The day #MarketMarch started a conversation against harassment of women

You must have been to markets. You must have been touched by unwanted grubby hands of sellers, aiming to get your attention in those markets or bare entitled men who just grab at women because they feel entitled to. It’s very rude and never pretty.

A few weeks ago, Pulse chatted with the #MarketMarch founder, Damilola Marcus AKA Omoge Dami on the prospects and significance of #MarketMarch.

It was a lovely chat about a necessary issue that Dami hoped her team could rectify. Although she was optimistic about prospects, I’m not sure even Dami could have predicted how successful the first March would be.

Earlier today around 12 pm, young protesters, donning yellow tees and carrying placards marched on Yaba market while speaking their minds and bravely telling sellers not to touch them.

Like anything from an entitled people afraid of change, the sellers fought back like a park of fascist hyenas, trying to reclaim a land that was never theirs from the true owners.

It was an acid bath of entitlement, toxic masculinity and shameful doses of equally toxic conservatism from a set of people governed by shameful ignorance who abhor a change that will streamline their excesses.

In viral videos, you could see men who bask in the torture of women touch women just because they can. You could hear the needless catcalls of "Ashawo,” for doing nothing wrong.

Some of these men also reportedly called the male protesters, aiding the cause “gay,” what a shame. If only these men would think of their own children.

Grown men can be seen in some videos, forming their own caucus to drown the voices of protesters. These videos are a sad representation of the average entitled Nigerian man.

Habits are terrible, but in the fight back from these traders lies the victory; the message touched them and triggered an emotional response. If there was anything #MarketMarch ever needed, it was the reaction.

Nothing is given, you take it. The conversations have also started. As I write this at 8:53 pm on December 15, 2018, “Yaba” is the number one trending topic on Twitter Nigeria because of #MarketMarch.

#MarketMarch and #MarketMarchYaba should be proud. Everything is going right on schedule. Nobody could have anticipated this — at least, I didn’t.

See some Twitter reactions here;

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