Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Rakgadi
Most recents (2)
My father was stabbed to death at age 49. My mom was 35. She was educated, conservative, quiet yet tough. Her parents were educated. He grew up very poor. He turned out to be kind, hardworking & so loving to us. He was loud, streetwise, self-assured & progressive. #Rakgadi
He always encouraged mom & took care of us when she worked night duty as a nurse & when she was studying for a BA degree. He was there! His 3 sisters said her absences, due to work & study, meant she was cheating. They remained very close to his ex wife. Fair enough #Rakgadi
July 26th 1987, after what seemed like a boozy, decadent night, my dad was found dead in the streets. But as he lay dead in the streets of Orlando East, with a huge crowd looking on, his 3 sisters (older than my mom) & adult children (married & few years younger than mom) wailed
The #Rakgadi story has been great for laughs on Twitter. The aunt who dishes the dirt on the unfaithful sister-in-law and all that. It is actually tragic and triggering. It reminded me of some of the toxic, woman-hating, misogynistic practices of the communities I grew up in. 1
I have seen this story many times before. In Tzaneen. Soweto. Hammanskraal. It is the story of what we do to women. How we demonize, oppress and even kill them. The bad “makoti” is always on hand to be accused of witchcraft, greed and being a whore. It’s an old trope. 2
That widow accused of cheating is my many girl cousins and aunts and others who have been in similar situations. A man dies. A woman grieves - and is blamed for his death. He could have died of a heart attack in the arms of another, but she will get the blame.3
