T-Shirt Messages Do Not Mean Support

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How many T-shirts do you have? It’s a tough question because we never count them, but one thing for sure, they all have some messages on the chest. They are not plain like army and navy tees. I wanted to say we wear them during the day on top of jeans and skirts, then remembered we also use T-shirts as under garments like vests, my uncles and grandpa used to wear.

Presently, in 2024, our T-shirt collection is basically a billboard montage of likes and dislikes, fact and fiction and calendars for concerts, marathons, protest marches you name it. Messages on our chest are supposed to be a reflection on how we think and feel, how we want the world to be, change the status quo if we can.

But the reality is that I may not believe in the message on my T-shirt, at all.  Maybe I was somewhere and somebody screamed: “They’re giving out free T-shirts just around the corner.” Why not? Who doesn’t want a free piece of clothing? To you, yes, but it is an election tool for the campaign manager. She convinced the presidential or mayoral candidate that the media is a sucker for T-shirts. They capture them on video then write headlines like, ‘thousands of Orange Party supporters turned up for the rally.’

Don’t let the T-shirt I’m wearing fool you. I’m a secret agent for the other point of view. We have a whole box in the office, and give them out to our spies. Call it a business expense. That’s why you cannot assume that I support your cause. I’m at the rally to collect data, especially faces.

Peer pressure. We also buy T-shirts because of annual protests. You feel out of place when everybody around you talks about the T-shirt colour they’ll be wearing at the end of June. It’s unfortunate, but that's the way it is. The sentiment is that you do not support us, if you’re not wearing the message. Maybe I do, but the color is bad for doing the laundry. It will run through all the clothes in the machine.

Remember the Yoruba proverb: when lizards are on the wall, you don’t know which one is pregnant.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Blogger Without Borders

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