The ManicaPost
Freedom Mupanedemo : Post Correspondent
Occasionally, we come across bearded women but (maybe because of culture), rarely do we come across one nurturing a long cotton tuft white goatee-beard, with an equally flourishing moustache and an accompanying soul-patch under the lower lip.
| Bizarre and unthinkable! |
But not for Laizah Ndebele (80), who has since shrugged off any worries about shaving her outstanding beard which is now a combination of a goatee, a horseshoe moustache and a soul patch. Just a glance at her is enough to tell that here is a woman who has resigned and succumbed to hormonal fate.
As age would have it, the beard is now grey, quite in sync with someone in her late 80s.
However, in more civilised and entrepreneurial societies where a disadvantage can quickly be turned into an advantage, she could have made it into the Guinness Books of Records as the longest goatee bearded woman.
But not in Zimbabwe and indeed Africa where gender stereotypes, myth and mystery, opine the public court of justice.
So, for sporting goatee beard, Gogo Ndebele from Gokwe in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province, despite her old age, still, has to endure the stereotypes and live a condemned life. Instead of turning her hormonal condition into a fortune, just like Sultan Kosan of Turkey who is today touted as the world’s tallest man despite his condition regarded by some as a disability or the late Chandra Bahadur Dangi, that primordial dwarf from Nepal who earned himself medals as the world’s shortest man, Gogo Ndebele’s condition has brought her untold suffering since birth.
“During my days as a teenage girl, I would spend most of my time trying to bust my beard, shaving and at times using match sticks to burning out my bushy chin. This did little help because for a woman in our society to grow beard it’s a curse, they call you names and owing to my condition, I grew up a laughing stock in the village,” revealed the now weary Gogo Ndlovu.
With all men shunning her, she had to develop the guts and approached a village man before proposing love to him.
Luckily the man accepted her and they got married for 40 years but as fate would have it, they could not bear any child until her husband died many years back.
“After the death of my husband who was of Malawian descent, I then went and stayed with the only brother of mine who accepted my condition but he also died,” she narrated.
With the death of her husband and later her brother, Gogo Ndebele was left with nowhere to stay and had to seek refuge at Gokwe District Hospital where she stayed for a year.
She said she could not continue staying in the village where she remained at the receiving end with everyone imputing her a witch.
After spending a year at Gokwe Hospital, Gogo Ndebele was then referred to the Department of Social Welfare before she was then taken to Batanai Old People’s Home in Gweru.
“When I went to Gokwe District Hospital I feigned illness and got admitted. After sometime, the authorities at the hospital decided to discharge me after they said I was now in a good condition and that’s when I then revealed to them that I have nowhere to go. I told them that my relatives had disowned me and also the people in my village because they said I was bearded and therefore a witch,” narrated Gogo Ndebele.
At the old people’s home, she feels at home but despite her love to socialise, she hasn’t made any friends there. There are 13 inmates at Batanai Old People’s Home, eight men and four elderly women but Gogo Ndebele has not made any friends for the past 8 years she has been there. Is it because the inmates at the old people are also despising Gogo Ndebele for her hormonal condition?
The old people’s home matron, Mrs Joyce Bomvu, has a different reason why Gogo Ndebele has not made any friend despite the fact that she is always jovial.
“When she initially came here about eight years ago, she could interact and occasionally take a walk with other inmates but she struggles to walk now and is always indoors and maybe this is why she feels lonely now. The other challenge is that she is Ndebele and most of our inmates cannot speak Ndebele,” said Matron Bomvu.But for Gogo Ndebele, life goes on and she has left her beard to grow with reckless abandon. She doesn’t care! But she feels proud about herself now.
“My beard has grown long now and I don’t care any longer. I have told the matron not to worry themselves and leave me like this. It’s who I am.” – Zimpapers Syndication Services.
