The "Dogs" Have Been Part of African Culture

PLEASE NOTE:Brendon Boyle is former Parliamentary Editor and the former Daily Dispatch Editor. This was a response to an editorial article of his. This is in response to editors’ article in the opinions section in yesterday’s DD, 16 January 2012, “Let’s not throw Zuma’s comments to the dogs”. I noticed that he noted and I quote in verbatim,” He (Zuma) chose as one example of the decay of the culture that defines his morals and values the limited black emulation of the largely white penchant of keeping dogs as pets”. It is this particular statement and the logic around it in as far as African traditions and culture are concerned that I take this chance to point out a simple opinion or fact really. Firstly, I am not quite sure whether or not if in isiZulu hunting culture dogs are used as hunting companions, but in isiXhosa hunting culture dogs have been present for centuries. This led to dogs being domesticated and verily became part of everyday life and companions of the youngster in society. Also still in this regard, domesticated dogs became an organ of household security from all kinds of domestic situations. So the assumption that Africans did not keep dogs as pets is obscured, from President Zuma‘s point of view yes, and also Mr Boyles assumption the President’s speech as fully totalitarian with regards to African pets culture. The second point is the issue of the ill treatment of animals as compared to people. Zuma does have a point there yes(the fact that dogs get treated better than the domestic worker in general) and I am sure that some domestic workers and their Caucasian employers can allude to this (I dare any!). Again I find that there might be a flaw in using this valid argument to point out certain traits of African culture with regards to pets. It’s a known fact that pets in certain parts of Africa, especially domesticated dogs to a certain extent are treated with a very derogative manner. There are metaphoric sayings in IsiXhosa that I can use to point this out. “Inja phandle- Dogs belong outside”, or “Yinja lowo- He/she is a dog” and “Inkwenkwe yinja-Boys are dogs” (meaning that until they are men, they are nothing). Verily, in these statements one can clearly see how looked down upon the status of a dog is. Rustum Siyongwana in his novel, Ubulumko Bezinja- the Enlightenment of the Dogs, in his attempt to highlight the plight of white racism and oppression, uses this visible and apparent abuse of pet dogs by their human counterparts. The setting he uses to paint his picture is that of African isiXhosa culture. Again it is fully evident here that pets have been part of domestic African life. So Mr Boyle, what I am pointing out is that Mr President was actually culturally incorrect and your argument cannot be supported by his statements because it will not be logical for the argument of African culture and traditionalism being protected.