The Sunday News
SUMMER is a time when people generally dress less.
Away with the jackets, coats and sweaters – young people especially find it as a time when they can show some creativity with their colour-blocking – spurting the bright blues, yellows, reds and purples as they trudge along the streets.
Besides the obvious interest in dressing well and showing off a bit of “class” or “swag” (depending on your preferred street-terms) issues of modesty have always been problematic during this season.
Clearly, summer-time can be easily taken as shama-time. (Kushama is a Shona word which means being naked).
Where do we draw the line between dressing modestly and dressing for summer? Cultural and Christian forces pull from both sides as the need for a balanced appreciation of both realities — the heat and modesty — is pursued.
Taking a walk on the streets of Bulawayo (or any street in cities in Zimbabwe for that) one is likely to see big beautiful women dressed in skimpy dresses that leave a lot to be desired. Bum-shorts are not in shortage in this entire mix.
A new type of dress written “dope” and “channel” which is basically a top which reveals the lower stomach up to the waist also seems very popular with many young “ladies” religiously donning it. While the older generation marvels at the leggings-craze, a new type of pants called “treggings” has already taken root and is also raising eyebrows among locals. Treggings are leggings styled to look like trousers. Treggings fit just like leggings, but are made out of a thicker fabric and they come in all types of prints.
The signals that such types of dresses send out — implicitly and explicitly are varied — but Christians and culturalists both agree that the drive to look “sexy” should not compel one to immodesty.
Bishop Ishamel Mukuwanda, president of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches said the church would always stand for strong moral values and encouraged especially women — both young and old to dress modestly.
“We usually don’t have any problem with the boys — it’s the girls and some of the older women who we usually see dressing rather immodestly in the name of ‘summer’. I think it’s okay for people to be cool because it’s really warm and sometimes hot in summer but we have to remember our morals and cultural norms,” he noted.
The man of the cloth also alluded to the Westernisation of local culture as a possible cause for the “strange” dressing that we have seen some seized with the need to show off some flesh even in churches.
“We have definitely adopted foreign concepts of dressing and they have been to our detriment and the negation of our own indigenous culture. People should respect their bodies and by so doing we will be respectable people in our own right,” he added.
Back in 2009, a Government minister was quoted in the local media saying: “Our girls are moving naked and this attracts negative attitudes towards sex,” he said.
In the same year, a circular from the Ministry of Education warned teachers against adopting dressing that “conflicts with cultural norms and values”. At that time, feminists said the new rules related to miniskirts, slacks, tight fitting dresses and dresses with slits.
Veteran journalist and social commentator Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu pointed out other interesting dynamics into the whole conversation.
“We were for a long time under imperialistic rule hence we adopted their culture which includes things like culinary norms, politics, religion, marriage and inevitably adornment. It is mainly because of the religio-educational background that we find ourselves where we are.
“However, modest or immodest dressing is a subjective issue. For example, traditionally, in Ndebele, Kalanga and other tribes women had their upper bodies uncovered. This is still true even with the Ndebeles on the other side of the Limpopo. However, because of the religious culture — mainly Christianity — which we adopted, we have a new definition of what is modest or what is not. Even within Christian circles though, there are varying definitions of it as some sects are liberal, others are conservative,” he added.
