Aside or astride: How should women sit on boda bodas?

BY MAUREEN ODIWUOR

KISUMU, Kenya: 'Bet ang'ewa jochiro odagi' (sitting with legs apart has been refuted in the market place), was a song that every member of the Luo community could relate to. The song used to be sang to females by males or to children by their elder female folk.

This is a song that was common among the Luo community that discouraged female children from sitting with their legs apart.

Those who grew up before our society came to accept women wearing trousers can recall their mothers or aunties rebuking them from sitting with legs apart.

Pamela Atieno says she would receive a painful pinch every time she sat with her legs apart, before being reminded of the proper sitting position of girls.

“I grew up knowing that a decent Luo girl had to sit with legs crossed and not ang'ewa (apart) and this is what I taught my children too,” she says.

While in school, fellow pupils could sing the ‘Bet ang'ewa jochiro odagi’ song to discourage whoever sat with her legs apart.  She says that thanks to this upbringing, she doesn’t feel comfortable when she comes across a woman sitting with her legs apart even when she has trousers on.

“I usually feel the urge to tell her to sit properly, with the ‘bet angewa’ song always lingering in my mind," she says.

The song was revisited last year through a suggestion aired by Kisumu North Ward representative Caroline Owen. Ms Owen’s concern was the manner in which culture was being abused by women sitting on motorcycles with their legs apart. Reactions came from many quarters following the cultural practices suggestion she raised in Kisumu County Assembly.

Shortly after, the Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (FIDA), criticised the proposal to force female passenger riders in Kisumu to sit with their legs side ways as been custom among the Luo community.

The lawyers called on the Kisumu county government to reject the proposal describing it as biased and discriminative.

Women wearing skirts would have been required to sit sideways instead of facing the riders as per the Luo tradition, if the Bill became a by-law.

While discussing the report on culture, Owen said the sitting in the ‘bet ang’ewa’ position portrayed a bad image of the women. She claimed the sitting position was uncultured and deprived women of respect because they ‘expose their bodies to men’.

But it’s not only the African culture that frowns upon women sitting with their legs apart. In Europe during the middle ages or medieval period (5th to 15th centuries) to as recently as the Victorian times (1837-1901) when transport by horseback was the norm, women were required to ride their horses sidesaddle. A special saddle (the leather seat on a horse’s back) was made for women so that they could sit aside rather than astride when riding a horse. It was considered unbecoming for a woman to straddle a horse while riding. Further, long skirts were the usual fashion and riding astride in such attire was often impractical, awkward, and could be "immodest".

However, not all women adopted the sidesaddle at all times. Women such as Diane de Poitiers (mistress to Henry II of France) and Marie Antoinette were known to ride astride.

In the early 20th century, as it became socially acceptable for women to ride astride while wearing split skirts, and eventually trousers, the sidesaddle fell out of general use as women rejected traditional restrictions in their physical activities as well as seeking greater social, political and economic freedoms.

One thing about sidesaddle riding of horses, as is with sitting with legs aside on a motorcycle, is that it is awkward, uncomfortable and potentially more dangerous than sitting with legs apart. In fact, as Victorian writer Rita Mae Brown once stated, "If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle."

Back to motorcyles in 21st Century Africa, Luo Council of Elders Secretary Adera Osawa says the legs apart sitting position was very much discouraged in the traditional Luo Community. He says the main reason for this was the fact that people used to walk lang'lalo (without pants).

“A woman’s nakedness was something that had to be hidden and was not to be seen openly," he discloses. He says to prevent those with bad sitting habits from displaying their nakedness by sitting with legs apart, there was a skirt-like cloth called Anungo.

Osawa who confesses to have been a tailor those days, says he also made a piece of clothing called otama ng’eyo (I can’t understand). He says the type of clothing being put on by women in the contemporary society where they expose their nakedness is what has led to a rise in rape cases.

“Women of today get raped because they show their nakedness. Women should put on clothes that reflect dignity," he says.

But if, like the Victorian women, Luo women dressed modestly in anticipation of their motorcycle ride, would sitting astride a motorcycle then be OK?

According to Osawa, it won’t. He interprets Owen’s concerns as simply discouraging rise of accidents caused by women’s body rubbing themselves on the boda boda cyclists.

“These cyclists are human beings, when women hold their waist while seated with legs apart and rub their bodies against them, they too have feelings that can confuse them on the road,” he explains.

He says if the law is passed it will also help in reducing boda boda accidents.