Murals are for Men?

I just had the satisfaction of my first COMPLETED project: a mural at a local elementary school, including a map of world and simplified children's rights. The teachers are thrilled: there are virtually no maps in the school, except a map of Cameroon and a map of Africa in the geography books used by the oldest students, so they're excited about it as a teaching tool. The students seemed pretty happy too. 

I'm excited about it too, for a variety of reasons. First, I think it's important for everyone to understand geography and the world. Here, some kids can't distinguish between South America and Africa and Cameroon. I hope this makes a small difference. 

Second, I think it's important for these kids to know their rights. Especially here, where kids routinely have do all the chores while taking care of all younger children in the house; where kids are beaten for misbehavior; where girl children rarely get to play or have a real childhood. Children face a lot of threats to their rights in schools, and that is especially true in Cameroon. Children have a right to education, including adequate materials as well as drinking water and toilets at school; these are all common challenges here. Children have a right to protection; yet some teachers trade sexual favors for better grades in a phenomenon called Notes Sexuellement Transmissibles (a play on words with "maladies sexuellement transmissibles" or, in English, STDs). But children have to know that they have these rights before they (and those who represent them) can demand that they be met. 

Third, it's beautiful and fun. No ulterior motive necessary.  

Fourth and finally, I challenged gender norms. This is the perfect example of unintended consequences; almost everything I do challenges gender norms, often ones that I'm not even aware of. Take bike riding for instance. I only ever see boys riding their bikes, so when I bike to school or just for fun, I invariably attract a lot of attention. I mean, I understand the amazed laughter when I appear inside the covered doorway of a roadside bar like a muddy, dripping helmeted ghost (rainy season is officially here). But why can't girls ride bikes just like boys, or Americans just like Cameroonians? 

Or take drinking alcohol. On another day I was running from a sudden rainstorm, this time with my postmate Danielle. We decided to have a beer and wait out the weather; and since the weather was stubborn, one beer turned into two. And two beers turned into a conversation with the elderly papas next to us, who had "NEVER seen a women drink so much." Oops. 

Or take this case, painting a mural. No one does a map project expecting to challenge gender norms (I don't think). Why would a map on a wall teach anything except geography? Because in Cameroon, art is for men. I had multiple teachers come up to me (and Danielle when she was around) to tell us that they were very impressed that we, women, were doing this art. I was surprised the first time; I responded that chez moi in the U.S., women do art more often than men. And so I learned something about Cameroon and simultaneously became aware of my own cultural gender-typing. It sounds absurd to me that men paint and women chop wood; but why is that stranger than any other job assigned to men or to women? 

So I'm going to remember that any project I do could have unexpected consequences. 

I'm going to try to remember that me and my culture, too, are guilty of gender-typing. 

And I'm just going to keep doing "men's things" like riding my bike and painting. And I'm going to keep doing "women's" things like cooking, washing laundry, cleaning the house, and sitting by the cook fire with my neighbors. But I will not be chopping any wood. Not because it's for men or for women - but because I'm clumsy and will probably lose a finger in the process.