The history of nudity is a complex topic, deeply intertwined with social attitudes towards the human body across different cultures and throughout history. In Africa, the story of nudity is particularly rich and multifaceted, influenced by pre-colonial traditions, the impact of colonialism, and contemporary expressions in art and protest.
Pre-Colonial Africa: Nudity as the Norm
In many parts of pre-colonial Africa, nudity (or near-complete nudity) was the social norm for both men and women, especially in hunter-gatherer cultures in warm climates. Clothes in Africa were not primarily for decency, but rather to show status or the type of ceremony taking place.
Several factors contributed to this acceptance of nudity:
- Hot Weather: The hot climate in many regions, particularly West Africa, made full coverage impractical.
- Normalcy: Nudity was a normal part of daily life, reflected in popular African sculptures and festivals.
- Ceremonial Significance: While minimal clothing was worn for everyday protection, jewellery and dress codes served as important indicators of social class, gender, and culture.
For generations before the fusion of clothes and the notion of covering up in Africa, men, women and children walked proudly; barely or, sometimes not at all, covered, showing off glittering dark skin that shines brilliantly and valiantly.
Traditional African sculptures showcase much more than mere flesh; they speak softly of tales filled with our ancestry, identity, heritage and the recurrent dance between life and death, of ages past and possible futures unknown. The Samburu and Turkana peoples found in the Nuba of Southern Sudan, have long used the nude form to symbolise strength, acceptance, appreciation, diligence and cleanliness, or the Koma people of Nigeria found in the Alantika Mountains, around the southeast of Yola that symbolise nudity as beauty, creativity, even divinity.
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Dogon primordial couple
The Influence of Colonialism
The arrival of Europeans brought significant changes to African attitudes towards nudity. European morality, based on Christian ideas of modesty, clashed with African customs.
Europeans viewed African dressing or lack of it as barbaric. European morality was based on Christian ideas of modesty, and covering one's body was the European definition of modesty. African clothing was strongly disliked because of this mentality, particularly on the part of women who were overtly sexualized, and scrutinised. The modern concept of race as innate had begun to emerged in the 15th century with the establishment of a Christian kingdom in Spain, expelling the Jews and Muslims. There having been many converts, but lineage became the test of inclusion in the kingdom rather than profession of faith.
Colonialism is the domination of one culture by another, which has occurred throughout history as one society extended control over neighboring territories. This process expanded as technologies for navigation and transport allowed for contact with more distant parts of the world.
One of the enduring stereotypes of non-western others is the naked savage based upon the belief that clothes being the signifier of membership in a civilized society, the lack of clothes represented a complete lack of culture. In Victorian England, the naked body was a potential source of moral decay, which was domesticated by proper dress.
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Missionaries and anthropologists came to Central Australia much later than other regions, it being sparsely populated due to scarce water resources. The first Europeans arrived in the late 1870s with a second wave in the 1930s. Aboriginal peoples welcomed clothing, but use it as decorations rather than to cover their nakedness, which was disconcerting to outsiders.
With the independence of Ghana from English rule in 1957, the first Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah and his political party began a program that sought to eliminate undesirable practices including female genital mutilation, human trafficking, prostitution, and nudity.
The following table summarizes the key differences in attitudes towards nudity before and after colonialism:
| Aspect | Pre-Colonial Africa | Post-Colonial Africa |
|---|---|---|
| Normality | Common and accepted | Increasingly seen as vulgar or indecent |
| Purpose of Clothing | Status, ceremony, or minimal protection | Primarily for modesty and decency |
| Western Influence | Minimal | Significant impact on cultural norms |
Nudity as Protest: A Historical Tool
Despite the negative connotations associated with nudity due to colonial influence, it has also been used as a powerful form of protest in Africa. Naked protests in Africa have historically been symbolic forms of collective protest, generally by the poorest and most marginalised women in society.
According to Tripp, naked protests on the continent stretch back to the pre-colonial era when they were used “to shame abusive men into behaving”. Under colonialism, they became part of some independence struggles. In 1990s Kenya, for instance, Wangari Maathai and others used their nudity as a powerful tool in their pro-democracy struggle. During the Liberian civil war, Leymah Gbowee led protesters in threatening to strip naked in an attempt to push warring factions to agree a peace deal. Female activists in the Niger Delta have used nudity in protest at the actions of oil companies. In 2013, for example, 50 women in Lakang Amuru district in the north stripped naked in protest at alleged land grabbing. In 2014, a group of women in eastern Uganda took off their clothes claiming the government wanted to appropriate their property and give it to Soroti University for development. In 2015, an 83-year-old woman in Bukedea District in eastern Uganda took off her clothes in retaliation at a land takeover by Chinese investors.
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Tripp adds that naked protests represent the strongest of curses that can be leveled at someone, explaining: “Women give life and so to put the most private symbols of motherhood into the public arena is to negate that life and to say those in power are dead to society.”
Women Protesting
Contemporary Expressions: Art and Identity
Today, contemporary African artists are challenging societal norms and pushing boundaries, using nudity as a means of expression that resonates with viewers on multiple levels. Thanks to contemporary African artists, who are now daring enough to challenge present societal norms and push boundaries, nudity is artistically and effectively utilised as a means of expression that resonates with viewers on multiple levels rather than being seen as obscene. Nigerian artist Yagazie Emezi, a self-taught photojournalist, harnesses the beauty of the nude body to tell the stories of women navigating their place in a patriarchal world. This often results in nuanced dialogues that seek to blend empowerment with vulnerability while shining a much-needed light on women’s health.
The key takeaway is understanding that as art evolves digitally, it seeks to fuse the unadorned form of man or woman with technology, in order to birth a new, relatable understanding and language; changing the unabashed narrative of a mischievous yet solid point of view on self-love and body positivity.
As we Africans continue to engage in serious dialogues around the importance and impact of identity, heritage, culture, beliefs (personal and religious), colonialism, and globalisation, nudity will continue to emerge (throughout time) not only as a powerful form of self-expression but also as a reflection of evolving cultural dynamics. The more people frantically seek to cover their “nakedness” in shame (and those without self-control or violent tendencies, viewing through distorted and broken lenses, keep behaving badly), the more that nudity becomes, unfortunately, a taboo-with overwhelming tension bubbling just beneath the surface.
Over the years, thanks to privilege and learning, there is an understanding that a lot of what we, as people of today, term as vulgar, bad, indecent, or obscene were really just everyday life, times, and joys of people, cultures, and civilisations that lived before us. Unfortunately, due to greed, dominance, control, selfishness, and misconceptions, humanity’s evolving nature now distorts what was and what could have been, what is trying to make a comeback, and what might be repeated as taboo.
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