I wish to dedicate this article to Zambia’s star of the moment, Lukundo Nalungwe the new Mnet Face of Africa winner and state that as a Zambian woman, I am very proud of her and her achievement.  Lukundo joins the growing list of Zambian men and women bringing honour to our beloved country Zambia, in different ways.  I also wish to salute the organizers of the competition for ensuring that the girls were not paraded on the cat walk in swim suits but were decently dressed throughout the show.  I did not watch the actual show but watched the edited version and  the organizers did show the girls in swim wear but they were at the beach and that did not raise any eye brows.  If I had seen them in office suits at the beach, I would have been perplexed.

The point I am making here, is that every place has its own suitable attire.  If you go a beach or swimming pool, you expect to find people in swim suits.  If you go to the gym, you will find even Chief Executive Officers dressed in work-out clothes, if you go the Reed Dance ceremony in Swaziland you will find topless women and partially dressed men, if you go to a disco you will find minis and evening wear, if you go for dinner or an evening wedding guests will be clad in evening wear.  Two weeks ago America hosted the Grammy Awards and stars went in a myriad of outfits and the media and public may have been surprised at some of the outfits but were not shocked because they expected such outfits.  The media in developed countries actually is in the forefront when it comes to condemning stars for indecent exposure.

For a long time now, Zambians and non-Zambians have debated the dressing in Zambia, especially that of our women folk.  The debate has been more intensive, in Lusaka, the past two weeks, where the question of the media printing what can be described as indecent pictures has also been discussed and debated.  I wrote about the subject under this column two weeks ago and received a number of interesting comments.  Some of the readers and callers have condemned people who dress indecently and one reader even stated that the photographers should not be blamed because their duty is to expose things that happen in our society and inform the nation.

Others have condemned photo journalists and the newspapers themselves for publishing such photographs without even condemning the dressing.  A few of the friends I spoke with confessed that they were very careful about allowing their children to see the newspapers if there were any revealing photographs and so when they buy the newspapers, they first quickly check, as parents, to ensure that all the pictures are suitable for their younger children to see.
I was shocked to hear a caller to a radio phone-in programme defend the photo journalists and the newspapers for publishing photographs of women in various states of undress arguing that there was nothing wrong with the dressing and that those condemning the dressing and the printing of the photographs were old-fashioned.  The man even referred to traditional ceremonies and traditional dances, saying that the dressing at these ceremonies was even worse than what is usually portrayed in the papers and that Zambian traditional dances were meant to stimulate people sexually.
Now, this is where we get it all wrong as Zambians and get mixed up.  We confuse tradition and modernization.  We confuse the embracing of our cultural values and moving with the times.  We get so confused that we end up losing our identity, losing direction and misguiding our children.  We seem to have forgotten too that traditional ceremonies such as initiation ceremonies were a preserve just for the initiated.  Twenty years ago, when one went to kitchen party, they did not find single girls.  Today, we seen to have revolutionalised and commercialized everything.  You find young girls at kitchen parties and even find men posing as photographers or entertainers.  Traditional ceremonies such as initiation ceremonies are private and should be treated as such.  What business does a photo journalist have taking pictures at a private traditional ceremony?

I wish to pose a question to all those who think that the role of the media is to splash pictures of whatever they see, wherever they go, in the paper for the whole world to see.  Developed countries have strip tease clubs where women dance before an audience and strip all their clothes off and pictures of these strippers are taken but sent to particular audiences.  Would it be ethical for a newspaper journalist in a developed country to print photos of these strippers in a national newspaper?  There is more indecent exposure in developed countries than most people can ever imagine.  Those who want to see such indecency know exactly where to go to see it or what movies to watch or what magazines to buy.  Those who buy and read Playboy know exactly what they are looking for and the publishers also know what audience they are targeting.  Can you image how embarrassed we could have been getting in our homes, if Multichoice, for instance, did not give us guidance in terms of recommended lower age limit for the movies they screen and a summary of the story?  Can you imagine sitting and watching a movie with your children or in-laws and without warning the scene changes to an intimate romantic one?
The challenge our photo journalists and newspapers seem to have is that they follow these disco lovers out to their joints, lay in wait for  a moment when the poor girl’s dress shifts because of her posture, and reveals underwear, that is the moment they capture and their subject is probably not even aware that a photograph has been taken.  The photograph is then sent (or sold) to a newspaper and the editor, who should on professional and ethical grounds, really throw this picture into the face of the photo journalist, instead gladly publishes it.  We, as the general public, should keep talking about this issue until we see a stop to it.  What the papers should probably introduce on the front page of their newspapers, is an age restriction sign so that readers who do not enjoy seeing such pictures know when to avoid buying the newspaper or when not to allow their children to read.

To say that we will talk until people change their manner of dress is like fishing in the ocean.  There are almost twelve million Zambians each with a different personality and style and it is a fantasy to think that you can make everyone dress decently.  To begin with dressing is a personal issue and depends on a person’s personality, behavior and beliefs.  Even at household level it is difficult to control the way children (and some adults) dress.  When I was growing up, our parents bought us clothes and we were grateful and delighted when they did and showed off our new wear by putting the clothes on.  You can only buy clothes for today’s child from the time they are born until they are about twelve years old.  When they enter the teens they have a new identity and they want to buy their own clothes.  Most parents of teenagers today have no idea what sorts of clothes are in their children’s wardrobes.  A child may leave home seemingly decently dressed but will wear underneath, a carry in a bag, another outfit suitable for his or her age group.  To buy an outfit for today’s child, the child must either accompany you or give you specific details about the outfit. For the boys, it is the sagging of pairs of trousers that really drives most parents up the wall.  We were discussing the subject with some friends last week and one of them gave us some interesting history about sagging.  He explained that, in most prisons, prisoners are not allowed to wear belts.  A particular prisoner in America had an oversized pair of trousers and each time he had to bend to lift something, his pair of trousers would dangle down, revealing his boxers.  Because he had a lot of work to do he got fed up of pulling his pair of trousers up each time and chose to leave it hanging until his chore was over.  A visiting teenager, saw the prisoner’s hanging pair of trousers and also noticed that a number of other prisoners trousers were sagging and thought it was fashionable hence the sagging culture started.

Let us preserve our rich culture by depicting people in outfits that tell the story about who we are.  Together We Can!