Bod-Mod-Beauty Africa

Lip plates, ear stretching, scarification and tattoos …
Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.

Body modification has been around since the beginning of time, for one of the longest times dating back years ago and even prevalent today is body modification in African Tribes. Seen as socially acceptable in African culture as a way to enhance beauty by giving status in tribes, it is also in rites of passage of childhood into adulthood.

In Kenya, body mod is usually seen amongst the Masai tribe. This nomadic tribe is well known in Africa, due to their residence close to most National Parks of East Africa and their distinctive ways of dress and customs. For the most part, Masai are known to elongate their ears (to which at times, you will see the stretched part wrapped over the top of the ear). You will also come to learn that besides the old traditions of killing a lion to initiate coming of age, the shaving of hair, another custom -which is not exclusive to the Masai- is the removal of the two lower front teeth in girls. Men & women wear jewelry for both fashion and custom…
the Luo tribe of Kenya also would remove the lower teeth. Mijikenda tribes also used to perform scarification but I could not find any photos of early Kenya bod-mods



In Ethiopia, lip plates begin six months to a year before a Mursi girl is to be married, in which a small incision is made in the middle of her bottom lip and a stick is put in. Slowly over time larger disks are inserted. In addition, many girls have their two lower teeth knocked out to accommodate for the huge plate. Although this form of body modification has existed in other parts of Africa throughout time, the Mursi tribe is the only tribe today which still carries out this custom.
It has been said, that the bigger the lip plate, the stronger the woman… Physcially withstanding so much pain will make her tough and therefore makes her a better wife to her husband.

with the plate removed

SCARIFICATION
Permanent scarring for aesthetic reasons is common in Africa. They are for both men and women and can be on the face, belly, legs, back – pretty much anywhere. Although a beautifying custom, to enhance physical attractiveness, it is also performed in the coming of age ceremonies and can denote a persons wealth, status and age. The designs a girl picks in her coming into adulthood are those that stand for being beautiful, for being a good wife, and a good mother. The meanings are quite beautiful and the ritual of facial tattooing is required of all tribe members entering adulthood. Boys will have a similar procedure, but their scars will show achievements and merits, such as hunting and symbols of strength and courage.


The scars are made by cutting the skin, and then rubbing ash or acid on the patterns to produce lasting scars. This is performed especially North eastern and West Africa. It is not uncommon for newborn children to receive facial scarring and for women to receive scarring across their stomachs and under their breasts when they reach sexual maturation. A woman without these scars on her body would be seen as ugly, poor, socially inept and undesirable.

Besides Africa, tattooing, nose plugs, elongated necks, teeth shaving and scarification procedures exist all over the world. They are all seen as ways of expressing beauty and power, and particularly as Africa is not an individualistic culture, bod-mod can be seen as a way of expressing that individuality, whilst still being part of the community and practicing customs. A personal style, a freedom within a conformity.

It makes me think of the Western uprise of body modifications; implants, tattoos, piercings, to scarring, lizard tongues and boob jobs!

Becoming a canvas of personal re-presented art or enhancement.

Is that what we cannot feel without it too?

~~the images in this entry are taken from various sources/searches through the web~~

TRIBEs: the Empathy for Nomadic bench

Three aspects of controversy …
1) Kenya: the curse of the wildlife conservation industry to the Samburu Community.
2) Governments of Kenya sized their Land and now their Animals, and destroy their homes to give room for creation of Monster called Laikipia National Park.
3) Samburu Evicted for “Conservation” in Kenya

The present situation in Kenya and especially the area around Samburu, has threatened the life of Samburu people in general. Unprecedented draught, civil strife, and a regime of police abuse against indigenous Samburu have sabotaged and greatly challenged the efforts to survive. With scarce resources and incited by the local authorities, the tribes around Samburu are fighting each other for cattle and livelihood. Cattle, which die from draught or are stolen, are the main source of income. Members of the Samburu people in Kenya have been abused, beaten and raped by police after the land they lived on for two decades was sold to two US-based wildlife charities, a rights group and community leader have alleged.
With nowhere to go, around 2,000 Samburu families stayed on the edge of the disputed territory, living in makeshift squats, while 1,000 others were forced to relocate… The displaced community has nothing but their livestock, thousands of which were impounded – with no reason given – on 25 November 2011. This is an urgent and serious violation of the rights of this community, which has been left squatting beside its land with no amenities.
Source:Survival

BESIDES THE INIQUITY
What about TOURISM?

The German travel industry has warned that destroying Samburu could destroy tourism.
Here you will find the letter to Kibake with their opinion

The evictions follow the purchase of the land by two conservation charities – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF).

If German tourism can approach Kenya and state that the eviction of Samburu and indigenous tribes in the name of conservation cannot be tolerated, surely, others can partake in the same sentiment?

Whilst the Focus is made on the morale of such decisions within Kenya, it could be looked at that even just what the tourist media portrays of Kenya – the Masai, tribalism, culture, AUTHENTIC Kenya – is slowly dying along with people, the traditions and it’s nomadic appeal – in the name of commercial profits and lack of empathy or respect for Masai democracy.

TRIBEs: Protect the Samburu

Samburu district is the place they show in media productions for Africa Crisis appeals. The district was known for it’s 10-year drought… G8, and all other relevant productions for drought & starvation were all recorded here… I didn’t know this until my second visit…

WAR: Archer’s Post is just before Samburu – the war area of the North between Somalia and the rest of Kenya. Tribes steal cattle from each other and war strikes out. Women are raped and killed, children are killed, skinned and left hanging on trees – as an example of how bad it gets. Bandits hide in the bush on the road between Isiolo and Samburu (Archer’s is on the way) so it becomes very dangerous to commute between these areas, leaving Archer’s and Samburu very difficult to receive any supplies or even charitable help of volunteers, teachers and other projects. It’s just too dangerous. The Samburu are being massacred in their own villages. It’s almost impossible for me to go there now.

The Samburu district is wanted for digging oil, and Chinese influencing power and greed for land owned by indigeneous peoples over the last few years in Kenya, and now the eviction of the Samburu in clause of “wildlife conservation” – has played a huge part in threat to these villages. We don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, who is used, corrupted, paid, promoted, threatened and violated to ‘wipe’ such areas out to take over land. It seems all too plausible when it is actually Kenyan police who are also raiding villages and scalping Samburu warriors, amongst other horrific torture to them, their wives and children.

How could any one organise in fact, a genocide and violate the rights of indigenous tribes in the name of greed, and essentially threatening the environment at the same time?

Northern Kenya’s Samburu district is a hot & rigid area, characterised by dry landscapes and plains. Upon arriving, one may feel like they have found the “real” Africa they see in the media (in the West); the barren, vast landscapes as the indigenous peoples wander in their colorful, bright reds and orange robes against the desert tones, they…tall, dark and enigmatic.

On 26th Dec 2009, I received an email stating that a village neighboring where I stay has been stampeded and all members involving some 100s of women, and including the morans were executed, their braids scalped and left on show, whilst all the women and children were raped and murdered.

This has put an end to my visits to the Umoja Women of Samburu; those escaping FGM, domestic violence and campaigning for their basic human right. The road to Samburu is now the road to pillage & suffering. Seven months of my life with the Samburu now put on hold, until clearance can be given. As I have never traveled there with protection or insurance. I never declared my status or presence, I just drove or got the matatu for a six-hour journey up into the barren bush. They would know me there, I was the only Western stayer. They would expect me. And I would never let them down.

cut

LINKS:

The Cut Documentary
Men’s Views on Umoja Women of Kenya/Women’s Rights
IRIN News Report

For centuries, FGM was performed openly in Kenya, sometimes as part of public village ceremonies. After being outlawed, however, it went underground. To the dismay of many anti-FGM advocates who worked to dissuade midwives from performing the traditional rite, it is conducted under a cloak of secrecy in more clinical environments, such as rural and small-city hospitals. There are even accounts of mobile FGM clinics, in which nurses and clinicians move from village to village, easily eluding police.

The practice is widely believed to increase a girl’s chances of marriage, prevent promiscuity and promote easy childbirth. Women who do not circumcise their daughters run the risk of being seen as irresponsible, immoral and imitators of Western culture.

I read in the paper the other day about a Samburu girl, years after being circumsized, is in a coma due to complications with the procedure. Another story I was reading:

“My daughter, come in,” her mother said nearly four years ago, summoning her into a room in their house. “My daughter tomorrow is your D-day; you will be circumcised,” her mother blurted out.

The following morning, she recalls, she was made to undergo infibulation, or Type III, the most extreme and brutal form of female genital mutilation. Performed without any anesthesia, the clitoris and inner labia are cut and the walls of the outer labia are sewn together. Afterwards “the girl or woman’s legs are generally bound together from the hip to the ankle so she remains immobile for approximately 40 days to allow for the formation of scar tissue,”

An operation to reopen the vagina–de-infibulation–is often performed ritualistically before marriage or childbirth.

“Recutting before intercourse is traditionally undertaken by the husband or one of his female relatives using a sharp knife or a piece of glass,” according to World Health Organization information about Type III. “Modern couples may seek the assistance of a trained health professional, although this is done in secrecy, possibly because it might undermine the social image of the man’s virility.”

In an excerpt Desert Flower, Dirie, gives vivid details of her FGM ordeal: “Mama tied a blindfold over my eyes. The next thing I felt my flesh was being cut away. I heard the blade sawing back and forth through my skin. The pain between my legs was so intense I wished I would die…When the ties that bound me were removed from my legs; I was able to look at myself for the first time. I discovered a patch of skin completely smooth except for a scar down the middle like a zipper. And that zipper was definitely closed. My genitals were sealed up like a brick wall that no man would be able to penetrate until my wedding night, when my husband would either cut me open with a knife or force his way in.”

In Africa, about three million girls are at risk for FGM annually.

Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan – women who have undergone FGM were significantly more likely than others to have adverse obstetric outcomes such as Caesarean sections, post-partum hemorrhaging, prolonged labor, resuscitation of the infant and low birth weight, and in-patient prenatal deaths.

Customs vs life – a custom designed to keep women faithful! Read these articles… Would love some feedback…