Issues of sanitation for girls and women




For my first post, I chose to discuss the issue of sanitation for women and girls, it is not only a problem in Africa but is a problem which is shared globally. However, what I have found interesting about this issue in Africa was the urban mythology creating and reinforcing such issues for girls. The urban legend of Pinky Pinky is mainly popular with prepubescent girls, who often fear the pink half human, half animal monster who lives in the girl’s toilets. It is said that this monster waits in the toilets to terrorize and rape the innocent girls who dare to wear the colour pink.

Many artists, including Penny Siopis have been influenced by the legend of Pinky Pinky and have used it in their work. For example, Figure 1, shows Pinky Pinky looking up at a young girl who does not appear to be comfortable. A popular reason for the creation of this being is the fact that many girls went missing, and was rumoured to have gone missing while going to the toilets. This invention of Pinky Pinky encouraged many girls to never visit the toilets alone, hence reducing the chance of the girls going missing.


Figure 1

The development of this fictional character did have some truth behind it, due to the fact that girls were attacked and/or kidnapped while going to the toilets at school. Parents in South Africa, just as the rest of the world, think it’s a good thing that they are sending their children to school. However, the large rates of sexual harassment in schools in South Africa raises the question, is it worth the education?  Girls not only receive harassment from boys or gangs, but teachers also.

Claudia Mitchell investigates the culture in the school toilets in Swaziland and how unsafe the students feel. It is clear from the research conducted that the girls and boys perceive spaces around school very differently, as they have different experiences in these spaces. For example, when boys were asked about the long grass and bushes in school, they argued it was unsafe due to snakes. However, the girls had a different worry as it was an area where rape occurred.  Many girls took pictures of the toilets (Figure 2) as a part of this exercise, these showed them to be very dangerous, as some had holes in the doors, while some did not even have doors.

This fear of the toilets is not exclusive to schools in Swaziland as it is shared in schools in Rwanda, similar research was conducted as similar results were found. Students were asked to draw pictures of “unsafe” areas around school. The toilets were in many pictures drawn by the children, these are the captions of some of the pictures:

  •  I fear behind the toilet because I can easily be raped from there or else they kill me. Inside the toilettes.
  •  I fear there because a boy can rape me from there.
  • Behind the school I fear there because everyone can easily harm you from there.



Figure 2


The toilets have been a problem for girls across Africa for many years and needs to be stopped. In order to make the toilets much safer for the girls an alternative critical mapping of the environment needs to take place. They must be located in an ideal, safe place and maintained, regulated and used by appropriate individuals. Children have become so scared of using the toilets they have created a fictional monster which only targets girls, thus showing the inequalities in gender violence within schools across Africa. 

References:

Mitchell, C. (2009). Geographies of Danger: School Toilets in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ladies and Gents. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p62-74.
Mundy, K., & S. Dryden-Peterson (2011). Educating Children in Conflict Zones. New York: Teachers College Press.

Mlonyeni, L. (2015). The legend of Pinky Pinky. Available: http://www.jhblive.com/Stories-in-Johannesburg/article/the-legend-of-pinky-pinky/7567. Last accessed 8th Oct 2017.

Matuntuta, S. (2016). Your childhood myth tormentor Pinky Pinky comes to life in this conceptual imagery series . Available: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/your-childhood-myth-tormentor-pinky-pinky-comes-to-life-in-this-conceptual-imagery-series-photos/. Last accessed 9th Oct 2017.




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