Let me preface this by saying that anyone who opts to do their own modifications is entering dangerous territory. Dangerous to your health and perhaps the health of others. I do not recommend that anyone do this kind of thing on their own. Get a professional to do your mods for you!
At A Glance Author Baatin Rule Contact Baatin Rule@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Mwanzia Kitula Studio Kwa Mwanzia Location East Africa Two years ago, I yearned for some way to connect to some of the traditions that we as East Africans have lost over the years. In our mad quest to emulate the West, we have ended up abandoning almost all our traditional body modifications. I decided to revolt against this nonsensical approach to living by going for a relatively extreme (for this new East Africa) mod by getting my septum done.
It was pretty difficult to convince Mwanzia to do it, but eventually he gave in. Our traditional mods mainly include circumcision, scarification and extreme ear stretching. A whole lot of the older folks around have lobes reaching down to their shoulders and beyond. Anyways, Paupa New Guinean culture has always appealed to me some, so I went for this. He basically used a sharpened and sanitized (boiled in water and heated over open fire) knitting needle kind of tool and drove it through my septum.
He let it sit there for a few minutes then as he pulled it out, set a ring of wire into the hole. Mwanzia then disinfected it with dettol (like bactine in the US) and I was good to go. It's been a few years now, and when I first came to the US I was able to buy an actual ring for it. I think I like the wire better, because it helps me identify so much more with opressed cultures all over the world. I get stares when in EA, but generally the Maasai's and others make it so we can be who we wanna be when we're in EA. It's mostly when you're in the city that people look at you in a funny way, though they're just unaccustomed to seeing such a piercing. I like the fact that I went through with it, and lately am thinking about doing the much more socially appropriate stretching of my ears.
My hope is that in the coming years, we will be able in EA to accept ourselves for who we are, and not look to the West to define that for us. We have this silly desire (mandate, really) to emulate everything that comes out of there. My question is: at what cost to our heritage and culture do we do this?
Having my septum pierced has allowed for some meaningful conversations concerning our cultural roots. I was features in a small article in a local paper and was kind of put off by the way I was represented. My thinking at the time indicated to me that I would be presented as someone who has gone and done this thing as something of meaning. Instead, the atricle painted me as an antiquated and quaint young person, dislocated in my own society. My septum has lots of meaning for me and I would gladly do it again.
I have been thinking lately about opening a little piercing parlor here in East Africa, but I am unsure of what all it would entail. I am trained as a nurse, so I know the priority is on having a sanitized environment. I think it's be pretty cheap, and it would fit in with my image of how I expect things to shake out. I can't wait for the day when kids here are walking around with all kinds of self-expression on their bodies. As for me, it has worked out well.
I have looked around all over the place to see if anyone does it, but there seems to be nothing like this around. I am a little bit embarrassed that despite our desire to look to Europe and the United States for guidance in how to be, we have yet to open up even little piercing shops. I also intend to put together a little website where the small community of mod Africans and especially East Africans, can meet to commiserate on what we hope to accomplish. I think it's possible to visualize our societies coming to tolerate us or even outright embrace us as the more comfortable versions of the same kids that they know. That just because we may look a little bit different does not make us any less good people.
I have always wondered why we were so willing to accept certain parts of our ways of doing things, but are so unwilling to accomodate others. When we see people here with massive ear lobes, society is willing to let it slide because they are older. Like this was a thing of the past. For some, the past may well define who we are. I know that my experience in my world today is shaped by my own take on the past history of my nation and my peoples. I feel like I will definitely have something to say about modification in my country, and bring us back to where we once were. And all it took was getting my septum pierced by a dude called Mwanzia with a hot knitting needle!