Indigenous knowledge systems: Management of Harurwa ( Part 7B)

IN fact, as a divinely respected and automated cardinal rule, African men deeply respect women. This is why you will find a 60-year-old man greeting a five- year- old girl as “mhai” which is a very deeply respectful Karanga way of saying, “my mother”.

This is all predicated on the clearly indisputable position that women do not only give birth to all of us, men included. Every woman in that regard is every man’s mother.

As far as African original practice goes, all across the board, the automatically internalised position is that, barring unforeseen circumstances, all men will respect all women, whatever their age.

This is because women are such an indispensable other half of humanity that humanity, particularly men, cannot survive without.

So, the less beer that goes to the women is no indicator of the men not respecting them and being selfish.

Rather, the one pot that goes to the women is indicative of the less numbers on the women’s side, as most of the time it is only old women who drink the beer in normal black African drinking protocols.

As a matter of fact, a young woman who drinks is looked at as morally loose, generally in original African beer drinking protocols, and she is not respected at all.

And if we further look at it scientifically, it is usually the young women who are approached by men on issues of intimacy.

Alcohol tends to diminish most people’s morality and balanced judgment, so if the younger women would also drink, there won’t be any guardian of morality.

Therefore, the younger women has an immense responsibility in that regard, which is why most of them shun drinking and its quite logical.

Any younger women who drinks in black African beer drinking protocols are usually unmarried mothers who are ‘on the market’, so to speak.

So, the moment you are considered to be of loose morality, you can forget about marriage.

Yes, the men will still come to you, but they only come for the one obvious thing.

After they have gotten what they want from such a woman, they leave her, never to be seen again.

That obviously unfortunately cheapens women and makes them objects of abuse, but unfortunately that’s how cheaply a woman who drinks is generally treated in black African socialisation where alcohol is involved.

Such unmarried mothers get referred to as “mvana” in the Karanga language.

“Mvana” who drink are not well respected.

Once they drink, they are regarded as just a “mvana” for temporary gratification by any man.

They are never taken seriously. This is after other men have also successfully or unsuccessfully tried their luck.

Once a woman is known to be a drinking “mvana”, they are automatically labelled as loose and available to any man who wants casual pleasure with no further strings attached afterwards.

And this is not just applicable to the so- called “mvana”, but also to young unmarried women who drink as they are considered just as morally loose as the unmarried mothers or the “mvana” who drinks.

But sadly, that is just the way it is with black African beer drinking protocols.

People can shout all they like about gender equality, but when it comes to issues of morality, black African socialisation simply doesn’t respect women who drink alcohol.

So, clearly this has nothing to do with the so-called gender equality and or women’s rights.

It’s a mere fact of balancing societal moral rectitude and women, particularly the younger ones, have that extra responsibility to preserve the moral fibre of society because in their soberness, they will say no to drunken men’s advances.

This ability to say no is almost always totally impaired when one is drunk and one can imagine the chaos that will result if the person so drunk as to be morally impaired is somebody’s wife or mother.

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