January 13, 2011

An insightful day!

One of my professors came today and gave a lecture for my Gender Issues in African Literature course. It was incredibly thought provoking.

While discussing reasons why women are traditionally expected to have children, the professor mentioned its importance in care for elders. She then began comparing the treatment and care of elders in Africa to America. She asked me, being the only American student int the class, to explain the concept of nursing homes to the other students.

I have always found the idea of nursing homes to be disturbing, but I realized to the full extent how strange and inhumane it really is.. The students seemed to be rather horrified by the idea.

This evening I attended a Student Poetry Association meeting. They hold weekly poetry readings for students. The readings are open to all. Though there were only about twenty students attending this evening, it is apparently extremely popular on campus, and there are often about 100 people at each reading.

I found it fascinating to learn that poetry here is different from poetry in the states. I find it interesting that it is tremendously peppier here.

Several students read selections of Maya Angelou amongst others. Some students brought their own work as well. During the readings, I noticed each student put a great deal of energy into the actual performance of the poem. From talking to the students afterwards, I learned that the elements of performance for reading poetry are as important as the words themselves in Southern Africa.

Following one of the readings of a Maya Angelou poem, one student asked that we have a discussion about notions and possible origins of "the angry black woman."

The students claimed that there is truth to thisstereotype, and many claimed that anger is never justified even with an ugly history of racism and discrimination, and is in fact, detrimental and potentially harmful to bridging inequalities and to black progress.

However, one student pointed out that in America, the name is often applied to black women who are successful in attempts to demean them, such as Michelle Obama.

We later had discussions about abortion, homosexuality, and "the proper place and or role for a woman in society." I am finding that there seems to be fierce opposition to both abortion and homosexuality according to every student I've spoken to here. Apparently, "being homosexual" is against the law. The practice seems to be especially frowned upon for men.

I am also finding that many men have very definite and strongly opinionated ideas about the role and place of a woman in society. Roles for men and women are incredibly gendered and inflexible. Many of the female students became frustrated throughout the course of the conversation. When arguing that mat many of these "roles" are simply societal constructs, their arguments were unanimously dismissed by theirmale peers.

I am very interested in learning more about these ideologies in Africa, how some have changed and some have remained the same, and why and how some of them exist.