It is likely that by the time your parent tried to sit you down for “the talk” you had already acquired some smaller-nyana information about it; enough to assure you that this is not the kind of talk that you were willing to endure with umzali.
If your parent persisted and was able to circumvent all of your beating around the proverbial bush tactics (most of which had you spontaneously volunteering to mow the lawn or cook Sunday Lunch much to your parent’s satisfaction) s/he probably opened with a sheepish ... “tell me, what you know about sex?” Which probably left you panicked: how much do you reveal? If you reveal too much knowledge the parent might assume you are partaking in the carnal pleasures; but if you admitted to knowing entirely too little, they might be compelled to give you the detail (which you did not want to learn from your parent anyway); so you simply cast your eye downward in embarrassment and hope that the episode would pass.
If you had to endure Sex Ed in school then you were lucky to witness an overhead transparency (that is what we called it my day) detailing the male and female reproductive organs and their functions. This class was given to the girls while the boys played soccer outside, never as a mixed group. This at least gave you technical knowhow that at least left you secure that you knew what parts where which and how they functioned.
Religious schools invited guests from affiliate organisations who either came to preach abstinence or sought to “expose” the sinful realities of pre-marital sex through puzzling metaphors such as the use of rubber bands or sticky tape.
If you received your education in the street (aka. your peers); you heard frequently who was relating with whom in which corners of the school but little about technique. Everyone talks about the do, but no one talks about how to do the do. So what are you going to do?
Photographer // DiaanMynhardt
There only sex education i got was when my grandmother gave me money to buy condoms. I think sex education from the streets is much more exciting than it coming from your parents.
"omunye nomunye usupporta umntwana wake. Niks macedisana.", was the closest to the "talk" that MaQwabe was wiling to offer. After which she will close with, "Uzobona.". Of course this happened whenever a lady friend, classmate or my friend's cousin came by or called the house. Everything else was trial and error.
#corrected
When i left for 1st year varsity my pops gave a raincoat. He said the weather out there was bad. I unfolded the raincoat and there was a box with a 100 Choice condoms. Metaphor and pun intended, case closed, not another word was said.
My dad tried to explain the birds and bees to me but it didnt make sense why a bird and a bee would fornicate. The one is too big and the other is too small ... and he looked uncomfortable explaining anyways. I decided to listen to Skhumbozo's version of sex education - and obviously one an shapa shapa. Guys go into details about sex though - we just say we hit it and leave it there.
I think its even harder as black people to talk about sex, our cultures have too many boundaries around that subject - since most of us dont go to mountains [since there are no mountains to go to in the townships]
lol; you all had some interesting lessons
yeah it was that awkward moment ...