Tenacity to Purpose

Welcome to our last instalment of the Through the Eyes of Men series! I trust that it has been just as exciting and eye opening for you as it has for me. Over the past three weeks we got the opportunity to ask three men, from three different backgrounds, of different ages and cultures, what their view of women is. We also got a chance to find out how they would go about changing the increased violence against women and children. Today I will be weighing up on some of the things that they shared, picking out themes and giving my two cents on the topic at hand. When the idea for this series came, I had no idea what narratives would come out. What has been evident though is that everything is indeed a story. Nothing changes or happens overnight. There’s always a seed that’s planted, and then from that comes a journey that will bring about an end product. The fact that there is a 30 year age gap between my Dad, Dany and Zakes, showed me how the mindset of society can really transform ...

We've made it to week three of our wonderful series, and I don't know about you but I've already gained so much insight from the last two blogs, and this one is about to shed even more light. Next week I'll be giving a summary and commentary of the series as a whole. But for today we have Zakes on the blog. He is a great friend of mine, let's see what riches his narrative has for us. Q 1: What did the people around you while you were young (father, mother, friends, teachers), teach you about what a woman is and how a man is to treat a woman? Zakes: I grew up in a house where my father would get drunk over the weekends, and he’d come home and beat my mom up. I used to sit in my room as a child and pray that he wouldn’t come home drunk, and if he was already drunk I prayed that he wouldn’t come back home. Being in that situation made me believe in God, I prayed to Him constantly. Growing up in a house where abuse on a woman was frequent I learnt that a woman is...

We're back with part two of our new series!!! If you haven't checked out last week's blog, go back to that one so that you can be clued up on what this series is about. Today we have my good friend Dany Matangwa. Let's take a look into his insights on the topic at hand.  Q1: What did the people around you while you were young (father, mother, friends, teachers for example), teach you (verbally) about what a woman is, and how a man is to treat a woman? DM: Honestly, I don't remember a time when someone sat me down to teach me anything about women. Looking at the way my community interacted with women, though--especially those who weren't old enough to be their mothers--I could always sense a feeling of superiority coming from men. We were raised to think ourselves superior and more valuable. Q2: Was what was taught to you (verbally) what you saw being modelled? DM: I wasn't told much about women except the fact that I was superior, and that f...