Of shameless randy mafisi with leering stares and sexual come-ons

Wednesday morning, around 7:30 a.m. I am on my morning jog along a pedestrian walkway near my home. I am jogging along, minding my own business, when I am startled by the toot of a horn. I look up to take a look at the driver. His head is turned in my direction, as he pulls up next to me.

He yells "Hey sexy" then proceeds to make a barrage of animal noises and some disgusting tongue wagging before laughing and driving off. I feel a wave of righteous anger welling up in me and I want to unleash a string of obscene expletives at the bugger, but he is gone before I get a chance to react. I am absolutely incensed, but I resolve not to let the 'hyena's' impropriety foul up my morning. I jog on.

Up ahead, I notice two men walking towards me. As I get closer, I realize, with horror, that I am the focus of their leering stares and sexual come-ons. I contemplate crossing to the other side of the road, but I quickly abandon that idea because I know, from past experiences, that shrinking away will only build up the mafisi's confidence. I brace myself for the worst and jog on. They wait until I am well within earshot before the sexual banter begins.

"Haka ni size yangu. Ni ka 1GB." One of the men begins. "Eeeh, kwanza mimi napenda tu brownskins" the other one agrees. I desperately want to give them a piece of my mind, but at the same time I don't want to potentially escalate an uncomfortable situation into something truly dangerous. I increase my pace and sprint away, defeated.

Getting hollered at by strangers is a constant occurrence in my life. From toots of car horns, vulgar gestures, inappropriate remarks, whistles and catcalls, I've experienced it all and I would like to debunk the myth that it is all just a bit of harmless fun and that I should take it a a compliment. Street harassment is much more than just a minor irritation. It can get scary and even threatening real fast.

I have confronted catcallers before and one time I almost got beaten up. A man in a group of passersby came up to me such that he was too close for comfort and greeted me with a "sasa mrembo" laden with sexual innuendo. I froze up and didn't say anything. He took my silence for arrogance and became enraged. He accused me of being arrogant and full of myself and vowed to teach me a lesson and grabbed my arm violently. A few guys in the group cheered him on. Luckily, one of them thought he was being ridiculous and convinced him to let it go.

At another incident, I literally had to run for my life when a man descended on me after I flipped him my middle finger for making inappropriate comments about my body. Men need to stop justifying this heinous behaviour by claiming that it is a form of complimenting a woman.

Catcalling has nothing to do with a woman's level of attractiveness. You don't have to be beautiful to be cat called. You don't even have to be mildly attractive. All you have to do is be a woman. It is all a statement of power: They have a right to our bodies and can discuss, appraise and analyse our bodies as they wish. I long for the day that I will be able to go for my morning run without having to hear the dehumanised discussion about parts of my body by the menfolk.