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Tinopona Katsande

Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
THE urge to photograph everything reaches its nadir with video recordings made by couples making love, the so-called sex “tapes” although obviously there is now no tape.Somehow these leak, as two have in Zimbabwe: Stunner-Pokello and Tinopona Katsande and a yet unidentified ex-boyfriend.

But the questions to ask is what is the reason for recording sex tapes? Who would in their right senses record a sex tape?
According to Tinopona or Tin Tin her tape got leaked after her phone was stolen a year ago.

On why she recorded it in the first place, she said: “The video was for private consumption and was an intimate action between me and my partner.”

As for Pokello she said the tape was a “mistake” which she regretted. We sought explanations from different experts including sociologists, academics and traditionalists to find out just what goes on in the minds of those who record themselves making love.

Talk show host Rebecca Chisamba popularly known to ZBCTV audiences as Mai Chisamba described sex tapes as “cheap fame” saying parents and children are to blame.

“Quite honestly, things have changed and parents no longer sit down with their children to teach them our values. For me it is basically cheap fame which signals the end of the world. Those people who record themselves having sex have no values. As we grew up there were no such things because sex was something private just like mudzi webwe.

“There is need to go back to our traditional values and restore those values that made us a people with self-pride. While it is the children who are doing it, I think as parents we are also to blame,” Mai Chisamba said.

Dr Nhamo Mhiripiri from the Midlands State University said the recording of sex tapes was a result of the influence of new media.
“It’s not strange that the sex tapes are recorded for personal gratification by the partners. But one wonders whether it was deliberately distributed or not. But from the two or three sex tapes that have been leaked we noted that it was the male partner who was implicated in the distribution.

“It is a sick male ego, I say this because it is about the idea of conquest which only comes from a sick mind. Sex is meant for two people but I know it’s a kind of psychosis where some people gang rape or even exchange partners. We have a censorship board which should ensure that such material are not circulated,” he said.

Musekiwa Makwanya, a social worker, said one has to be a “meticulous record keeper” for them to record a sex tape.
“This is because sex by nature a human behaviour and in one way or the other people make sexual insinuation either through jokes or dance. In my view recording sex tapes is a way of fantasising. Some people enjoy seeing themselves making love for self-gratification.

“Unfortunately, sex is not a spectator sport because you can never control any material that is recorded. This is why we have such things as WikiLeaks because it is hard to control any recorded material. And when these things are circulated we say they have been leaked suggesting that they were not meant for distribution.

“For those who record sex tapes they take comfort in that everybody has sex and it has become a trend now to record through the use of cheap gadgets and the desire is to get satisfaction. For me there are two strange things that people derive satisfaction one is through death.  They kill themselves and get satisfied. Obviously, something would have gone wrong in the way they think,” Makwanya said.

He said it was a lesson for other people who risked recording themselves in the nude hoping they would keep the tape under lock and key.