South African women from all walks of life have rallied together and are donning their traditional headdress in support of the “#RespekTheDoek” movement.
For the past few days, social media has been inundated with women uploading pictures of themselves in their colourful headgear under the hashtag #RespekTheDoek.
This is in support of eNCA’s arts and entertainment reporter Nontobeko Sibisi, whose Africa Day coverage was pulled off the air by a senior manager, allegedly because she wore a doek on camera.
A leaked e-mail from Sibisi to her colleagues on the matter went viral soon after, creating a Twitter storm, which attracted close to 20000 comments.
The hashtags #RespekTheDoek, #DoekForNonto, #DoekTheNewsroom and #DoekFriday have been trending on Twitter since.
The doek made headlines in August 2014 when the Department of Arts and Culture started “Wear a doek Friday”, with women encouraged to wear a doek, and take and upload pictures of themselves onto social media.
Though some women heeded the call, the campaign was hit with a large amount of criticism, with one critic calling the movement the antithesis of the struggle women had marched for in 1956.
The spotlight again fell on doeks last year when Wits University SRC president Nompendulo Mkhatshwa donned one as she led thousands of fellow students in several marches during the #FeesMustFall campaign.
She was also featured on the cover of Destiny magazine wearing an ANC headdress.
Director of the Icamagu Institute, Dr Nokuzola Mndende, said doeks had been a part of traditional African attire for centuries.
According to Mndende, doeks were worn by Xhosa women as a means of showing social status and as accessories for traditional dress.
“Older Xhosa women wear doeks to show which level they are in life but this would mostly be married women.
“Doeks are meant to hide the hair to show respect in their households both to their husbands and their in-laws,” Mndende said.
Doeks were also worn to show marital status.
“Doeks are also used as a cultural identity tool because they are worn throughout Africa but what differs are the styles we use and the fabrics.”
East London-based social media strategist Jason Mark said the response showed the power of social media.
“Social media is a very powerful tool. I think people who haven’t used it before are discovering it. Hashtags have become a way to quickly connect people but for them to become viral one of two things must happen.
“One, the topic must be either controversial or something topical, where people will want to voice their opinions on the matter.
“Secondly, the person who starts the hashtag must be someone with a big following on social media so the hashtag can gain momentum.
“In this case, the person is a news reporter on TV.”
SA women from all walks unite to #RespekTheDoek
For the past few days, social media has been inundated with women uploading pictures of themselves in their colourful headgear under the hashtag #RespekTheDoek.
This is in support of eNCA’s arts and entertainment reporter Nontobeko Sibisi, whose Africa Day coverage was pulled off the air by a senior manager, allegedly because she wore a doek on camera.
A leaked e-mail from Sibisi to her colleagues on the matter went viral soon after, creating a Twitter storm, which attracted close to 20000 comments.
The hashtags #RespekTheDoek, #DoekForNonto, #DoekTheNewsroom and #DoekFriday have been trending on Twitter since.
The doek made headlines in August 2014 when the Department of Arts and Culture started “Wear a doek Friday”, with women encouraged to wear a doek, and take and upload pictures of themselves onto social media.
Though some women heeded the call, the campaign was hit with a large amount of criticism, with one critic calling the movement the antithesis of the struggle women had marched for in 1956.
The spotlight again fell on doeks last year when Wits University SRC president Nompendulo Mkhatshwa donned one as she led thousands of fellow students in several marches during the #FeesMustFall campaign.
She was also featured on the cover of Destiny magazine wearing an ANC headdress.
Director of the Icamagu Institute, Dr Nokuzola Mndende, said doeks had been a part of traditional African attire for centuries.
According to Mndende, doeks were worn by Xhosa women as a means of showing social status and as accessories for traditional dress.
“Older Xhosa women wear doeks to show which level they are in life but this would mostly be married women.
“Doeks are meant to hide the hair to show respect in their households both to their husbands and their in-laws,” Mndende said.
Doeks were also worn to show marital status.
“Doeks are also used as a cultural identity tool because they are worn throughout Africa but what differs are the styles we use and the fabrics.”
East London-based social media strategist Jason Mark said the response showed the power of social media.
“Social media is a very powerful tool. I think people who haven’t used it before are discovering it. Hashtags have become a way to quickly connect people but for them to become viral one of two things must happen.
“One, the topic must be either controversial or something topical, where people will want to voice their opinions on the matter.
“Secondly, the person who starts the hashtag must be someone with a big following on social media so the hashtag can gain momentum.
“In this case, the person is a news reporter on TV.”
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