I miss the old narratives of how naïve and shy
girls reacted when approached by men back in the day. There wasn’t a limit to
the things those girls couldn’t do; draw a map of Africa with their toes, pluck
and nib leaves and twigs, as she got wowed by a man’s lyrical prowess. Those days
before feminists invaded our good old African realism. And those shy men who
way laid ladies after dusk when they were heading back home from the river.
Girls then were not supposed to look at a man in
the eye. She could be easily branded a slut, and a girl without respect for the
men. When a man talked to a girl she looked away, concentrating her eyes on
things such as drawing and plucking twigs.