Yesterday Bulwayo24 published a story, which created some controversy on their site and some social networks. The article, Why it is risky to marry a Shona woman like Sheila Mutsenhu, was removed from the site after some few hours. I never got to read the article myself, though I wish I had. Here is a comment which was posted on the Bulawayo24 website by someone who had read the article.

I would like to complain about the tribalist hate speech that was published in the following article.

Why it is risky to marry a Shona woman like Sheila Mutsenhu (Article removed)

The author of this article chooses to parade his prejudices and ignorance and expose his own virulent tribalism rather than offer any meaningful discourse. Any responsible editor should not have allowed him a platform to air such irresponsible nonsense, or would have at the very least solicited counterpoints.

For the record women stripping in protest is not even part of Shona culture. Nor is it unique to Sheila Mutsenhu. I have witnessed several examples of it here in South Africa at service protests. Maybe the editor of Bulawayo 24 should look at the website (teealimodels.wordpress.com) or even this one (huffingtonpost.com) against the speaker of the United States congress.

Please understand that I am not advocating naked protest, but I am merely seeking to point out that Ryton Dzimiri’s views have absolutely nothing to do with his dislike for naked protest but everything to do with his tribal prejudices against the Shona. Naked protest has been happening all along including streaking at sporting matches but we have never heard even a whimper of protest from him.

The choice to make Bulawayo24 a site for the airing of tribalist hogwash is their editor’s choice. However they should not complain if others start making similar tribalist claims against one of their favoured tribes whichever that is.

Believe me such tribalist judgemental and prejudiced opinions do exist against all tribes in Zimbabwe. It is out of responsible consideration for others, that we often correct those who hold them.

Yours sincerely
Jupiter Punungwerecovery efforts.

This entry was posted on January 29th, 2013 at 10:18 am by Elizabeth Nyamuda and is filed under Activism, Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.