Historically the world has been a male dominated space. A woman has been regarded as secondary species to a primary species called man. Almost all religions and cultures held the view that this is the man’s world. The world out there believed that a woman’s place is in the kitchen or the woman’s place is in the bedroom.
All of the above led to a situation whereby by a woman became dependent upon a man for almost everything under the sun. I understand that the girl was not afforded an opportunity to attain a decent schooling for her for herself. If she did she was allowed to get educated only to a certain level determined by a man. As a result it became very impossible a woman to advance herself careewise as the corporate world became a male domain.
One has goat to understand that even though a woman was not vocal about her situation it does not mean that she was not dissatisfied with her condition. I believe that a woman has always wished that one day she get’s free from her shackles and that once it happens she will repay for all the decades that she has been shackled.
With regards to a change in the world’s economies, particularly political changes, the role of a woman began to be seen in a different light. I would like to support my statement from a South African perspective as I am a South African citizen.
After the dawning of liberation in April 1994 the economy went into some serious overhaul as a result of persuasion of new political objectives by the new democratic government. We begun to hear words such as Black Economic Empowerment (BEE),
Affirmative Action (AA), Employment Equity (EE) and so forth. All those changes we done in order to redress the political disparities engendered by the previous regime particularly to black and women of all race. The focus of this article is however on women across the globe.
Structural changes in the socio-political and economic make up of the world’s political order has ushered an era where a woman is a key player. In South Africa we began to witness a woman advancing into powerful leadership position both in the private and public sectors of the economy. A woman also played a key role a rising entrepreneur. Not only in the business and leadership spheres did a powerful woman emerge, but also in other spheres such as sports, film industry, music industry and so forth.
Not every woman had a breakthrough in life. However the successful one became inspirational to the other. Subsequently the other woman began to adore the achievements of the successful woman and had to device means that she could use to also attain success in life like the successful woman. The woman all over the world did everything to improve her position, especially her financial position. Some of the strategies she employed were excellent while others were socially unacceptable. One of the socially unacceptable means she opted for in what is commonly known as GOLD DIGGING in South Africa. In South Africa and the world at large there are trends whereby women allow themselves to get married to men as old as their fathers, usually rich men them main aim being to get themselves financial security. Home in South Africa for example the media often stories about a celebrity socialite girl by the name of Khanyi Mabu, who is also known as Gold digger. She was apparently married to a man as old as his father and has always being caught up in controversial stories covered by the media. There’s always been questions attempting to understand if she married Mandla Mthembu out of love or if she did it for the sake of his riches. After separating with her hubby she went for another who’s also her daddy’s size and rich also, and according to her there is nothing wrong with it. Is gold digging right or wrong? I am not the one to judge.
I think people look at gold digging from one facet only. According to me gold digging is a multi facet phenomena that needs to be thoroughly explored for us to have a more clearer and deeper understanding of it. We need to draw a line as to where it actually begins. People see gold digging as reported by the media in case of celebs such Khanyi Mbau and her old and rich lovers. I am convienced that gold digging stretches far more than that and I believe it has been around for ages. In fact I believe that a lot of marriages amongst ordinary people are not base upon a true union of lover but rather based on gold digging of some sort, just that the people engaged may have not been public figures and therefore no one noticed.
There is a custom in South Africa practiced by all black cultures called iLobolo. Directly translated in mean ‘payment of the bridal price’. If a man decides to get married the bride’s family is going to charge iLobolo for releasing their daughter the groom’s family. There is nothing wrong at all with the payment of iLobolo. It’s great custom that as been practiced for ages. However as times went by this custom got seriously abused. Some families began to charge incredible iLobolo, citing all the ‘good’ reasons for doing so. This practice shifted from the real meaning and purpose of iLobolo phenomena. Now according to me that is gold digging because now people want to make a fortune out of it. In the end a single conclusion can be drawn out of all this, gold digging, gold digging and more gold digging. I can safely say that a lot of parents have given their daughters of a self financial gain out of iLobolo. I hope you see now how far stretched gold digging is.
Far away from the thinking that gold digging relates to a situation whereby young girls give allow themselves to be married by old rich men for financial gains, the world has got to engage into a paradigm shift regarding this issue. A lot of young women out there married ordinary people such as blue collar workers for as long as they believed that they could have a secured financial future if they did so, what do you call that….ofcoarse gold digging. The other error is that we only look at females as gold digging potentials. The fact that some fathers make a fortune out of iLobolo wakes us to the fact that men also should be viewed as gold digging potentials. Besides that men have dated and got married for financial security. Who knows, we may be so critical to those that we view as gold diggers yet we might be born out of gold digging relationships.
I am not condoning gold digging as practised by the likes of celebrity socialites across the globe, all I am saying is let us look at issues at a much broader spectrum. If we want to correct any kind of problem in life we must get into the wisdom of looking at the past, the present and the future. We must also understand that we may not get our solution overnight but things may be sorted out after some time for as long as we strive to be objective and broad minded at all times.
In conclusion I would like to say we are the masters of our destiny, we are our outcomes. What we are today is the result of our thinking and the resultant behaviours we had yesterday. Gold digging did not fall from the sky but it is the direct outcome of the thinking patterns held by our predescesers. As masters we have got to predefine our destiny so that whatever outcomes we land at should be what we consciously opted for.
The practice of gold digging is indicative of the inner urge for man to succeed. It is not a crime to seek for success in life, in fact it is the way to go. You don’t have to be a gold digger to succeed in life because you hold the ability to create your own success in life. Remember that you are your outcomes. What you are today is the outcome of thoughts, action and behaviours had yesterday. The holy scriptures say ‘As a man thinks, so is he’. The fact that man holds an inner urge to succeed justifies that man can achieve whatever he wants, the only thing we have to do is believe in our abilities, think the right thoughts and practice the right behaviour stemming from our good thinking patterns and finally earn our predetermined success.
Finally, I want to say that success is not only measured by the size of your wallet. Money is only one of the measure that make up what we call success and it is not the sole determinant of success.
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