Thursday, April 19, 2012

The cake and the controversy...


So I saw this news somewhere online. The picture is for a fact the weirdest thing I have seen in a long time. A cake shaped to look like an African woman. And Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, the Swedish Minister for Culture was cutting the cake at the very core of womanhood and laughing so hard.

Hmmm...

This is not a very good picture Madame

The explanation goes thus. An Afro Swedish man Makode Aj Linde who has been against female genital mutilation for years came up with this concept to draw attention to female genital mutilation. 

"The cake eating party was intended to highlight the problem of female circumcision”. 

Hmmm....


So what other way to draw attention to the issue but to have a cake that depicts an African woman and have its genitalia cut and given to it to eat? And oh! The artist said the clown-like head is actually his head.  You begin to question what on earth the matter with some people is!

Well, just because you are an artist doesn’t mean you can actually come up with a good concept to fight a cause. I am not surprised that this act is being seen as racist. It is distasteful, so off point and the Swedish minister should have known better. I wouldn’t walk into a room full of black people and look at a cake of a Caucasian man’s torso and cut it up with a smile on my face for whatever reason. Other ways to draw attention to the evils of female circumcision could have been exploited. Did you notice the cake wasn’t exactly shaped to be beautiful?  

And yeah, the Swedish minister already said the man behind the cake should be asked the meaning behind the ‘madness’ as she‘s being called to resign by some pro African groups. In other words, she just her hands off the issue and told our Afro Swedish brother to defend himself.

Africa, fight your own causes, decry the evil that is associated with you so that you may not be continually mocked. You do not deserve it.

Female circumcision is wrong. It is evil and should be stopped. I must say the grotesque cake reminded me of that though. And annoyed me in the process.

Peace and unity.

Lily Johnson

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7 comments:

  1. Cake most macabre!

    Its contextual. Its not like our local artists don't make exaggerated sculptures that look like this but when another society represents us thus, its not welcomed.
    A bit like the use of the word 'nigger' by non blacks..

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  2. @Ginger: I have issues with the way it was used. If it was a sculpture, nobody would bat an eyelid. But a cake, and it being cut there and fed back to it? No, that is just terribly weird.

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  3. saw this cake on internet crying when it been shared lol. lovely blog u got here, lurv ur stuffs.
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    ReplyDelete
  4. @kim bim: Thanks for following. I am off to your blog.

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  5. Its repulsive... both the artist and the Swedish minister is sick

    As well as all those who still circumcise females

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  6. @Nutty J: The whole thing is just somehow. It's a shame they didn't find a suitable way of going about such a worthy cause.

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  7. I am appalled and disgusted. This was the best way they came up with to fight this cause? Shame on them. I look forward to hearing more of what you have to say. :)

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