Abstract
The Setswana belief system holds that all forms of murder, accidental and or intentional are an abomination. It also holds that no person has the right to apportion for themselves the right to kill another, not only because life is sacred, but because murder defiles and desecrates nature. Even without the scientific knowledge of climate change, Batswana have always been aware that the ecological crisis is a result of human actions of brutality towards each other and towards nature. It is a shock that Botswana is experiencing extremely high levels of violence against women including femicide. Therefore, this article engages eco-feminist and masculinity theories to establish a relationship between hegemonic masculinity, femicide and environmental concerns. The article addresses its objectives by means of four sections: (1) Introduction-violence against women, (2) Discussions of theoretical frameworks, ecofeminism and masculinity or masculinities, (3) Setswana belief system regarding the environment, (4) Conclusion and recommendations.
Contribution: The world is experiencing an ecological crisis and this paper suggests that hegemonic masculinity which legitimises violence against women is the reason for this crisis. Therefore, communities need to deconstruct attributes of hegemonic masculinities that encourage the abuse of women and nature.
Keywords: climate change; ecofeminism; ecological crisis; femicide; hegemonic masculinity; Setswana belief system and spirituality; violence against women.
Introduction
Intimate partner violence is on the rise globally, and one of the manifestations of this intimate partner violence is intimate femicide. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that 89 000 women and girls were killed by their significant others in 2019. In 2020, the numbers dropped to 81 000 only to go up to 81 100 in 2021 with Southern Africa having the highest rate of killings of women by their significant others (UNODC 2019, 2022). Research coming out of Botswana demonstrates that the country is grappling with the problem of gender-based violence, especially femicide (UNODC 2022). From the late 1990s to 2022, horrifying stories of women killed by their partners in Botswana keep emerging, and the statistics are alarming. Last year, 2021, the police recorded 405 cases of women who died at the hands of their partners. Stories of women decapitated with the perpetrators using the deceased’s blood to write on walls, women’s limbs cut off and hanged, shot multiple times, chemically burnt, buried alive in caves, in shallow graves, and wrapped in trash bags are way too many in Botswana (Sunday Standard 2010a, 2018). The brutality of these murders does not make sense and women are killed because the boyfriends were jealous, women were not dressed appropriately and some women wanted to leave the relationships.1 The recent assault that sent shockwaves throughout the country happened in a small village of Kopong in July 2022 because the couple was going through a divorce and the husband did not want the process to be concluded (The Weekend Post 2022). What is narrated in numerous newspaper articles is that a 48-year-old married woman was brutally killed by her husband who then removed her internal organs – the heart, intestines and liver – while he proceeded to write some weird phrases on the walls with her blood. In addition, it is alleged that the said husband and the men he was with raped the wife as well before killing her (The Weekend Post 2022). Not only was the killing of this woman brutal, it was also a manifestation of huge doses of male aggression and toxic masculinity. This assault and the many others happening in Botswana are a shock because it is happening in a community where killing another human being is a serious offence against God, humanity and nature2 (The Weekend Post 2022). Batswana have always known that humanity and nature are intertwined. They have knowledge about how human acts of aggression towards one another cause trauma to the environment and nature. It is important therefore to investigate why men kill their partners while they are aware of the bad consequences of such actions to the environment, and I will do this by discussing the theories of masculinities and ecofeminism below.
Theoretical framework: Ecofeminism and masculinities
Ecofeminism interrogates the intersection between ecology and feminism. Its aim is to demonstrate how systems of power and governance allow for the domination and oppression of women and nature. At the heart of the ecofeminist critical framework are the following central claims. The first claim is that, as much as human beings are alive, nature is alive too, for ‘the earth has a spirit of her own, a beauty of her own and nature is not matter only, she is also a spirit’ (Jung 2002). The second claim of the ecofeminist framework is that environmental and gender injustices are connected, so that it is no longer ‘possible to address women’s oppression without addressing environmental degradation’ (Gaard & Gruen 1993:35). Because ecofeminism establishes a direct connection between violence against the earth and violence against women, both are perceived as subordinate. Hence, social justice and environmental justice are two sides of the same coin (Cones 2007). Ariel Salleh beautifully summarises the third basic claim of ecofeminism as she submits that the global ecological crises are a result of the’:
Eurocentric capitalist patriarchal culture built on the domination of nature and of woman ‘as nature. Or, to turn the subliminal Man/Woman/ Nature equation around the other way, it is the inevitable effect of a culture constructed on the domination of women and, the domination of Nature as feminine. (Salleh 2017:35)
The vitality of ecofeminism is premised on the idea that nature and women are victims of patriarchy and androcentrism embodied within religious, economic, political, and cultural systems which authorise their domination, exploitation and oppression. It is logical then to conclude that the fight for justice for women must be integrated with the fight for life in all forms. Therefore, ecofeminism works well with other theories such as masculinity/ies theories to articulate different forms of oppression.
Masculinities
Masculinity/ies are a set of socially constructed characteristics, behaviours, expectations for how men and boys should look like, should experience and how they should express emotions (Connell 1995). Masculinity/ies are learned behaviours with several institutions such as the media, Church and family teaching and socialising men and boys on acceptable and unacceptable ways of being a man, so that we talk of masculinities because there are several manifestations of masculinities even within a close-knit community.3 Further, masculinities exist in hierarchies, they are fluid and ever-changing as societies evolve and people acquire upward mobility and migrate from one place to the other. In her classic piece of work, Connell (1995) classifies masculinities into four different categories with each category having multiple expressions. These categories are hegemonic, subordinate, complicit and marginalised masculinities. Hegemonic masculinity is the most prominent, most idealised, glorified, lauded and celebrated within patriarchal societies. It is a system of power itself that keeps most heterosexual men in dominant positions.4 As a system of power, hegemonic masculinity is built into social institutions to make it appear normal and natural for men’s superordinate position to be maintained (Levy 2005). Societal institutions such as government, religion, economy and family are structured so as to reproduce male hegemony in ways ranging from structure, credentialling to cultural symbolic expressions (Cornell 1987).
While hegemonic masculinity is prevalent, it is the most problematic because of its core attributes which include, among others, male dominance, power and status – dominance over women and men of lesser status (Connell 1995). Tim Carrigan and others further describe hegemonic masculinity as ‘how particular groups of men inhabit positions of power and wealth, and how they legitimate and reproduce the social relationships that generate their dominance’ (Carrigan, Connell & Lee 1987:92). In addition to dominance, hegemonic masculinity confers heterosexual men with unearned benefits and advantages through being born male. These benefits are commonly referred to as male privilege.5 Male privilege gives heterosexual men an advantage where they have ‘access to resources; economic and political – including sexual access to women’s bodies’ (Myers 2013:267). Male privilege is not just a concept; it is a system that heavily maintains hegemonic masculinity as it functions with patriarchy to give men an entitlement and all power, be it political, economic, social, religious or others; they are predominantly held by heterosexual men. Furthermore, men have power over women’s lives and bodies, making it easy for men to perpetrate any violence against women and rendering the performance of hegemonic masculinity/ies harmful to women (Cornell 1987). In addition to male privilege and dominance, hegemonic masculinity is also characterised by competitiveness and persuasion even with other men embodying the same. According to Fleming et al. (2019:202), ‘portraying a masculine identity is both about performing certain behaviours and about performing those certain behaviours better than other men’. Men’s competitiveness requires winning and satisfaction at all costs. This becomes a trigger for violence, especially against women when they cannot have their way, and their masculinity is threatened. Masculinity threatening situations are many, ranging from girlfriends not showing enough deference in public, being cheated on, inability to sexually satisfy a partner, to losing in any competition to another man. Unfortunately, ‘… men in masculinity-threatening situations also engage in other types of aggressive behaviours to “compensate” for, “repair,” and “recoup their masculinity” so that they “get even.”’ (Dahl, Vescio & Weaver 2015:242). When the men’s status is not rewarded adequately, they get humiliated and they respond by killing their partners (Dahl et al. 2015). This is true of men who kill their partners in Botswana; their manhood is in a crisis. Scholars writing from within Botswana such as Dube (2003) and Togarasei (2013) acknowledge the domination of women by men, how violence against women is prevalent and how hegemonic masculinity is the most lauded type of masculinity in Botswana. Therefore, it is logical to submit that hegemonic masculinity is the main reason Batswana heterosexual men apportion for themselves the right to murder their partners.
Rosinah Gabaitse, also writing from within the Botswana context argues that the murder of women by their partners is a result of a ‘patriarchal construction of masculinity where men are given enormous power, sense of entitlement and privilege over women by their political and socio-cultural systems’ (Gabaitse 2012:307). To demonstrate this enormous power, grown married women are classified as ngwana wa monna [the wife is her husband’s child] who can be ‘chastised if she incurs her husband’s discipline’ (Gabaitse 2012:307). The fact that a wife is a child of her husband and that she can be chastised itself speaks of the prevalence of hegemonic masculinity and the enormous power and sense of entitlement men have over women. Athalia Molokomme writing within the Botswana context confirms the prevalence of hegemonic masculinity when she writes that:
[T]he institution of bogadi6 confers on a man more control over the person of the wife, for example, a man who has paid bogadi is allowed to chastise his wife more freely than one who has not. (Molokomme 1990:21)
A Motswana man does not lose control over his partner because bogadi ‘strengthens men’s hold over women’ (Maundeni 2001:21). When he feels he has lost control of his wife, the man is allowed to beat her, clap her or exert whatever punishment he deems appropriate to control her. This here demonstrates a tolerance for a continuum of physical violence and this tolerance results in the death of many women who have been ‘chastised’ to death by their partners. Therefore, hegemonic masculinity is inherently harmful as it is held together by acts of aggression, intimidation and violence. This attribute of hegemonic masculinity is problematic because the preservation of women’s lives is replaced by the need of men to reassert their masculinity/ies, and that is the undoing of the belief in the sacredness of life that is central to the Setswana belief system and spirituality.
Setswana belief system and spirituality regarding the environment
There are concepts and sensibilities present within the Setswana belief system and spirituality that are important to issues of human life and nature which are worth discussing here. Firstly, is that Batswana have always been eco-conscious.7 This eco-consciousness is manifested through the harmony between human beings and the ecosystem, where:
[T]he greater good for all can be achieved if all live according to the basic virtue of harmony, the harmony between people, nature, ancestors and Modimo (God); if the harmony is disrupted, it is explained as illness. (Ntloedibe 1999:5)
Setiloane (1976) submits that the Sotho-Tswana believe that there is a symbiotic, transcendental and reciprocal relationship between humanity and nature. Because humans are participants in an animate, spiritually vital web of relations, Setiloane writes that:
Motho- a human being, is part of Nature and nature is Motho’s companion from the beginning. Nature is therefore not an object for human exploitation because both came out from the same source, God, and that nature is intricately interconnected with humanity. (Setiloane 1976:40)
Setiloane gives attention to how the sacredness of God permeates everything including nature, because it is God who created the universe. Hence, the Setswana spirituality sees God embodied in humanity and in ecological life, and so there is no separation between the social and spiritual realms among the Batswana.
Secondly, Setswana belief and spirituality hold that certain taboos and rituals must be respected or else nature will be defiled resulting in bad consequences. Amanze (2002) notes that:
[H]uman defilement of the land such as cutting trees unnecessarily or breaking mortuary rites generates a state of hotness which ultimately leads to drought, which is a form of punishment from God. (p. 20)
In his other book African Traditional Religions and culture in Botswana, Amanze discusses the dire consequences of failing to respect mourning rites, rituals and taboos. For instance, women in mourning should never go to the ploughing fields, while men should not set foot at the cattle kraals before they are ritually cleansed. If they do not respect these taboos, the environment gets defiled, rivers dry out, crops die, animals miscarry, and the earth heats up (Amanze 2002:25).
Thirdly, the Setswana belief system and spirituality hold that no person has the right to apportion for themselves the right to kill another, because this is not only defilement, but also an abomination and a desecration of nature (Amanze 2002). Abortions, ritual murders and all kinds of murders, accidental or intentional are considered an abomination because blood spilled during these acts pollutes the land, causing it to be hot.8 Isaac Schapera writes about how abortion, which is classified as murder, defiles nature.9 He says, if an aborted foetus is found thrown around, the community will search for the mother and when found, she had to be cleansed with a medicine that causes her ‘intense smarting pain’ (Schapera 1976:262). In addition, he writes that the pain from the medicine needs to be bitter so that it is ‘sufficient expatiation for the crime’ (Schapera 1976:261). Schapera further states that, ‘It was held that as long as the woman was not purified, her body will be hot, and would therefore keep off the rain’ (Schapera 1976:262). In agreement with Schapera regarding the purification and cleansing of the woman who committed abortion, Amanze (2002) submits that not only does the woman who committed abortion need to be cleansed, but:
[T]he place where the corpse had been found was also said to be hot, causing the land to dry up and the sun to be strong, so that the rain will not fall. It was accordingly sprinkled with a similar mixture of medicines by the rainmaker, so as to become cool, while the corpse was buried in the shade of a hut. (p. 25)
The heated earth here refers to the literal rising temperatures where Botswana becomes unbearably hot. The figurative heating refers to the real misfortunes that befall the community such as but not limited to unexplained sicknesses, mysterious deaths of both the young and old and more women having miscarriages. Amanze (2002) notes that:
[F]or the land to be useful to human beings, it must remain constantly in the state of coolness as this generates good health, material prosperity, harmony, peace, social order, spiritual blessedness and most important of all rain. (p. 25)
When the land is hot, the individual who caused the earth to heat up by committing the forbidden acts mentioned above, together with the innocent members of the community fall into a condition of accursedness, and nature too falls into hotness. It is believed that a dark cloud, an omen, misfortunes and curse referred to as Senyama hover above the individual and the community leaving both the individual and the community open to danger and misfortunes.10 These misfortunes may include the barrenness of creation manifested by no rain, no growth of plants and unfortunate series of climatic changes that make life difficult for humanity. In order for senyama to be removed and the land to be restored to a state of ‘coolness’ as stated by Amanze above, the land must be ritually purified through animal sacrifices and a mixture of herbs. The blood of the sacrificed animal is not only a symbolic purifier of creation which needs to be appeased, but it was also meant to avenge a life violently taken through, but not limited to, an expiatory ritual. This is essential because a human being has an aura, energy, dignity, and personality connected to the divine that is called seriti, and seriti lives beyond the physical life (Setiloane 1986:13). So, if a person is brutally killed, even if the killing happened accidentally, the seriti of that person hangs over creation, endlessly mourning the manner in which the individual died, and a ritual is essential. The ritual purification and cleansing of the land and people still happens in the year 2022, and in some quarters, where animal sacrifices are not acceptable, prayers and vigils are held. There is active talk about how the delayed rains and the heatwave that Botswana is experiencing in general and specifically the one from September to October 2022 are a sign that nature must be cleansed. These sentiments coincide with the ongoing court case of the murdered Kopong woman discussed above.11 Between the months of October and December 2022, there were three incidents of people who were struck by lightning, and the sentiment around is that human beings have defiled nature; it is retaliating and therefore there is a need to cleanse it through prayers and animal sacrifices (Mmegi Online Newspaper 2022a).
There is no ambiguity within Batswana that murders destabilise the ecosystem. When these acts happen, ‘the land dries up and the sun becomes too strong and the rain will not fall’ (Amanze 2002:25). As a result of the land drying up, the sun becomes too hot and the rain will stop falling. The crops will die, leading to insufficient food supplies for humans and animals, droughts will become frequent, and some animals will become extinct. I remember when I was young, there used to be red termites called modimo, a little god, and the termite no longer exists in most parts of Botswana.12 Perhaps the extinction of the red termites could be because Botswana has become extremely hot over the years as attested by scientists (The World Bank Group 2021). Because of the hot earth, not only do human beings suffer, animals and vegetation suffer too; hence the whole ecosystem is destabilised.13
The last and fourth concept worth noting is that the Setswana belief system holds that the earth and nature is sentient; it is alive, it has a spirit, an awareness and knowledge of things happening around her. Cognisant of the fact that the earth is alive and personified, it then follows that it feels pain, it gets hurt, it speaks out, it cries out, it is sensitive as it acts out violently when human acts of brutality take place. The Setswana spirituality holds that the earth responds violently through literal thunders and lightning, through floods and droughts and famine when aggrieved. For instance, in 2019, Botswana experienced an earthquake, and a couple of weeks later, Cyclone Dineo hit with devastating effects, and the floods went on for days. Communities were abuzz with how the earthquake and Cyclone Dineo were the results of a polluted earth because fathers rape their children, women abort their unborn babies, men kill their partners and traditional doctors murder humans for ritual purposes.
Herein lies the truth about the ecological crisis from the Setswana belief system: one single act of femicide not only ends the life of a woman, but it also leaves the earth traumatised and hot. How does this happen? It happens when the very culture that detests murder and upholds the sacredness of life places objects and humans into a value hierarchy, which then gives rise to binaries, dualisms and dichotomies. Value hierarchy is common in patriarchal-oriented communities so that inequality is institutionalised, constructed, organised and packaged neatly. For example, in a value hierarchy, men are pitted against women, black people against white people, culture against nature, heterosexuality against homosexuality and developed countries versus non-developed ones. For some people, these binaries and differences are acceptable and normalised because they are organised through categories and systems such as masculinity, race, gender and colour of skin. The consequences of value hierarchy are not only organised inequality, but they also include domination, attributing inferiority and devaluing of that which is perceived or constructed as less powerful. That is why women and nature are devalued, negated and given a lesser value within this master patriarchal model and space. Hence, men can apportion for themselves the right to kill women and abuse nature. Value hierarchy not only helps us to understand the Botswana ecological crises, but also assists in understanding the problem at a global level. For instance, value hierarchy places developed countries above developing countries.
It is countries with power, the Western countries who are the owners of multinational companies and conglomerates that exploit natural resources throughout the world including Africa and Botswana. The excessive consumption of natural resources by these wealthy nations contributes towards the environmental decline (Gray & Coates 2012). Through environmentally unfriendly methods of industrialisation, technological growth, deforestation and even pollution, they continue to exacerbate the environmental and ecological imbalances characterising contemporary countries and communities (Environment fact sheet: Industrial development 2006). Further, some of these countries have refused to change their destructive methods of industrialisation; they have refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change which was facilitated by world bodies such as Cop 2020 and they have refused to honour the climate agreements signed in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (Kyoto Protocol 1997). Unfortunately, these powerful countries are the biggest polluters of the environment. In spite of being warned that their profit-making is causing a global ecological crisis, they will not listen, because very powerful masculine-oriented industries are driven by profit at all cost (Hathway & Boff 2009). As these countries build and amass wealth, they pollute the environment, it is the less developed countries that suffer.Further, it is women and girls who are exposed to environmental degradation and face greater adverse effects (Jamieson 2010). So, the tendency of making profits at all costs, the desire for power and wealth, the refusal to ratify climate agreements are all manifestations of an ‘exploitative human industrial system’ (Ruether 2000:603). This system is driven by aggressive hegemonic masculinity/ies and patriarchal tendencies characterised by a lack of caring, sense of community and accountability. It is therefore important to always be alert to the fact that hegemonic masculinity is not only a position, but it is a system of power. Therefore, the global ecological crisis is a result of powerful systems of power driven by aggressive masculinity and the same aggressive masculinity that drives femicide. Clearly, communities which uphold aggressive hegemonic masculinity/ies and are value hierarchy-driven find it easier to violate women and nature.
Conclusion and recommendations
Batswana knew that creation is connected and interdependent so that brutal acts of violence such as murders are unnecessary and are complicit in the ecological crisis. There is an agreement between Setswana belief system and/or spirituality and scientific perspectives regarding environmental degradation; it is caused by human actions and misactions. It is human actions that drive both pandemics of climate change and femicide. This paper therefore has demonstrated through the ecofeminist framework and analysis of masculinities that the desecration of nature and femicide happen because of a patriarchal domination of women and nature. Therefore, for nature to heal and for violence against women to end, there is a need to interrogate and to intentionally speak against patriarchal domination and logic. Hegemonic masculinity is a powerful system that needs to be dismantled because it obscures the Batswana belief in the sacredness of life. For Batswana, ending femicide will be the beginning of resacralising nature and this requires rigorous engagements regarding, firstly, the deconstruction of hegemonic masculinity because it is not only harmful to women, it is also harmful to the environment. Secondly, there is a need to construct healthier masculinities which thrive on decentring the enormous power bestowed on men; the type of masculinities that thrive on egalitarian existence and the rejection of double standards of morality. Thirdly, there is a need for rigorous and intentional converstaions regarding proper and scientific language around climate change and how hegemonic masculinities are implicated in the ecological crisis Botswana is experiencing. These engagements can become resources in mobilising communities to be intentional about preserving the lives of women and the earth.
Acknowledgements
Competing interests
R.G. declares that they are also a Research associate of University of South Africa (UNISA) and have no other financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
Author’s contributions
R.G. declares that they are the sole author of this research article.
Ethical considerations
This article followed all ethical standards for research and does not contain any studies involving human participants performed by the author.
Funding information
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data availability
The author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are the product of professional research. It does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution, funder, agency or that of the publisher. The author is responsible for this article’s results, findings and content.
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UNODC, 2022, Gender related killings of women and girls (Femicide/ feminicide), viewed n.d., from https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/15-08233_A4-GRK_eBook.pdf.
Footnotes
1. There is no reason whatsoever for any woman to be killed. However, the men who kill their partners always give reasons why they kill; see for example, the Mmegi News article, ‘Married Man detained for threat to kill’ (Basimanebotlhe 2022).
2. As used in this article, nature refers to the holistic ecosystem and its dependency or connectedness for survival, so that land, animals, rocks, human beings, rain, wind are all part of nature. I may at times use nature and environment interchangeably.
3. Each masculinity has versions and ranges of performance, so that it is possible to talk of different manifestations of hegemonic masculinity or any other masculinity/s.
4. Some men inhabit hegemonic masculinity, yet they are not violent and aggressive; however, hegemonic masculinity remains powerful and dominant with the most undesirable attributes.
5. I bear in mind that not all heterosexual men have the same privileges because of the social categories such as race, nationality and education; for instance, a white man has more power than a black man even when both subscribe to hegemonic masculinity.
6. Bogadi is the bride price.
7. This eco-consciousness is prevalent everywhere; for instance, there are certain trees that should not be cut because they take time to regenerate. The wildebeest cannot be killed in November. Some trees like Motlopi cannot be used for firewood because livestock will produce males only if that happens. Certain animals cannot be killed because they are totems and they must be preserved, so each ethnic group has animal or animals that they preserve. Hunting happens during particular seasons and by order from people in power, chiefs or officers from the Ministry of Wildlife.
8. The land being hot means that it is defiled, unclean and impure. Blood spilled during murder and abortions defiles the earth making it hot. When it is hot, it retaliates by holding back fruits and water, and every created being suffers.
9. Abortion is tantamount to murder in Botswana; it is illegal. The Penal code allows it only in cases of rape and incest.
10. Senyama is a dramatic concept and belief that not only does acts of murder, introduces misfortunes to the individual and community but that when senyama is not removed, there is lingering danger waiting to happen.
11. The murder of the Kopong woman was widely covered by both print and online media houses. For example, an online newspaper, the Weekend Post, had 4800 comments on their Facebook page and some of the comments regarding the murder reads as follows; ‘This man was pure evil, it is acts like this murder that causes us to have heatwaves.’; ‘This is cruel and that is why creation is unhappy and we don’t have rains as yet.’ See Kopong Murder: Suspects raped the deceased, viewed 03 October 2022, from https://www.weekendpost.co.bw/35681/news/kopong-murder-suspects-raped-the-deceased/. Facebook upload at https://zupload.facebook.com/TheWeekendPostBW/posts/5893285817362590. I have already mentioned above how it is common to hear community members speaking about how abortions, ritual murders and femicides are the causes of droughts, floods, and unpredictable weather patterns in Botswana.
12. Modimo was a beautiful red termite and it was a norm that whenever it appeared, young people would gather and sing around it. In response to the singing, modimo would either sleep or stay very still or it would open its red wings and flap them. This termite appeared only during rainy seasons.
13. Now we know with certainty from scientists that the earth needs to maintain a certain temperature for all of creation to flourish.
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