Kneo Mokgopa - Manager: Communications & Advocacy
News
Content notice: Graphic description of acts of gender-based violence
“You want to understand how power works in any society, watch who is carrying the shame and who is doing the shaming.”
Shailja Patel
Growing up, I was taught all kinds of myths about Black women. I was taught, on the playground, in Disney films and from the
Generations soapie that women are delicate things, that women are unambitious and are happiest waiting for men. That Black women who worked were lesser women who could not attract a man. I was taught that women were bad, that Eve created sin, that when women menstruate, their presence rots the meat, curds the milk and curses the people she may be around. That, when women masturbate, birds come to the windowsill to whistle “Lovin’ You” by Minnie Riperton. That girls have cooties. That the pursuit of women will bring you nothing but misery. Through the legend of virginity, I was taught that o
Then I can’t explain how, caught in that bubble of accusation, you get exhausted explaining the same story over and over and over and over, to all and sundry.
But stay sober, stay strong, and do screenshots of all the s they throw your way. Coz, one day, they’ll pay!
2. Beat them to the authorities
Patel and her friend spent the Monday after the alleged incident setting up #hashtags to make sure I trend negatively.
Tuesday they were on Star newspaper, Wednesday and getting their NGO and CKW gang to put pressure on ‘#FireMochama.’ Thursday they went on Larry Madowo’s ‘The Trend,’ then the top rated show in the country to defame me to millions of Kenyans, and avoided the police, with Patel calling them ‘rapists.’