So, last time I posted I wrote about the BBC’s new reality show to find a disabled super model, and you might have thought that the Beeb had reached the pinnacle of the bizarre with that show, but you would be wrong. New heights on bizzaro mountain have been reached this week, with BBC 2’s Tribal Wives.
The premise is this: bored Western woman, dragged down with a 9-5 existence and the demands of ‘having it all,’ gets shipped to Africa, where she has to spend a month living with an African tribe. Nope, not kidding.
This week’s episode followed thirty-six year old Yvonne Power from Blackpool, single mother of three, who went to live with the Himba tribe in Namibia. At first I was fully prepared for an hour of excruciating television, watching a clueless Westerner bitch about having to live without cuticle cream and humiliate herself in front of a tribe of bemused Namibians. And at first it certainly seemed like that was what I was going to get. I had to hide behind a cushion when Yvonne attempted tribal dancing, and this dialogue, which she exchanged with the Himba women when she first arrived, seemed to be a taste of things to come:
Yvonne: I’m so pleased to meet you! And I love your hair!
Himba woman: Is that what she’s come for? Our hair?
But Yvonne proved to be gamer than I gave her credit for. Certainly she coped better with being roped into ritually disemboweling a goat than I would have done. And she adapted quickly to the Himba tradition of ’smoking’ oneself in order to get rid of body odour, rather than washing with water. But Himba women are tough. They have their bottom teeth knocked out at the age of ten - a mark of beauty - and making a sound during childbirth is considered a sign of weakness. Needless to say, they had little sympathy for Yvonne when she started crying because she missed her children.
I was expecting to deride this programme as exploitative and tacky, but watching Yvonne oh-so-predictably ‘find herself’ during her stay with the Himba proved to be remarkably enjoyable and interesting. I sympathised with her at the conflict she felt watching a twelve-year-old girl being forced into marriage, but I also appreciated her for quitting her whining and pitching in to help when village resources were crippled during a drought.
I can’t decide whether I hope next week they get some irritating princessy type woman to shack up in a mud hut and cope without eye-liner for a month, or whether I hope the show continues in this vein - sensitively portraying the clash between two cultures, and the common ground that can still be reached. Both options have their appeal.
You can catch Tribal Wives on BBC2 on Wednesday nights, or at any time on the BBC iPlayer.
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July 17th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
This is Yvonne “Himba” episode 4.
I think what you have to take on board is that they film over sixty hours, which they condense into a one hour show all in the name of good tv.
You had to hide behind a cushion, seeing my very poor attempt at the dancing, believe me, so was I…….
I just wanted to say, that the one thing that I have taken back from my experience out there is that I feel that as women in the westeren world, we are totally indoctrinated on growing up as fast as we can, do well at school, go to uni, get a good job, get married have 2.4 children and BINGO! We are supposed to be happy!
Although we have far more choices here, are we actually any happier?
We are under so much pressure trying to balance careers with having a family, we are pressured into losing baby weight within a week post natal, and encouraged to live on a diet of lettuce leaves.
Are our children any happier, being thrown into childcare as soon as possible, because we need the second income to make the mortgage payments?
I personally feel because we are surrounded by so much pressure, to do everything, we have lost sight of what is really important.
I cannot think of one woman in this country today that I would be consider a role model compared to those of the 20th century.
I feel that all the women within the tribes throughout the series all have a common theme, they have found peace, contentment and happiness from within themselves. Indeed, although I was only out there for a month, I really feel that I have managed to embrace this. I really feel a peace, a love and a deep contentment from within.
Many struggle on for years, to have this level of contentment.
Before I went out to my tribe, I felt so fragmentaed with the ghosts from my own past and really struggled with who I was, and I suppose in retrospect, actually really didnt really like the person whom I saw in the mirror
I feel truly blessed to have been given the opportunity of this experience and an added bonus, was accepting me.
However, I do think my hair extentions and spray tan were a bit ott
xx
July 17th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Cos you have I will too… follow the tribe and all that ….
Yes we learned heaps and god forgive us we now feel we can not keep still and quiet? I think that is good thing not bad, Surely you would share what you have found ?All we hear is why did you go? What about why did they let us go there?
Lets stop and consider how and what we learned? What happens if we destroy cultures before we learn the value of each of them?
I think personally the BBC underestimated the woman they chose we are not corporate citizens content with the edited version, You can not silence us for a £1? ( so don’t worry about your license fee ) Interestingly I don’t think that any amount of money would make a difference . Sorry guys but you did ask for comment . What did we really see? What was edited? But most of all what did we learn ?
July 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Yvonne and bopo, thanks for sharing part of your sides of the story. It seems like it must have been a truly amazing experience.