Imenukuliwa kutoka PAMBAZUKA NEWS, Gazeti la Afrika.
TWENTY YEARS OF PROMOTING WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN AFRICA: WHAT NEXT?
Norah Matovu-Winyi
As President- Elect Barrack Obama was announced the next President of
the United States of America, African Women’s Development and
Communications Network (FEMNET) was approaching the climax of
celebrating its yearlong 20th anniversary. FEMNET was set up in 1988 by
a group of women who had the conviction about the strength of numbers in
any transformation or change process. We are very lucky to witness the
historical moment of President – Elect Obama’s election victory. There
was a lot of crying, jubilation, hugging among people from different
communities here in Kenya after the world listened to his inaugural
speech. This election is not only significant in the lives of Americans
it is for all people in the world. We want to see things change for the
better – to have a more peaceful world where the main providers of
development aid and humanitarian assistance are not the main producers
and distributors of military arms especially small arms that have caused
a lot of havoc in all regions in Africa.
When the founders of the African Women’s Development and Communications
Network (FEMNET) resolved to set up the network 20 years ago they had a
dream. They wanted to see to it that every woman in Africa is able to
live in dignity, enjoy life free of violence and deprivation and be
equal partners in the development of our dear continent Africa and in
directing its affairs. They were convinced that the more women from
different parts of Africa remained in contact with one another, the more
they would learn from each others’ experiences, provide support for one
another and build a strong women’s movement for the development of
Africa.
It is indeed commendable that our founder members took action and today
we have a very strong, well respected and reputable Network of women
organizations in Africa. This is a very good cause for celebration of 20
years achievements. The network has mobilized women at all levels to
take action to transform their lives. It has raised issues affecting
African women at regional and international levels and lobbied to ensure
that these issues are part of the mainstream agenda. Where the issues
required special attention FEMNET and its members have demanded for it.
The Network has also played a critical role of documenting African
women’s experiences and sharing them widely through seminars, dialogues
and meetings, publication of reports, newsletters, journals, email and
though its website.
As we start on the journey of the next 10 years FEMNET is fully aware
that the terrain has changed fundamentally since its inception in 1998.
There are more actors on the continent working at different levels and
on various women’s rights issues. There are multiple women’s networks
that are either issue –focused or working in particular sub- regions or
countries on selected issues. There are many more women organizations
with varying capacities and composition working at country level that
may not necessary be strategically linked with other women groups within
the same countries. National women’s network and umbrella bodies have
taken on slightly different roles as more and more women are able to
organize and lobby for their concerns through different configurations
in country, across sub - regions and in some cases covering a
considerable part of the continent. This is an indication of success
that many more women are mobilized and involved in the change and
development processes in Africa. Many have taken the stand to challenge
the patriarchal systems that have kept women in subordinate positions
for far too long and create spaces for women’s organizing and activism.
On the other hand there are many more actors to link up with who are not
necessarily well coordinated. This is a big challenge as it requires
investment of many woman-hours to just attend to the communications
received on a daily basis. As the bigger actors become more
sophisticated in their strategies there is a growing gap between the
activists working at the grassroots level and those operating at the
regional and international levels. Though the issues of concern remain
the same the approaches of the grassroots activists and those operating
more at the regional and international levels seem to be so different
and divorced from each other.
In this Special issue of Pambazuka you will find a story on a dialogue
FEMNET held during the AWID Conference in Cape Town, South Africa from
the 14th – 17th of November 2008. The women activists operating at the
grassroots levels strongly expressed their concerns about the
disconnection between women’s grassroots activism and the advocacy work
at regional and international levels. They recommended that strategies
must be devised specifically by FEMNET to minimize this gap.
Another story in this Special issue shares about the ceremony at which
the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social
Development flagged off the three buses that are involved in the 2008
Men Travelling Conference (MTC). This is an annual event organized by
FEMNET in partnership with the Men for Gender Equality Now (MEGEN –
Kenya) as part of the 16 days of activism against gender – based
violence (GBV). The members of MEGEN (majority are men) go out in
different parts of the country to mobilize people to say No to GBV. They
use drama, music, printed materials and informal discussion fora to
share the message of the MTC.
The flagging off ceremony was held a Mathare North Social Centre.
Mathare is a densely populated community. The three hours we spent with
the members of this community made it very clear that as women feminists
and activists we urgently need to get back to the basics if we are to
build a critical mass of people to support the change we want to see in
our societies and communities during our lifetime. Theorizing and
intellectualism is good and necessary for reaching out to our
governments and other intellectuals. However we need more foot soldiers,
visionary leaders, more Mother Theresas who are willing and committed to
spend less time in board rooms and more quality time in the field, with
the people.
We have to inspire people to take action in order to realize their dream
of having better services, access to clean and safe water sources,
proper drainage and sanitation systems, clean and safer environments,
better roads and planning of our cities and townships, more women
leaders, better health facilities and services, communities free of
violence.
Declarations and resolutions adopted in five star hotels have not
resulted in the change we desire to see. The hit-and-run strategies that
many organizations are engaged in will not and cannot bring about
transformation of our continent and the improved status of women in
Africa. It is time to change gear and get back to the basics.
It is on this premise that FEMNET for the next 10 years will lead by
example to enable activists to get back to basics. We shall continue to
advocate and facilitate communication on issues that are of concern to
women specifically for purposes of inspiring action. We shall commit
more time and resources to bridge the gap between the board room work
and activism and women’s grassroots organizing. This will be done by
strengthening our network in the region and collaborating with other
networks and regional organizations working on the promotion of women’s
rights in Africa. We shall provide platforms for activists operating at
different levels in the region to engage more often. We shall mobilize
resources to support the documentation of the experiences of women’s
grassroots organizing to ensure that these experiences inform our
lobbying and advocacy work at the regional and international levels.
* Norah Matovu is the Executive Director of FEMNET.
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