Who is afraid of the flesh of Black women? Let Black women breathe!
Upon logging onto social media for my daily dose (time-bound) of current events, I noticed that popular Nigerian singer Tems was trending for her 30th birthday bikini shot. As usual, the majority of posts I saw were dominated by various racist ideas cloaked in conservative Christian and cultural ignorance.
When people claim that feminism or the display of flesh is a colonial import and an act of cultural imperialism, I question how much they know about their history. Additionally, when they assert that female artists perform lewd songs, I wonder if they are aware of the Oke Ibadan women who sang sexually themed songs for days. Along the same lines many do not know that some of the songs of the Abeokuta Women's Union, led by Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, against taxation, have what conservatives today will call vulgarity.
After many weeks of painstaking labor at the Kenneth Dike Library last summer, I found the exercise book containing over 200 songs of the women and the content, which i am still trying to make sense of. In song 16, they derided the king, that is, the Alake, cynically, “Ademola, your male organ is not functional, like the size of a cat.” In song 56, the women adopted figurative language to make the point, “Idowu, you are using your penis to claim that you are our husband; today, we use the vagina to act as your husband.” In Song 34, “It is from the head of the vagina that you males are born.” Thus, if these examples reveal anything, sexualized bodies and dances are not foreign to African women's practices
Many people have read about the women’s war of 1929, which is often mislabeled as the Aba women's riot, but very few are aware of the Nwaobiala movement or the dancing women and their manifesto that preceded the war. The demands of these women include nudity for girls until they have their first child, adultery to be permitted for older women, a reduction in the price of prostitution, sex workers not being able to charge above a certain amount, and many more.
They proposed that girls wear less clothing because they believe that when girls are dressed, it creates a generational imbalance between older and younger women. They perceived younger women, who acquired these clothes through missionary or sexual service, as a hindrance to the cosmological balance of their world. They argued that obsession with younger bodies led to sexual starvation of older ones who, when caught in adultery, were made to pay giant fees to corrupt native courts. Their recommendation regarding prostitution stemmed from the fact that men spend money on prostitutes, which affected their ability to pay taxes, forcing their wives to make up the difference to prevent their husbands from being jailed.
From the attack on women who revere their bodies, i am inclined to ask, when do Black women get to enjoy their bodies and sexuality? Throughout history, our bodies have always been used in ways that violate us, from the Middle Passage to the libidinal economy of slavery, plantation, forced sterilization, policing, and sexual and reproductive injustice. From dress code policy to sexual harassment and other indignities, when can Black women have pleasure in their sex, sexuality, and sensuality without the policing gaze of those who see our bodies only through heteropatriarchal and heteronormative lenses?
Importantly, from Tiwa Savage, Teni, Niniola, Tems, and Arya to Temmie Ovawsa, why are women and queer artists, celebrities, and influencers taking to undressing and moaning?
Is there a specific ideological strategy behind this?
Find out in my ongoing second PhD dissertation titled “The Lyric Is Male: Gender, Sexuality, and the Queering of African Soundscape.”
