1/14/05


I can't help but wonder if a part of me is gradually becoming Chadian, not necessarily something I want. It was a simple enough comment that I barely thought about, but it reflected a Chadian view of things that patronizing at best, downright misogynistic at worst.

I'd just finished a 3+ hour meeting with the rest of the teachers and administrators from Lycée Maldom Bada Abbass, my school. We had nine separate agenda items, including an exhortation to be nice to our fellow teachers, that no one subject was better or more valuable than another. I was getting incredibly frustrated, since I needed to teach for three hours that afternoon, and the Proviseur was apparently lecturing from All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. My class was supposed to be starting at 2:00, which I figured would leave me about a two-hour window to go home and wash dishes, prepare dinner for later, and set buckets outside for Ertchey to haul water. Living alone means that I have certain chores each day, and a limited amount of time to do them.

As we approached 1:00 I was drumming my fingers on the desk and thinking evil thoughts about the Proviseur- had the meeting been something important I wouldn't have minded , but I really didn't feel like I needed a lecture on basic morality. As the meeting finally wrapped up I realized that I'd have maybe 30 minutes to go home and do chores, something that simply wasn't possible. They had to get done, and with no one to them but me, I decided to skip classes for the day, as my time had been wasted for at least three hours already. I went to inform the Censeur (the equivalent of a Vice Principal) and that was when I said it.

I told him, in French, "I'm sorry but I have too much to do around the house today- I don't have a wife to do it for me."

Naturally, they thought nothing of it. Chadian males are the unquestioned leaders of the household, usually the only wage-earner, with the women remaining at home to deal with domestic responsibilities and child-raising. Even if the woman of the house does work, she will always and unquestioningly defer to her husband, their place as second-class citizens instilled in them since childhood. The Censeur understood completely, told me he'd see me tomorrow, and I went on my way. As I walked along the road between the high school and home, I stopped to ponder what I'd said.

Had I really just said that? Peace Corps makes a big deal about the importance of integrating into your adoptive community, but there are some things I have no desire to pick up from Chadian society, and I could never imagine myself making a comment like that, which seemed to come directly from America, 1953, but I had. My mother would probably have slapped me if she had heard me.

Being here as a foreigner has given me a unique opportunity to see the people and culture of Chad from an outsider's perspective, to play cultural anthropologist, I suppose. Having never studied anthropology I'm hardly an expert on the subject, but some things are clear, whether you're trained or not. At the risk of sounding holier-than-thou, and imposing my own values on another society, the attitude Chadians have towards women just seems wrong. In a half-joking (and only half, I suspect) way, someone at the US Embassy once described Chad to me as the '17th Century with cars and cell-phones.' I don't think I'd go that far in terms of the entire country, but as far as gender roles go, he might not have been that far off.

On the other hand, there are aspects of Chadian (and possible pan-African) culture that we would do well to emulate back home. The sense of family is so strong, so intense, and will do everything to help in a time of need, so it seems. The facts that aunts and uncles are called mother and father, cousins are brother and sister, and nobody would think twice about giving the last of what they have is something truly admirable, I believe. The sense of generosity where anyone who shows up during mealtime will automatically be offered food, and where people will unhesitatingly give make this society more advanced than America, in some ways. Chad still has a long way to go before it reaches the standards of the developed world, culturally and physically. As time goes on I imagine some outdated notions like the role of women in society will fade away- others though are important to preserve, and it'll be fascinating to see just what happens as Chad moves forward.

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