President ‘barking’ over dogs
South Africa’s often controversial President Jacob Zuma has declared pursuits such as owning a pet dog or hair straightening are part of ‘‘white culture’’ and should be shunned by black citizens.
Emboldened after winning a second term as president this month, Zuma warned young blacks they would lose the respect of fellow black South Africans if they tried to emulate whites.
He said taking dogs for walks or spending money on vets were white behaviours.
He delivered his remarks in a speech in Impendle, in KwaZuluNatal, according to a report in the Star newspaper. Zuma accused some pet owners of caring more for their dogs than for people.
The South African president’s remarks were controversial in part because African National Congress policy is to support a non-racial, non-sexist democracy.
Zuma said young black women who straightened their hair were also trying to be like whites.
Hair straightening is common in South Africa and many other parts of the continent. ‘‘Even if you apply any kind of lotion and straighten your hair, you will never be white,’’ Zuma said in the speech, which ignited a storm in the media and on Twitter.
One South African newspaper, the Mail & Guardian, ran a column under the headline: Zuma goes barking mad. Some black South Africans, including a trade union council leader and Zuma critic, Zwelinzima Vavi, reacted by posting photographs of themselves with their dogs.
Award-winning South African novelist, poet and playwright Zakes Mda posted an old photograph on Twitter of former president Nelson Mandela grinning happily as a rhodesian ridgeback dog jumped on him.
‘‘There are many different ways of being African. Of being black even. Those who love animals are not less African/black than those who don’t,’’ Mda said in another tweet.
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj released a statement saying Zuma’s speech was a message to black people to uphold and promote their own culture.
‘‘They should not feel pressured to be assimilated into the minority cultures.’’