Loin cloth twins fight for tradition
January 16, 2006 Edition 1
Michael Hartnack
Twin Zimbabwean brothers have been charged with indecent exposure after strolling to an upmarket Harare shopping mall wearing only traditional goat-skin loin cloths.
The Sunday Mail reported yesterday that Tafadzwa and Tapiwanashe Fichiani, both 22, returned recently from Britain after spending two years there, vowing to promote an authentically African lifestyle.
The twins were arrested at their home in Mount Pleasant, a plush Harare suburb, after complaints by indignant shoppers about their revealing attire, a police official told the newspaper. They were released pending prosecution.
Tafadzwa Fichiani told the paper they would continue wearing the loin cloths, known as nhembe, regardless of the penalty: a maximum fine of Z$25 000 (about R1,50).
"We do not care what people say or think about us, as we regard them as colonised," Tapiwanashe said. "Why do they laugh at someone wearing nhembe, yet their ancestors wore nhembe before they were colonised?"
Despite coming from a wealthy family, the two refuse to sleep on Western-style beds and are vegetarians. They plan to move out of their expensive house to continue "God's work". - Sapa-AP
