The case of online nudity and what the society says

It was 8.30 in the morning when the orange and red lined daladala stopped at the Mnazi Mmoja bus stand. I spotted a seat next to a young man, probably in his early 30’s. We exchanged greetings and the journey commenced. At every 5-8 minute interval, this young man would unlock his smartphone and open instagram, peruse through profiles in the search page, like few photos, and lock back his phone. This went on for about 30 minutes till he alighted.

I then recalled a training session I had attended last year where one of the speakers from the United Nations Information Centre was talking about the importance of having a social media account, and largely emphasised on having an instagram account because of the increasing number of  Tanzanians joining the platform. The few who attended were told that majority of Tanzanians spend their time on instagram than any other social media.

A self-branding tool

Models and celebrities are the most followed personalities on instagram in Tanzania. Melody Tryphone, also known as Mirandah, a Tanzanian model and also appears in several Bongo music videos is one among the instagram users who not only has many followers but also believes that the platform is one of the ways that she has been able to market her career. In an interview with Woman, Mirandah explains her objectives from a model’s perspective on the importance of the tool. She says, “I use instagram to not only market myself as a model but also to show people what I can do. The pictures that I post usually have a blind theme that directly conveys a message to the people. Through the art and profession of modelling, I use platforms like instagram to convey messages to the community, hoping they will make a difference to someone’s life.” Upon learning about how she handles her virtual profile on instagram, she says, “I follow my heart to be honest and this means that I look at each picture I post from my family’s or friend’s perspective, whether it is going to affect them positively or negatively. I will not post an image, which will demean my family in any way.

Secondly, I also bear in mind the principles of our country, which draws a very thin line between morality and feeling independent with your own body.”

Just like Mirandah, the first runner up of Miss Universe Tanzania 2016, Lilian Loth also believes that it is important to remain powerful with every picture to feel empowered and empower others. Lilian tells Woman that instagram has become one of the most popular and used social media platforms and that it has made it easier for her to present her work and what she does. “I want to inspire girls by presenting my work to give them the message that they can follow their dreams and aim higher in whatever they pursue,” Lilian adds.

Both Mirandah and Lilian believe that the photographs they post are for women and it is women who are responding to it. And for them, if creating a strong imagery is making women and young girls feel strong and empowered, then it is doing the job.

The big conversation on ‘nudity’ in instagram

With passing years, the Internet penetration in Tanzania has seen an increase. In 2012, Tanzania had 5 million Internet users and two years later the numbers shot to 9 million. The number has doubled this year. According to statistics launched by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) last year, the estimated number of Internet users was 17,263,523, with an Internet penetration of 34 per cent, and mobile wireless Internet accesses accounted for 94.3 per cent, with 16,280,943 subscribers.

With growing users of Internet, a second identity, which is the social media profile is seen as a necessity, especially in our spheres of work. Whether it is communicating a message or branding yourself, the reality is that for the new generation, a second identity matters more.

But over time, many, due to sexualisation of the app now deem the photo-sharing platform. Most of the users whom Woman interviewed said that their discovery page sometimes popped with images of half-naked or almost naked women, which was a little too embarrassing to open instagram.

A mother of two children, Mariam Sheikh (not her real name) was one among the interviewees. She says that her 11-year-old daughter owns a Facebook and an instagram account and is only allowed to access her account after her school hours for only an hour. But her concern further is, “I have an instagram account myself and sometimes my search account tab suggests profiles that are demeaning to me, as a woman seeing another woman self-objectify herself. I always fear whether my young daughter is also seeing this and how she must be reacting to it. I respect her privacy and thus I don’t intervene, but back in my mind I know Instagram account is not fit for young children. But teenagers don’t understand this, as it is a ‘cool’ factor for them.”

Mrs Sheikh has tried speaking to other parents about this and says that most parents have advised their teenagers to not waste time on Instagram and do other things, instead of asking them to permanently delete their account.

So the question pops, why do people expose themselves on instagram, which didn’t exist six years ago? According to article written by Lily Bonesso in also understanding the phenomenon on this trend of ‘faking it to make it’, she writes, ‘It’s surprising how nudity and overt sexuality can still hold offence for many people on instagram. But why expose yourself on a public platform? Well, perhaps because in this narcissistic era where everybody is using social media for recognition, feedback and attention, this is the only real way to reach people. As the age old phrase goes, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’.’

Demere Kitunga, a Tanzanian feminist activist, writer and a publisher shares with Woman her views on the phenomenon of promotion of nudity on popular media. “I have two views to this, one is the commercialisation of female body, which is the part and parcel of the whole psychological make up, which projects the woman as an object. And this is juxtaposed with the growing fundamentalism exposed by both the Christians and Muslim organised religion, which pities the woman as private individual succumbed to be covered and to only be exposed to the man who owns them. So on one hand the women want to exercise their right over their own bodies and to do whatever they like to do with it. But at the same time, they get trapped into another pool where what is packaged as independence is aimed to please men.”

She continues, “Now, where do we go and where is our freedom, that is a dilemma most young girls are facing today. This media that you talk of, is just a reflection of liberal fundamentalism of the western kind. It’s not nudity itself that is a problem, it’s the way it is packaged where consumer meets its eyes – which actually projects that a woman is just an object of pleasure.”

Ms Kitunga believes that from a feminist perspective, she cannot draw the line of morality over media as that becomes a personal choice. But at the same time what is built in the social media to propagate women as an object of pleasure or sexuality is only misusing that kind of nudity that is taken completely out of context.

Where do we place morality in an era of liberalism?

But unlike Mrs Sheikh, a 26-year-old computer and technology geek in Dar es Salaam explained to Woman that he owns an Instagram account and has never faced such a scenario. In fact he said that Instagram has strong policy against nudity.

In their community guidelines section, instagram outlines what their nudity policy is and clearly warns users that they have the right to remove content they deem unsuitable. ‘We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Instagram. This includes content that show sexual intercourse, genitals and close up for fully nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples.’

It further states that ‘we have zero tolerance when it comes to sharing sexual content involving minors or threatening to post intimate images of others.’

But how do we draw the line between moral policing and liberty to do whatever one wants to do with their body?

Maria Sarungi Tsehai, a veteran in communications and the Director of Miss Universe Tanzania tells Woman that morality is something very subjective. “The definition of morality differs from person to person or religion to religion for example. I usually look at this from a broader perspective of the ‘right’ of a person. As long as whatever you do doesn’t personally intervene in the rights of anyone and you aren’t to offend somebody, I think that’s where I would put the limit,” she explains.

As a mentor of the models in Tanzania she says that the girls do receive what she terms a ‘guided talk’ on handling their virtual profiles. “We tell the girls that you have to be able to post something that you will be proud of 10 years down the road when you are married and you have children. Beyond that, if you post something that you might regret, think about what it is already doing to you now,” says Maria.

Lobbying Tanzanians out of instagram

Sometime last year, the hashtag #KickTanzaniansOutofIG was born, a movement initiated by Aurther Mandela alias Xtian Dela, a popular social media personality and TV/radio presenter in Kenya.

In an interview with Woman, Xtian explains what made him initiate the hashtag of what he dubs as a movement. “Instagram penetrated faster amongst Tanzanians and it only popularised in Kenya much later, probably a year ago. Kenyans began following a lot of Tanzanian personalities, such as Diamond and Ali Kiba. But with time, what I and other Kenyans noticed was the ‘search and explore’ pages flooded with funny posts of nude images. These posts are selected automatically based on things like people you follow or like,” Xtian begins.

He further relates that the adult content that appeared on his search and explore pages on instagram were posts from Tanzanians, because he personally followed a lot of Tanzanian personalities and celebrities and it was the same demographic that automatically filtered things on his discover page. “It got very embarrassing when I opened my instagram page in public, as such images would pop when I clicked the search and explore bar.”

Xtian explains that the pictures that appeared were very sexual and nude. “I got a huge backlash from a lot of people when I started the #KickTanzaniansOutofIG but this is something I believe in and I don’t care much how others are taking this as long as the conversation is picked and this mess is cleaned up,” he says.