I’ve recently discovered an amusing and rather unbelievable
tid bit fact of Tanzanian culture. To preface my discovery, Tanzania is a very
conservative culture where there exists basically no public display of affection,
opposite sex don’t hold hands in public, but two men may hold hands out in the
open san probleme, a women’s skin is
not exposed except for her arms and lower calves, (the younger women may show a
bit of cleavage through their v neck t-shirts), female villagers do not wear
pants, only big city gals and sex is completely a secret affair. Even buying or
acquiring condoms for free is not commonly done because God forbid the
dispensary personnel or shop owner know you are sexually active or at least plan
to be engaged in sexy time. This is
one challenge of educating the community and population the importance of using
condoms as sex safe practice to prevent transmission of HIV.
In Tanzania, women wear kanga. It is a piece of rectangle
cloth with bright colorful patterns and has a motto written on the bottom. The
kanga needs to be cut in half and edges sewn. A kanga comes in two identical
pieces. One is wrapped around the waist like a sarong and the other is to cover
your torso worn like a shawl or can be wrapped around the head as a head scarf.
I was curious to know what women wear under these kanga as I see there is no
skirt peeking underneath, unless its shorter or the same length as the
kanga. A friend explained to me the
following:
Order of clothing for a woman
1.
underwear
2.
skin tight (second layer of longer underwear
that is like a girdle and form fitting)
3.
slip
4.
skirt or dress
5.
kanga
My reaction was, “Say
what?” Four layers underneath a kanga? Sometimes a women may not wear a
skin tight but will wear a slip underneath her dress or skirt: basically 4
layers of clothes, minimum. Jesus!
It gets better…as a
joke, I asked what the men wear? Little did I know I’d be in for a lil’ eye
opener.
Order of clothing for men
1.
underwear
2.
Skin tight (that’s what they’re called…tight
long boxers) or pair of shorts (like gym shorts)
3.
Pants
Bewildered, I exclaimed something that corresponded with “WTF?” Why the shorts between underwear and
trousers?
There were two
reasons, which I’d be inclined to guess, that immediately swam in my mind.
a.
You men are afraid of being raped; therefore
this is chastity belt a la Tanzania style?
b.
You don’t use toilet paper after doing numero dos, so this is a layer that
delays stank? Or in case you get poop stained skid marks on the underwear, is
this second layer another protection?
I asked three different males,
here were the answers:
1.
Habit and tradition. I was in disbelief. Habit of wearing 3 freakin’ layer of bottom? Who
cares...break the habit…be a rebel and end the tradition! Aren’t you hot and
uncomfortable? Supposedly, men in coastal area where it’s hot ditch the skin
tights. Thank God! I don’t even understand how comfy it is for a man to wear
cotton boxers underneath their jeans...it gets all bunched up. I think it’s too
much fabric.
2.
The skin tight or shorts over the underwear
is to cover “panty line”. Serious, I’m
not joking you. I was told that it’s to avoid seeing the shape of the underwear.
I have never in my life heard of men concerned with panty line. What kind of
men’s trousers is panty line an issue? I’ve never seen men wearing tight jeans
or slim fit trousers with their underwear line showing. Unless I’m totally out
of it and completely ignorant of the male wardrobe system, men don’t wear
spanks or g-strings do they? We’re in the 21st century, maybe they
do and I’m just cluleless.
3.
The shorts over the underwear and underneath
the pants is to protect the man’s “you know what”. This friend was trying to
avoid saying PENIS so he first explained that men and women have different body
shape, and that men have a reproductive system…he hems and haws. Look, Just say dick, cock, weenie, penis, willy, johnson…whatever dude…come
out with it. I spared his elaborate description so I helped him out with
“private part”. He was grateful that I saved him. He tells me that men do many
different things and his gist was that the family jewel needed to be protected
from harm and injury. I’m thinking…wear a
jock strap, dude. It’s easier and at the end of the day, when you’re on the farm,
that 1/16” of skin tight or 1/8” of short fabric ain’t really cuttin’ it when
that hoe accidently gets shoved up your willy.
I saved the best for last: (drum roll, please….)
4.
This friend at least had the “balls” to say the word penis to me. He explains without
embarrassment that if the man has a big penis, the shorts is to cover it.
Basically, you don’t want your ding dong to be ding donging around in lose
trousers. A penis is not to be seen, God forbid you see the outline, the
package, its movement and the size of the contour. Total no no! Come to think of it, it’s true that I
haven’t “noticed” a Tanzanian man’s package suggested beneath his pants. (Trust
me, not that I’m looking!) In the west, when a man sits, I can see his balls
settled either on the left or right side of his thigh. Even if he stands, you
can see the whole shebang, his crotch filled with balls and all. I think I’m
starting to understand this “cover up” system of wearing another pair of heavy
shorts or tight girdle over their undies. I remember a sight quite
unforgettable, in absolute horror, as a teenager back in California, I saw a
cyclist on his bike next to our car. We all stopped on the road waiting for the
green light. His testicles and penis completed busted out from his short bike
shorts. This was, I believe, an accident and unintentional. This or he was a tricky
exhibitionist. To flash his package pretending to be a cyclist wearing those
God-awful short bike shorts.
As you can imagine, I am laughing in
disbelief, the madness of it all, the ultra conservatism and the somewhat
hypocrisy of their sexual practices. This
was hilarious shit! To “get a rise”
out of my male friends, I tell them that some men in the west, especially
Europeans, don’t wear underwear at all. Commando! I was curious to see their
reaction. Would they think, “you vulgar,
uncouth pale ones!” Tanzanians are too polite and will not confront, “You immoral pornographic making devil
worshipping white people!”
Two male friends pulled down a bit of their
pants waist to show me the gym shorts underneath their pants or jeans. Incredible. If Tanzanians want to get it
on…there’s lots of removal of clothes. I now know why they are perpetually late
for every thing; they’re putting on and removing clothing…lots of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment