Friday, 4 June 2010

(Wrinkled) Cash For Sex in Kenya


Behind Malindi from Peter Murimi on Vimeo.

fisttap thisisafrica.me

17 comments:

Big Man said...

Why was that dude holding that little girl's hand?

Considering the topic of the piece, that looked a little odd.

And white folks been "sampling" the native flavor since they got out of their countries.

Also, is relaxed hair popular in many parts of Africa? Do you know? I just noticed that several of these women have rexaled hair, or wigs or weaves.

This video is quite sad. I remember my boy was telling me about all the women selling themselvs in Brazil. It was disturbing.

KonWomyn said...

Yea I know BigMan, I was also bugged out by the way he kept holding onto the little girl. There was no explaination in the film, so I figured she was either his adopted kid or his friend/colleague's child who he's fond of so he was carrying her around for the cameras.

There's no sexual or economic relationship between him and the kid. The title still stands bec its abt old/older Europeans paying for sex.

Yes African women weave and relax their hair in most parts of the Continent. In the last ten years there's been a big trend in urban areas towards weaving but braiding (with extensions or own hair into all kinds styles) is still quite big. Wigs, yea for the older generation have always been into those - it comes from their days of youth and those who've travelled abroad and come back with hair, but in my country, they're in the minority whereas in Ghana it might be diff. Young women do wear instant weaves, but they're not that popular.

It's a shame bec she's so pretty and coulda made something of herself. She's a prostitute bec it pays well, she's not been to university so she won't get a high paying job. Still I feel she has options - that money she earns could be a way out for her and her kid.

Its the same thing in South America, Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean - Brown and Black skin have always been objects of sexual desire. It all comes down to KKKapitalism.

CNu said...

Help me understand what's counted as evil here?

Centuries ago, when the Moors brought their knowledge, wealth, and civilization to Europe, and the roles were decidedly reversed - the feudal euro-elites demonized the sybaritic, polygamous, and miscegenating Moors (actually Taurigs) as adherents of the cult of the two-horned god - an entire Inquisition was built on this basis -with all the "evil" that such a thing must pretend to seek and to destroy.

Me, I just see horny humans past their prime and utilizing their cash as a surrogate for actual fitness. Happens e.v.e.r.y. single day across the entire developed world as a given.

Thanks K-Dub for making me aware of beautiful Malindi. Definitely worth checking out for the errr, ah, gelati - yeah - that's it!!! (^;

KonWomyn said...

CNu

You're welcome, never been there myself tho but my Mom has.

Are you suggesting on the assumption that beyond tourist money, these wrinklies actually have something of value to give to this community?

This is the gateway to cultural self-destruction and other more serious issues such as child sex tourism and trafficking - Kenya's already on high alert for paedophiles.

The miscegination of the Moors is to me an earlier narrative of a longstanding obsession with that which is different, only that the Moors had political and physical strength whereas these young men and men are in service to those who hold economic power.

LOL, yea gelato is the bizness! When I lived Italy me and my friend tried out every gelato spot in our town and as many as possible in each place we visited. We heading back there later this year so the ritual will be on again ; )

CNu said...

This is the gateway to cultural self-destruction and other more serious issues such as child sex tourism and trafficking - Kenya's already on high alert for paedophiles.

The miscegination of the Moors is to me an earlier narrative of a longstanding obsession with that which is different, only that the Moors had political and physical strength whereas these young men and men are in service to those who hold economic power.


Money is merely the symbol for the underlying and acknowledged political, physical, and cultural power of the "tourists".

Oh, and don't kid yourself about the Moors in Europe. In their day too, the money was merely the symbol for the underlying, acknowledged, (and by European feudals despised) political, physical, and cultural power of the then dominant "tourists".

Anonymous said...

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Kit (Keep It Trill) said...

Yuck.

I read an article last year where wrinkled white American women were going on sex vacations in the Caribbean and exploiting young black men and boys there.

Ya know, the old using the young in sex for money deals is so degrading and destabilizing to the poor and their families, and the ones with money generally don't care about spreading any diseases they have - and then vice versa when the prostitute gets infected. Kids in the sex trade are really vulnerable and find it nearly impossible to escape.

This is why I hate prostitution, legal or otherwise.

KonWomyn said...

Stronger Lessons

Thank you.

Hey Kit

I feel you, it is gross. Don't care what parallels CNu sees, something aint rite when wrinkled white flesh chases after yung'uns. Yea I saw a documentary abt White British women who go to the Caribbean and they got these young boys they have flings with on their vacays and they stupidly believe their in love.

It does tear up families coz if that little girl grows up to know her mother's a prostitute she's going to be wrecked. I see the legalisation as a form of protection for the women, they have some legal recourse if they get unfairly treated by their pimps or a customer. Banning it would only mean less security for women. Not just the prostitutes either, in countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe where the cops hungry for a bribe will threaten to throw girls out on the town into jail.

If a woman's wearing a mini dress heading into the club and cops are on patrol, she runs the risk of being arrested if she has no i.d. It can be assumed she's loitering, me and my girls have had run-ins with the cops. It doesn't follow that prostitution should be legalised on this basis, but this is one of the effects.

CNu said...

Don't care what parallels CNu sees, something aint rite when wrinkled white flesh chases after yung'uns. Yea I saw a documentary abt White British women who go to the Caribbean and they got these young boys they have flings with on their vacays and they stupidly believe their in love.

K-Dub, don't poke your lip out at CNu because my view of history and economic exchange is clinical wrt sex as a commodity.

So long as children aren't being exploited and the exchanges are consensual, y'all crabby critters can click and clack your claws as much as you like about morality, propriety, psychology, and culture.

At the end of the day, we're talking about one of the oldest and absolutely most universal forms of exchange known and engaged in by you madly and conspicuously appetitive humans...,

KonWomyn said...

LOL, nah iAint mad at you. Just sayin'.

Can consent ever really be true consent in the knowledge that dire situations of poverty and broken homes drive this choice? It's deeper than just two consenting adults.

CNu said...

the knowledge that dire situations of poverty and broken homes drive this choice

Have Kenyan elites, including former colonial elites, played a decisive role in the culturicide which gave rise to the flight to the cities and death of sustainable indigenous culture that put the economically vulnerable in this position in Malindi?

or,

Is being in Malindi by-and-large a discretionary move, much like a moth's flying into a light is a discretionary move?

KonWomyn said...

If discretionary is shorthand for more complex analysis of the situation as described in the 1st question then yes - there are certain push and pull factors. But if discretionary simply refers to the market trends of prostitution, then no, there's more to it.

CNu said...

discretionary in this case means non-compulsory, simple.

if no one in Malindi is compelled to be there, and no one in Malindi is coerced or compelled to the sex trade, then everyone involved is involved on a discretionary and consensual basis, period.

KonWomyn said...

Ahh CNu, but you know that life's circumstances can very well be a coercive force. Malindi may not be a sex trade centre but certain events in one's life (some that one has no control over) lead to this. The majority of sex workers come from single parent or no parent homes. e.g. +-50% of sex workers in the UK are kids who lived in state care. And if Kenya's comparable to the UK or Zim, then it is likely in Kenya some of those young prostitutes are orphaned kids.

Big Man said...

Cnu

You said "if children aren't being exploited..."

Apparently they are. In fact, from what i've seen, anytime you're discussin the sex trade you're discussing the explotation of youth because there is always a rush in the sex trade to get some thing young and seemingly "pristine."

I think it was effed up when the Moors did it and I think it's effed up now. I don't defend actions because they are done by black folks. I'm sickened either way.

I think sex is more than just a physical coupling between consenting adults, and I find it disturbing that these women are laying down with men to make a living.

And yes, working as a sex worker is voluntary. But everything in life, or almost everything, is voluntary. That does not mean we ignore the larger issues that lead to the situation and it definitely doesn't mean we brush stuff off as being voluntary.

At least I don't.

CNu said...

Here's my bottom line...,

If the traditional Kenyan culture was/is viable, it should afford these young people an alternative to commoditization of their pudenda.

If it's not, then shouldn't some critical examination be made of the traditional Kenyan culture which these young people are abandoning in favor of the "life"?

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