The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
IF she had been watching the debut of Eve Ensler’s blockbuster stage production, Vagina Monologues would have struck a chord for author Erica Gwetai.
On a typically calm spring evening in the City of Kings, made all the calmer by the serenity of the Bulawayo Theatre, Gwetai the mother of the late prolific writer, Yvonne Vera might have had a chance to see a topic close to her heart brought to life by a brilliant cast of young Bulawayo actress.
On stage that day was the female reproductive anatomy in human form.
The Vagina Monologues was first performed by creator Eve Ensler in an off-Broadway production in 1996.
What began as a segmented collection of interviews with women on their views and opinions of vaginas has grown to become a phenomenon. Ensler’s production is performed worldwide and this year it came to Bulawayo’s stages for the first time.
The play explores consensual and non-consensual sexual experiences, body image, direct and indirect encounters with reproduction, vaginal care, menstrual periods, sex work, and several other topics through the eyes of women with various ages, races, sexualities, and other differences.
It also explores genital mutilation. This is a topic close to Gwetai’s heart. Recently she has watched in despair and horror as the practice of genital mutilation has become closely linked with labia stretching, a cultural practice that Gwetai believes is now grossly misunderstood.
“The culture is different. We’re losing sight of our ideals and inserting ourselves in other people’s cultures. Ours is a culture that has always been there,” she told Sunday Life in an interview.
“Personally, I’m against anything that’s forced. I’m against anything that forces people into doing anything that goes against their wishes. I don’t agree with things like child marriage which are to the detriment and disadvantage of the girl child. I also take offence when people misconstrue our culture,” she said.
Previously the World Health Organisation included labial stretching within the context of “mutilation” but the negative context of that was not supported by the research of Marian Koster MSc and Dr Lisa Price of Wageningen University, Netherlands. This led the WHO to change its stance in 2008.
While the practice might have become lost over the years, Gwetai said that it would be wrong to link it with other practices from other societies that thrived on the violation of women. When she was a girl on the cusp of adulthood, she said, it was a common practice.
“This was a common practice in our generation and most girls went through it at a certain age. It was common in our generation and we did it willingly. It was mostly done by girls that were perhaps later in the teens and at the time viewed as closer to marriage. It was never done to children as we witness with genital mutilation,” she said.
According to Gwetai labia stretching did not inflict pain on whoever was doing it, as it was a delicate process one could execute on their own.
“So, it’s culture, that’s a world away from genital mutilation because with this process no mutilation takes place. When one is mutilated it is a painful process but with our own process no one suffers when doing this. In fact, I would say that the process of circumcision that one goes through is more painful than this. When a boy is circumcised, they’re actually cut but with this process no cutting is involved.
This is a delicate process and in actual fact one does it on their own without anyone else involved. Once the ‘lips’ have been pulled then they cannot be pulled back,” she said.
According to Gwetai, while some saw labia stretching as a means to one end, sexual pleasure, it served more than one purpose.
“While people have a one-dimensional view of this practice, doing it serves more than one purpose. Firstly, they enhance pleasure for both sexual partners. So, it is not true that this is merely for the pleasure of a man. Secondly, they serve as a kind of panty to prevent a woman from being just ‘open’. This is important. Thirdly and just as importantly they were meant to safeguard a woman from being raped. Once one folds them in, no man can penetrate them. So, this was always something useful for women in the old days when they had to travel long distances and could be at the mercy of savage men,” she said.
After the country’s traditional leaders recently resolved to tackle the scourge of female genital mutilation, Gwetai said she hoped to see more women being asked to contribute meaningfully to the topic.
“I have a problem with representation from men on this subject. This is because I believe that women who have lived through this, us the elderly, should have a voice when this issue is discussed. I believe we’re losing ourselves by taking offence at everything that gives a man pleasure. What’s wrong with me pleasing my man? Others do it in different ways in their cultures. I have been married for 45 years and what I do has worked for me. I believe that choice shouldn’t be taken away from women,” she said.
