ABSTRACT
On 14 September 2017, Beatrice Mateyu, a gender activist, was arrested for carrying a placard with the following statement: “kubadwa ndi nyini sichimo (being born with a vagina is not a sin): my pussy, my pride” during a nationwide march against gender-based violence. Charged for “insulting the modesty of a woman,” Mateyu was vilified by the public, religious groups as well as the state for using “vulgar” language that went against Malawian moral sensibilities. Focusing on the controversy that surrounded the placard that Mateyu purposely carried, I argue in this paper that public reactions against Mateyu’s naming and reclaiming of her body and sexuality through the term “nyini,” a word which is supposed to induce shame, revealed deep-seated patriarchal and misogynistic views co-implicated in post-colonial, religious and cultural discourses about who owns women’s bodies, who is entitled access to the female body and the extent to which women can voice out their protest. I further posit that Mateyu’s placard and the subsequent reactions gives us access to glimpse into the possibilities and limitations offered by language in unsettling norms which (re)produce discourses that inflect women’s sexualities.
