6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
6.3.1 Recommendations of the study
Expression of emotions
The tshigombela and malende performers’ laughter and the tears evident during various sessions with the researcher should be encouraged, as these will enable the performers to express their emotions. The women should not be apologetic about expressing these emotions; they should be aware that tears are not a negative expression of emotions, or a weakness, but a strength, and a way by which they can release negative and unhealthy energy.
Composing songs about how to heal from past tragedies
The lyrics that the performers compose are about real life issues, some of which are the women’s personal experiences, or even those that they hear about from the media, such as the rape of infants, young girls, women and old women (age-old pensioners), including femicide. The participants should be encouraged to not only coin protest lyrics against these atrocities in order to educate communities, but they should also go for counselling and open up to professional people about their personal tragedy.
They should also form support groups, through which they are able to share experiences, with the aim of healing. Once they have gone through the process of healing, they should create lyrics about their healing process, in order to empower others.
Lyrics should not use hidden messages
The introduction of Outcome-Based Education (OBE), a system that elevated English at the expense of African languages, has resulted in the youth being unable to understand and speak their own African languages. Therefore, the youth do not comprehend the hidden messages in lyrics, proverbs, idioms and innuendos. Therefore, the performers should compose lyrics that are clear and straight-forward.
Challenges emanating from children’s rights
The performers are perturbed by the fact that they can no longer raise their children according to their culture, as the government has taken over control. In response to fact that the issue of children’s rights is a thorny one for parents raising teenagers, particularly in the Vhembe region, the District Municipality should conduct road-shows and educate communities on children’s rights. In fact, the government should go back to the drawing board and consult parents about issues and policies on children in order to make effective what people believe to be ‘the government for the people by the people’. The government should not take decisions on behalf of children, without having consulted the parents, and the adult section of the community. Therefore, policies on abortion, the age of consent in as far as sex is concerned, should be revisited with proper consultation. Among rural communities, parents find these policies appalling, because according to Tshivenda culture, children are not encouraged to engage in sexual activity, hence they would not even be considering abortion.
Decisions should not be taken on behalf of illiterate people, as being illiterate does not necessarily imply that people do not have the ability to exercise their reasoning capacity.
Both the youth and their parents should be educated on these rights, and made aware of the fact that these rights go hand-in-hand with responsibilities.
Once rural communities of Vhembe have been properly consulted, the tshigombela and malende participants should create lyrics on the principles in which children’s rights are to operate, in order to educate communities on the correct implementation of these rights.
In order to address the issue of unemployment for the tshigombela and malende performers, the municipality should employ them during the road-shows, so that they can educate other communities in Vhembe through songs.
Applying old African principles for preventing teenage pregnancy
In order to curb the high rate of teenage pregnancies, the Tshivenda principles which were employed in the past which taught young girls how to prevent pregnancy, should be revisited.
The tshigombela and malende participants should compose lyrics to educate the youth about these practices which enabled girls not to engage in sex until they were married. Lyrics to the same effect will also reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS infections.
Parents should exercise their parental responsibilities
Simply coining lyrics about delinquent children, and not doing anything to remedy the situation does not benefit communities, the situation has not improved, from observation, and statistics, regarding school dropouts, teenage pregnancy, violent crimes such as rape of infants, girls, women, old-age pensioners. Moreover, schools are plagued by increased students’ delinquency, which has fueled drug abuse and bullying.
Therefore, the pathetic state of affairs which prevails in African communities, including villages in Vhembe, should be addressed, and parents should exercise their own parental responsibilities and stop blaming the government for the state in which their relationship with their children finds itself. Parents should exercise their parental responsibilities such as exercising disciplinary measures on their children. They should ensure that their children’s lives are orderly, by employing other disciplinary measures, other than physical punishment, which the government has outlawed.
If parents feel that the government has overstepped its role in as far as issues that concern their children, South Africa is a democratic country, they have the right to engage it in order to draw its attention to these issues, as well as demand that the government make redress to the situation.
The performers should create songs about the parents taking back the control of their children, and encourage communities to fight against drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, bullying, school dropouts, as well as other criminal activities that they experience in their villages.
Myths about the cure for HIV/AIDS
Tshivenda culture does not condone the abuse of women, and in fact it even has proverbs that clearly spell out that men should not abuse women. Worst of all the rape of infants and girl- children that are virgins is the worst crime against humanity. The tshigombela and malende performers should create lyrics to educate communities against the myth that engaging in sexual activity with infants or girl-children who are virgins does not cure people of HIV/AIDS.
Educating rural communities about the history of colonialism
Rural women are not really aware of the effects of colonialism, western culture, and Christianity, on African culture and on their communities. Therefore, educating them about these ideologies, taking them back to the time that the colonialists landed in their region, and how these processes unfolded and impacted on Africans, will help women to develop awareness, and the ability to relate to some of the issues such as land, forced removals, relationships among African people of different ethnic groups, African, particularly Vhavenda, men and women, and many other issues that affect Vhavenda people.
The tshigombela and malende participants should coin lyrics about redressing the damage that was done by colonialism, Western culture, Christianity, and apartheid. Therefore, this process will facilitate the decolonization of minds among the tshigombela and malende performers, and their communities.
Recognition of status of Makhadzi (paternal aunt) in the family
Women should be reminded about the status of Makhadzi, or paternal aunt, in her family, be it as a commoner, or in the royal family. They should be reminded that she takes important decisions, and the family respects those decisions, without questioning her judgment. Rural
communities that no longer give women the respect they deserve should be reminded about this issue, and the fact that the status that women deserve should be given back to them.
Values of the community should be upheld
The principle of ‘You teach a woman you teach a nation’ should be applied by educating women about the values of the Tshivenda culture. They should be taught how to weigh other cultures against their own culture. This will enable them to realise how invaluable their culture is, compared to others, which is contrary to what they have been made to believe. The performers should compose lyrics that acknowledge and educate their communities, and the youth, in particular, about the values of their own culture.
Tshigombela and malende to be given air-play in the media
If the democratic Republic of South Africa recognises all cultures as equal, the media should also give the same amount of air-play to tshigombela and malende, as they do to similar genres in other ethnic languages. The Department of Arts and Culture should also provide financial assistance for the development and the promotion of these genre, as well as bursaries to students studying them.
There are no Tshivenda proverbs that teach people not to be confrontational
The women should be made aware of the fact that even though Tshivenda culture has expressions that encourage women to be tolerant, and not be confrontational, it also encourages people to sit down, discuss and settle issues. The expression U amba livhi ndi u itela uri livhuya li wane vhudzulo, echoes those sentiments. But the conditioning by the Christian faith, which a great number of the participants subscribe to, teaches that women should be humble at all times, it also teaches ‘giving the other cheek’, when one is given a raw deal. Western culture encourages people to smile even when one is in an uncomfortable situation, and that it is ‘un-lady-like’, or a sign of being uncouth, to show negative emotions in public. These assumptions have been investigated, and instead proverbs in Tshivenda language encourage people to speak up if unhappy about issues.
Victims should not be blamed
The elderly section of the performing groups believes that if young women had been extra- careful, all these terrible experiences such as rape, would not have happened to them.
Consequently, women no longer report rape cases, or any other criminal activities that they experience. The elderly section of the performing groups should be educated that rape, or any criminal offence, is a criminal offence, and is wrong, and should not be blamed on the victim.
Women should be encouraged to report such cases. Therefore, lyrics should be composed to educate communities about these issues, motivating communities to report these crimes.
Boys too should be raised to be caring and nurturing
In the past girls were raised to be caring, nurturing, and to have values, and boys were not.
Instead, boys and men should be taught to have affectionate emotions, as this will teach them not to run away from their responsibilities, and not to commit all these atrocities that they expose women to.
Furthermore, women and men should work together towards building better communities, and apply the principles which prevailed before democracy, when ‘a child was raised by the community’.
Tshigombela and malende performance should be employed to educate and unite men and women, improve their relations and unite communities. This unity will help to eradicate gendered violence as well as abuse, especially of children and women.
The fact that women maintain that women and men were destined to be together should not be the reason why young women force themselves upon men who may not be interested in them, or deliberately fall pregnant in order to stay attached to the fathers of their babies.
Women should also desist from staying with men who no longer love them, as this has resulted in an alarming rate of gendered violence, as well as femicide in the Vhembe region.