one night, one or more girls would get dragged off to “pay” for some random guys drinks. I asked my cousin why no one intervened, and even egged on the men who used their self righteous anger to drag off these girls to be raped. Never once did I see any man intervene. As a matter of fact many thought it served the girls right for trying to get free things! The consensus appeared to be that if a girl drunk a guys “free” drinks, then she was under obligation to “pay” for them in kind! I know that this kind of behaviour still goes on around Kampala! Even at uni, once met students who believed that it was ok to force a woman into sex if they agreed to be wined and dined. Frequently these were powerless young girls or even maids from the neighbourhood and these crimes went unreported.
A friend, a daughter of an NRM minister almost got raped once by a guy she knew who she had gone out on a date with. Of middle class background, it had never occured to her that there was a quid pro quo to having a guy spend money on her. Having gone out with him, he instead of driving her back to uni drove to his place against her protestations. Realising he had no intention of letting her go, she lulled him into a false sense of security before stealing his car keys and driving herself back to uni where she dumped the car. She was one of very few girls or even male students then who drove a car at uni. Not having witnessed her dress, I do not know whether she was dressed provocatively. As a matter of fact she never did dress provocatively or indecently though one realises that this is relative! I know that another girl was raped at uni after she went out and got drunk and apparently passed out on the lawns. I doubt that she would ever admit to it though and I have never discussed it with her even though I still talk to her today.
Another was not too long ago raped by the personnel officer in one of the big banks on a recruitment drive upcountry. She went through 3 months of antiretrovirals and depression which was exacerbated by the fact that a counsellor she went to implied that she was in love with the guy who she had only known less than a week and had somehow invited the rape! He apparently used the excuse that she had “tempted him” in what he thought was provocative dress. She was in his room in a wrapper aka leesu at night! Broke and dependent on him for tranport back to Kampala, she felt shamed and blamed herself for months. The last time I spoke to her she said she still didnt have the courage to go out with another man even though its now been almost five years! Another girl was forced into an oral sex act and only escaped by appearing to cooperate, excused herself to go to the bathroom and then made her escape. She believes that worse was planned to happen to her.
In primary school I witnessed a male teacher order an underage girl to his house then proceed to fondle and molest her. Am told she later became his “wife”! In another more recent event, a girl was raped by a friend she had “friend zoned” because in his opinion, she was “giving it to everyone else” like he was not a man so he felt compelled to prove his manhood to her!
The point here is that rape is common in Uganda. More common than most of us would like to admit. There is actually what one could call a rape culture and not just in rural areas or downtown Kampala, which is exacerbated by the fact that we refuse to talk about it. All of this is covered and swept under the carpet under the guise of our so called “African culture”. It is this same culture that now apparently sees something wrong with seeing a woman’s ankles or knee caps and places the responsibility for men’s thoughts and weaknesses upon the women!
Under this new law which remains vague as to what is considered to be obscene or provocative dressing, some vigilante or faceless people get to decide using arbitrary criteria which woman deserves to be undressed, jailed or even raped.
Minister Kibuule suggested that before the police investigated the rape, they should first of all investigate the woman including how she was dressed and whether her dress was provocative. Presumably, this means that it would then be okay for her to be raped. That this man and Fr Lokodo are still ministers is a peculiarity of this government which appears to harbour misogynists!
Someone mentioned on FB just ysterday that Fr Lokodo comes from a community where ritual rape is a common way of getting “married”. A man apparently identifies his bride, carries her off to his hut, does the deed, then presents himself to her parents with “compensation” and gifts! Could his culture be what is shaping his opinions or is it his religion and training as a priest?
Three other disturbing events come to mind all from uni. In our first year, a classmate came back from the staff clinic clearly distressed. Apparently she had gone there with a headache and been asked to take her pants off for a gynaecological exam. While she didn’t see the connection between her complaint, a headache, and the humiliating invasive exam, she somehow acquiesced without protest but came out troubled and angry. It turned out that this was not the first time that this had happened and after comparing notes found out that other classmates had had the same bizarre request! Clearly the male doctor in the clinic was abusing his authority and preying on freshers!
In a second episode, I and a bunch of students watched in horror as a male doctor, who was then a lecturer, fondled a middle aged woman’s genitals prior to an internal exam. His explanation was that “our women” were not like white women and did not need lubrication and could be induced to produce lubrication naturally! This man no longer practices and went into politics in a neighbouring country!
In a third episode while working in an emergency gynaecological unit, a girl came in half dressed in the early morning. She claimed to have been raped by a prominent journalist who is now in jail. The consensus appeared to be that she was a working girl. Actually the examining doctor who was the senior person on for the day examined her himself and told her she was lying. He was rude and insensitive even though she appeared to be distressed! He ordered her out of hospital and refused to write up a rape report. She did not report to the police.
A few months later other women came out with the same allegations. Apparently he was a serial rapist and this was not the first time. Things unraveled for him when he tried to blackmail a prominent businessman who “fixed” him! His current incarceration is for an unrelated crime.
This bill presents an opportunity for us to discuss what we mean when we use the all encompassing term “African culture”. This term is used as a ready defence that implies that our cultures are always benign and under attack by external forces wishing to destroy them. In the matter of “decent dress”, Minister Lokodo’s own community have been known to be dressed more scantily than what we would recognise as a mini even in modern times so one wonders what he means by indecent! Is he going to jail all of his tribesmates?
Ugandans need to get off their high horses and examine themselves. Who would consider it fair that their sister, daughter, girlfriend or wife was assaulted physically or sexually because of what some lumpen out there considered to be indecent dress?
This law has got nothing to do with protecting culture or decency! In a state where the protection of women is woeful at best, it can only be interpreted as reflecting misogyny!
A society with a culture that cannot protect the most vulnerable of its members should not be proud of that culture but needs to examine itself! Ugandans need to examine their attitude towards women!
Keeping this bill with the provisions for a prescriptive dress code for women which places responsibility for their being assaulted as a result of arousing the animal in the male species will just encourage more assaults upon women!
Tusaba Katonda atuyambe!
“[katogoaward]”