I Am So Proud My Ancestors Walked Around Naked—Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye

To ensure that generations to come also obliterate the memory of the naked ancestor these puritan Africans make certain that no week goes by without an article in the newspaper about the evil of young women who under-dress. Ironically, they blame the young girls’ under-dressing on modernisation and imitation of the West. Most, either in ignorance or sheer stupidity, request for a return to African values where women dressed decently and uprightly! Well, hate it as much as you like, let the truth be told: Traditional African women were either downright naked or scantily clad. So for those who want a return to traditional ways for women, that is exactly what the young girls they vilify are doing!

For their nakedness, I am so proud of our ancestors because they proved in their nudity what ten thousand pieces of clothing cannot do; that immorality is not based on what you have on the outside but what you have on the inside. That the nakedness of a woman is no reason for a man to rape, defile or assault a woman, but instead the values he places on himself and community as a whole. Hence my ancestors walked around naked, men and women, but had almost zero level of rape and assault on women, yet today, with all the clothing, many men have no control over their sexual behaviour, even those from the Western hemisphere, who for hundreds of years have continued to denigrate our ancestors. My ancestor did not assault or rape women, although they were naked or scantily clad, because he held himself in extremely high esteem. Rape was beneath him. My ancestors knew to educate men that a woman who is not theirs in marriage can NEVER be defiled. My ancestors knew to place the highest punishment allowed in the land on a man who transgressed this law. My ancestors knew not to further victimise the woman raped by asking what she was wearing, but to tackle the man that had broken faith by defiling the land. My ancestors knew that the pride of a man is not money, as is believed today, but in how he conducts himself and controls his sexuality even in the face of temptation. My ancestors knew that moral decay sets in when power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of a few and so my ancestors knew to distribute wealth relatively evenly to check the kind of poverty and wealth that leads to decadence. My ancestors knew all this and by knowing this, kept their women and communities safe, and someone wants me to be ashamed of them? By the way, my ancestors also knew we are living in a hot country, both men and women, something all the puritans seem to have skipped, and so did not place unfair clothing requirements on one gender, while sparing the other.

By placing emphasis and blame on the dressing of women as the reason for all the sexual ills in the society, the puritans missed the most important lesson they could have learnt from our ancestors’ nakedness; that making excuses for a crime is the fuel for that crime. Many young men in our society today and in the world as a whole, have no sexual restraint because they have been pampered to believe that it is not their responsibility to have and exhibit self-control. Every discussion or article tells them it is the dressing of the girl that is to blame, so once he assaults a girl he can automatically switch the issue from his abominable act to what the girl was wearing and be sure to have a supportive audience. The poor girl already knowing that this will be the situation does not dare report the act, or only does when she is absolutely certain her dressing, motives and whereabouts cannot be questioned. Of course the end result is that the country is full of rapists who have never paid for their crime for even a minute and conscienceless, irresponsible men who make excuses for everything that they do wrong.

I hold my ancestors in pleasant awe. I am so proud that the men amongst them could live with a bevy of naked woman and still find virgins to marry. So when the Jihadists, Missionaries, modern day Westerners and their African clones call my ancestors barbarians, I feel no shame because my ancestors have proved beyond reasonable doubt that they are men of honour, integrity and discipline; heroes by all definition.

The reason Nigeria is becoming morally bankrupt is not because women are scantily dressed; this is actually a by-product of the moral decay. It is because of the rising poverty and the concentration of wealth in very few hands which forces everyone, including women, to service the needs of these few, no matter how depraved. Full clothing or half clothing is not the cause of our moral decadence but societal neglect. As for the menfolk who take advantage of this situation, they are merely making excuses. If the allegation of Gbenga Obasanjo is true, was Gbenga’s wife fully or half clothed when his father took advantage? For those who do not know, prostitutes in the North of Nigeria and other parts of the Arab or Moslem world, sell their ware in Hijab, so dress code does not determine behaviour. Without independent sources of income, young women are being made to depend more and more on their bodies for wealth creation. Many otherwise decent women today cannot afford their school fees and when in school have to cater for their parents and younger ones by prostituting themselves.

A responsible society must look at itself and ask these daunting questions in all honesty to salvage our society from this moral decadence. Therefore, instead of blaming the victim, Nigeria should concentrate on reducing poverty and redistributing wealth more evenly.