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Cruelty or Culture? | Beauty Standards | Female Objectification | Child Abuse Force Feeding : The practice of feeding humans or animals against their will. Leblouh : The practice of force-feeding girls from as young as five to nineteen, in countries where obesity is traditionally regarded as desirable. INTRODUCTION Beauty has and always will be an objective phenomenon. Of course at least to many this objectivity is in relation to a scale of individuality hence the phrase " beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder [singular] ". However to some communities in Africa and elsewhere in the world, the idea of beauty has been capped collectively. There are certain beauty standards set out for people, specifically girls and women, to attain not for their own benefit but for the outrageous idea of alluding to the likes and interests of men. Force Feeding is just one out a couple known methods adopted by such communities to ensure that girls and women are able to secure these pre-established beauty attributes. The term 'force feeding' is synonymous to 'gavage' which comes from the French word for the force feeding of geese to produce foie gras. WHEN AND WHERE The practice of force feeding traces its roots back to the 11th century. It derives itself from the Arabic nomads who associated obesity with wealth. These nomads were lighter skin and when the women got married to rich men they were expected to do nothing and let the black/ darker skin slaves or workers do all the work. Thus, to get the wives to not do any work they were made to become big which was rationalized to restrict their mobility or eagerness to move and work. Continuing on, it was adapted during the slave trade. Slaves were force fed to keep them from starving themselves as a suicide method, as well as (in women) to ensure they looked good and could rack up high bids as and when they were being sold off. It was and is currently being practiced in Mauritania, parts of Mali, rural Niger, Nigeria's Calabar state and the northern part of Cameroon. Of course these are just the known places with very high concentrations of this practice. There are definitely other smaller unaccounted for communities who are faced with and are practicing the act all over Africa and around the world. THE DETAILS Force feeding is almost like a ritual. It has a number of overlapping attributes with rituals such as the fact that it occurs during specific seasons usually at dedicated camp sites, it has people who actually preside over the practice-- yes, it is actually someone's full time job to force girls to eat-- it has traces of torture especially when the girls reject the food and it is not exactly free (families have to sometimes forgo one of their meals a day to provide enough food for their girls to meet the daily feeding goal). During the school holidays (when the girls are free) and the rainy season (when milk is abundant), girls are taken for Leblouh at fattening farms where older women will administer the food-- a breakfast of two kilos of pounded millet, two cups of butter, and 20 liters of camel's milk (sample meal plan for a 6 year old girl). The average goal is to get the girls to consume 9000 to 12,000 calories a day as compared to the average 2000 to 3000 and 1600 to 2400 calories a day prescribed for male adults and female adults respectively by the U.S department of Health. In addition to this the elder women roll sticks on the thighs of the girls to break down tissue in an effort to quicken the process. Of course to get in 9000 calories a day the number of times one eats is going to have to increase from the average three times daily to an average of 6 to 8 times daily. In addition to that, the quantity per each meal is going to have to increase. This practice is so torturous that the girls are forced to swallow huge amounts of food even after they have clearly passed their limit. It goes to the extent of the matrons forcing the girls to drink their own vomit, should they reject the food, or pushing them to force-vomit a bit to create more space because they have to hit the calories bound and resources are scarce in these communities so there is no room nor acceptance for wastage. RATIONALE: FED-to-WED The idea, simply put, is to prepare the girls for marriage. To these families, who are relatively poor, a married daughter means one less mouth to feed. In an interview, when a Mauritanian mother was asked what her best wishes for her daughter were she replied and said "to be fat, to get married and to have a family". When the daughter of this mother was interviewed, separately, she said becoming fat was the only way to become beautiful and that she didn't regard herself as beautiful the way she was before force feeding. The whole situation is a vicious cycle of a girl being force fed to become "beautiful" and worthy of a suitor and that girl becoming a mother and raising her child with the same doctrines. It is said that in Mauritania, in particular, "a woman's size indicates the amount of space she occupies in her husbands heart". A man was interviewed in Mauritania, again, and was asked what he thought about force feeding and he opined that it was very important and showed men that a woman was potent and would be enjoyable during sex. A father was asked why he was putting his 6 year old daughter through the practice, he replied and said that because size constitutes to wealth he wanted his daughter to blend in with the other girls, as in, he didn't want it to be noticeable that she was coming from a poor family so as to open her chances of finding marriage. In essence, the rationals are: - Fatness or excess weight is equatable to wealth. - Fatness or excess weight is equatable to beauty. - Fatness or excess weight makes the girls look older as if they have reached puberty which attracts men for marriage. - Fatness or excess weight directly speaks to a woman's potency in bed. THE EFFECTS There are clearly many effects of this act. Not only is it simply detrimental to the health of these girls, it has numerous psychological effects which many do not wish to address. Health-wise, force feeding makes these girls 30 to 70 percent more susceptible to sicknesses including but not limited to diabetes, heart diseases including heart failure, other organ failures including kidney failure, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity (which is not even regarded as a sickness by them), dyslipidemia, poor respiratory system, some cancers, stroke, immobility, blindness and infertility. Of course they fail to regard this although one woman in particular attested to the fact that they had been educated on the effects. Eza, a Mauritanian woman who felt pressure from the society to gain more weight to find a husband, took to a bizarre route and ingested a steroid meant for animals to facilitate and hasten her fattening process. This action caused her skin to turn black from the inside. She bloated up like a ball and passed away the next day. Turns out Eza had not responded as quickly to the fattening process as other girls which is to be expected since we all have different bodies and metabolisms. Leblouh causes lack of self confidence, eating disorders, drug abuse, female objectification, suicide, among others. CRUELTY OR CULTURE? Deciphering between whether or not force feeding girls is cruelty or culture can be hard when we are trying to respect the sovereignty of communities and cultures. However anything that obstructs the personal development of people, negatively impacts their health, inflicts torture, rids them of experiencing their growth process, camps them in insane conditions among others is cruel. Boundaries must be set and all humans should be able to access and experience basic human rights instead of having their lives cooked up for them. We respect cultures and indigenous systems and practices but not when it impedes on the positive progression of its people.

A Series THE QUESTION To what extent does ones belief in indigenous and religious knowledge systems act as a justification for violating moral codes? SERIES DESCRIPTION 'Cruelty or Culture' is a series that seeks to analyze highlight certain cultures, practices and beliefs that are to an extent contradictory with the general sense of morality. It questions whether or not indigenous and religious knowledge systems should justify acts that go against our [the world's] moral codes. THEORY OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM Cultural relativism refers to the idea of viewing one’s cultural beliefs and norms from that cultures own context or perspective. It is the idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture, and not be judged against the criteria of another. UNIVERSAL MORAL CODE? HOW? Can there ever be a common ground when it comes to morality? To a great extent most of us can agree that murder and killing is wrong no matter the reason. But do you know killing is sometimes honorable and praise-worthy in certain cultures? Even with a matter as beyond-the-bounds as murder there is more than one school of thought on whether or not it is wrong. This begs the question can we ever reach a point, where we can all collectively agree on what is right and wrong? Can we establish universal humans rights without infringing on the practice of indigenous cultures and religions? WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE ON CULTURE? CAN WE EVEN DO THIS? The theory of Culture is a very diverse one. People can find culture in anything and most cultures today, come from decades and centuries worth of practice. Cultures are formed through food, clothing, dance, music, ethics, and the general sense of living and how people go about it among others. Also true is the fact that the world is ever evolving. Due to development and technical advancements, there are a lot of things we do not regard or practice now. These progressions have also affected cultures to an extent. There are somethings that were once considered culture but are no more practiced anymore. CULTURE OR CONVENIENCE? Historians and anthropologists have long agreed that certain things considered culture now, were only practiced in the past for convenience sake. Eating with ones hands is a great example. At some point in time we were all eating with our hands because of the lack cutlery. Now with the introduction of cutlery some cultures still resort to eating with their hands. Of course this is a minuscule matter. But the concept is true for a lot of other things. Some practices back then were only in use because of the current situation/context but now, even though they are technically not needed, they still exist due to the notion of 'culture'. ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM Argumentum ad populum is a fallacious argument that concludes that a proposition must be true because many or most people believe it, often concisely encapsulated as: "If many believe so, it is so." It is often used to endorse certain morally ambiguous beliefs such as honor killing, female infanticide, force feeding, female genital mutilation etc. UTILITARIANISM - The doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of the majority. FAITH vs. REASON - Faith is believing without seeing. It is having an unwarranted conviction in something. - Reasoning is the process of thinking about something in a logical way in order to form a conclusion or judgement. (Merriam-Webster Online) 1. Deductive reasoning is a logical process in which a conclusion is based on the concordance of multiple premises that are generally assumed to be true. 2. Inductive reasoning is a logical process in which multiple premises, all believed true or found true most of the time, are combined to obtain a specific conclusion. AUTHORITY WORSHIP Authority worship is the process of blindly accepting 'facts' from those in authority as truth without thinking about it. SUBSIDIARY QUESTIONS 1. How do we, as a world, establish a universal set of moral codes while still honoring and respecting the sovereignty of our different and diverse cultures? 2. What elements of universal significance may we discern in indigenous knowledge systems? 3. Do systems like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights superimpose the beliefs of cultural and religious communities? And to what extent? 4. Should indigenous knowledge systems be respected above more universal knowledge systems such as the Natural Sciences? 5. To what extent are our actions based on what we actually feel is right as compared to what we feel we just need to do?

Rwanda | Civil War | Genocide | New National Identity INTRODUCTION It is fair to say that when we think of Rwanda, especially if you have had the opportunity to be informed by its current economic climate, we think “Regeneration”. East Africa just like other regions in Africa is blessed with unique cultures and countries. Among such countries, Rwanda can be found. It is bordered by the countries, DR Congo, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. On 25th September 1962, Rwanda was officially a republic of its own after being colonised by the German and Belgium Empire. HUTUS AND TUTSIS Although the genocide of 1994 is a major unfortunate event people associate with bloody happenings that took place in Rwanda, before such, the Tutsi’s and Hutus already had an earlier slaughter that was said to kill about 120,000 Hutus. As with many ethnic rivalries, we would normally expect an intangible indifference to be the cause. However, the issue between both ethnic groups was class. Tutsis were perceived to be of a high status as they predominantly reared cattle which was seen as highly lucrative back then and were led by monarchies whiles Hutus were seen as the lesser due to agricultural farming. It is said that the place of settlement by both groups was originally occupied by Hutus before the Tutsi’s arrived. Conflict was a rare site until colonizers arrived, making the Tutsis leaders over the Hutus due to their already present chieftaincy. Colonizers made a divide between these two groups who were actually very similar in terms of origin. This is where the outrage is believed to have begun. Hutus acted out from this demeaning divide and Tutsis acted back. Hence, this continued for many decades. THE GENOCIDE In 1994 between April and July, the grand massacre that saw the fall of Rwanda occurred. It had a momentous effect and frankly shaped Rwanda into who they are today. The main events of this unfortunate happenings began on the night of 6th April 1994 when the then president of Rwanda, President Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi were shot dead whiles on a plane that flew across the capital of Rwanda, Kigali (they were both Hutus). Needless to say, there was already a brewing pot of intense hate between the Hutus and Tutsis long before this attack. The Hutus and Tutsis are two ethnic groups in Rwanda. Hutus are the majority of Rwandan’s, making Tutsis the minority. Back about 50 years from the genocide, the Hutus forcibly removed the Tutsi monarchy from its thrown. This resulted in the flee of the Tutsi group into neighbouring countries. Some exiles then established the RPF- Rwandan Patriotic Front and played a major role in the killings during the genocide. The death of the President was said to be an action carried out by the Tutsi’s. This eventually led to fighting among the two clans with the Tutsis taking a huge force of the blows. Within 100 days, about 800,000 people died. A vast percentage of people who died were the Tutsis. Neighbours killed each other and even families. Many fled to Congo and were even followed and killed. This raised the death toll to about five million in 2003 despite the genocide having ended on 4th July 1994. The United Nations and countries such as France, did little to nothing to break up these serious divisions and killings. Eventually, the RPF and Ugandan army gradually took hold of the territory causing the extremists and killers to run off to Rwanda’s neighbouring countries in fear of revenge of their hateful crimes. The army marched into the capital and 4th July marked the end of the consistent war. However, the detrimental effects of the genocide have impeded the emotional well-being of citizens and it is alleged that bodies are still being found till this day. CURRENT RWANDA Rwanda is definitely not perfect. As with all other countries it has some flaws. That is not to say that it isn’t a model country. According to the worldbank.org the intentional homicides per 100,000 in 2015 was 2.57 compared to countries like the United States where it is about 5.4 The current population is just over 12.9 million according to worldometers.info- this should put into perspective the gravity of the number of people killed during the genocide, especially as the population was much lower then. Rwanda is ranked as the 48th least corrupt country in the world. Currently the life expectancy is 69 which might not seem impressive but that is a huge stretch from what it was about 27 years ago where the average Rwandan had a life expectancy of 28 years It is in the top ten fastest growing nations in the world at 9.4% of annual GDP growth compared to China’s 6.1%. Paul Kagame, a three-term president is an ex-militia, and the country is seen to be run as an authoritarian state with democracy on a low. As a result, there are restrictions on speech, such as talking about ethnicities, assembly and limitations on freedom. Many have concerns about the decline in human rights due to the limitations. However, with hate still lingering between these rebel groups, some might say that the restrictions are justified. Rwanda’s airline is government owned and flies around Africa and to some major destinations abroad of the African continent. Every citizen has a duty to take part in a community clean-up held on the last Saturday of every month called the 'Umuganda'. Kigali is said to be the cleanest city in Africa. According to the WORLD BANK Data Catalog, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically motivated violence, including terrorism. Rwanda is at the 48th percentile, which is not a percentage to really boast about, but this is a lot higher than the average of the 31st percentile in sub-Saharan Africa. TOURIST ATTRACTIONS Volcanoes National Park- There is no doubt that when you want a good safari or wild-life experience, Africa is the place to be. Tourists tend to go gorilla trekking when in Rwanda. These primates are spread throughout Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. King’s Palace Museum- Another culture rich setting. The Kings Palace Museum is home to beautiful huts formerly occupied by the monarchy and the infamous long-horned Inyambo cattle adorned in traditional jewellery. Kigali Genocide Memorial- The remains of many genocide casualties are kept here. It also provides tourists with information on Rwanda pre-genocide. This facility serves as an educational tool to the public. STANDING OVATION All in all, Rwanda, is a country we can all learn something from. The key word for their drive would be “Resilience”. Obviously like many other countries around the world, and as a developing nation, it still has quite a journey to make to get to a point where the mountain peaks are visible. Considering that this country is actually quite small and as at the time of the genocide, had an even smaller population, it is fulfilling to learn about their journey to sustenance and how their current stance as an economy sets an example for the rest of Africa and beyond. Just like Germany, that has come extremely far and become one of the World’s super- powers from major wars and series of economic downturns, Rwanda is the great African example. The genocide began as a result of the actions of Africans. However, the conflict was also brought to an end by neighbouring country Uganda, and Rwandans themselves. This speaks to our spirit of community and the notion of being our brother's keepers. There is power in unity and the story of Rwanda is a prime example of how working together under the same faith goes a long way to facilitate growth and development. The story of Rwanda shows the power Africans harness and our ability to be great independently and without western influence. It's okay to receive help but the problem is when we start to depend on the external aid and support as if we can't do without. Well, we can, and as discussed in our mindset blog it all starts from transforming our mindsets from a spirit of singularity to a spirit of collaboration. And realizing that a win for one is a win for all. We hope you've been inspired by Rwanda and have learnt a couple of lessons from this perspective of their story. Like we said in our core values and our The Initiative blog, we seek to tell the African story from a rather passion-filled lens. So instead of majoring on the negatives we major on the positives while still acknowledging the negatives to educate people on the causes and effects of certain actions and also to show the growth and development certain people, communities, and countries have gone through to get to where they are. Entered and Authored by Nadia Kusi-Appiah for The Initiative Africa List of Sources: https://www.vox.com/2014/4/10/5590646/rwandan-genocide-anniversary https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/rwanda/overview#3 https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/political-stability-and-absence-violenceterrorism-estimate https://africabuzzfeed.com/top-10-cleanest-cities-in-africa-2020/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26875506 https://www.thoughtco.com/location-of-conflict-tutsis-and-hutus-3554918#:~:text=The%20Tutsis%20are%20thought%20to,power%20by%20force%20in%20Rwanda

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