What's in a dress?

| Friday August 13, 2010 00:00

FRANCISTOWN: In yonder days, a Motswana woman would not be seen in public without a headscarf (tukwi) or a hemline above the knees.

For good measure, they draped themselves with a shawl to make a statement that says 'I am Mrs So-and-So' or 'I am Mma-Semangmang' in the fashion of identifying mothers by the names of one of their children, usually the firstborn.

But it was in the dress cut from the 'jeremane' fabric that a Motswana woman of years gone by really captured the crown of respectability among her peers.

The moment a woman appeared in public dressed otherwise, she would be labelled a 'letagwa', or other derogatory names.

Even today, many women over the age of 60 do not go anywhere without their 'tukwi' and their garments still reach down to the ankles.

They cringe at the sight of a nubile lass dressed in revealing clothes, which is exactly the case with them nowadays.

Recently in Francistown, there was a report of a girl who was mauled by a horde of taxi drivers at the bus rank for daring to saunter about dressed skimpily. The men descended on her tearing off her clothes, causing her to run naked into the safety of a home across the railway line.

I witnessed a similar incident at the bus rank in Gaborone in 2005 when a woman wearing what was as good as a flimsy nightdress was attacked by a mob. She was rescued by security guards who grabbed her and pushed her into their office.

The late Kgosi Seepapitso VI of Bangwaketse once ordered women never come to his kgotla wearing slacks. And recently, Khama issued a directive that women employed in the civil service should not come to work dressed in revealing garments.

Like their female counterparts, Batswana men could never venture outside their homes, especially for formal gatherings, without a jacket or a hat.

Whenever there was a kgotla meeting or a funeral, the patriarch of the family would reach for at least a waistcoat hanging by the rafters of the hut.

This trend is still very much alive as men are expected to put on jackets, even a tie, when they go to social gatherings. It begins with Parliament where it is compulsory to wear a jacket to be able to sit in the public gallery.

In the villages, young men have been taken to task for 'showing disrespect' by attending funerals without a jacket. In some instances, they have been ordered to lie down and receive lashes on the bare back.

In most cases, however, they have escaped with a tongue-lashing. But nowadays, young men go to the kgotla dressed in any kind of clothing, even shorts, T-shirts, tracksuits and jeans.

The president of the Customary Court, Margaret Ludo Mosojane says there is nothing that can be done to revert to the manner of dress of the olden days.

'If we try to do that, we will be oppressive of our children,' she says. 'Young women feel good dressed in those skimpy clothes. That is the way they want to express themselves. They should be left alone.

'When I was growing up, you could see girls, some with breasts, wearing makgabe (strands of cloth or beads) and boys wearing ditshega (kilts). It was how they wanted to express themselves then.

'Would you want to see our boys and girls dressed like that? I don't think so. It is the case with the food we eat nowadays.

We are being encouraged to eat mosutlhane, kabu and other traditional fare, but as soon as we have received the message, we nip down to the nearest Nandos or Kentucky outlet.'

Many other people feel Batswana should kiss goodbye any nostalgia of dressing and behaving like their earlier generations.

Samuel Mukinda, who says he is a Zezuru based in Somerset West, believes Batswana are a lost nation. He says we are people of loose morals whose young have no respect for their elders and that eyesores abound in our society.

'As Bazezuru, we continue to uphold our tradition,' Mukinda says. 'We will never forsake it because it has made us what we are today.

Our women know their place in society. And then with a jeer: 'Unlike Batswana women who refuse to vacate a chair when a man enters the house.'