Women Must Liberate Themselves!
- Category: Gender
- Date 19-12-2004
- 326 views
If I were Gertrude Mongella, I would do one of the two options: form a political party and vie for the Presidency of the United Republic of Tanzania on that ticket, or aggressively campaign within the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) to be fronted for Presindency in the forthcoming elections. This would be a good step in enhancing the agenda for the emamcipation of women which has remained a boring song that is never backed by practical endeavour to make real impact. Hon. Mongella has recognised the sad fact that presently, there is no political party with a woman as a chairperson in the country!
Addressing the National Political Parties Symposium in Dar es Salaam, Ms Gertrude Mongella, the President of the African Parliament, lamented that women and youth were ruled by fear which is an enemy of democracy. Yet, she noted that all potical leaders owe their political success to women, and thus, she called on political parties to deliberately encourage and and promote women to hold leadership positions. (see: Corrupt leaders fail to fight corruption, says Mongella, Sunday Citizen 12th December 2004, page 3).
The women’s liberation movement worldwide has delivered little success so far in as far as promoting the rights and welfare of women is concerned. Many women activists have quickly abandoned their cause the moment they catch the attention of influential persons who recognise their potential and agendas, and second them to positions where they could best advocate their issues with meaningful success. In the majority of cases, supporting a woman has been a form of corruption; an indirect way to delude women into believing that their mission is understood and shared. The beneficiary women naturally pay back by keeping qiuet, as they wait for their male patrons to do more and more, untill nothing is done.
Women must be assertive if they are genuiney interested in uplifting their status and causing equality of opportunites with men. This rotates around their political participation and activism, especially by those who have the means and are already empowered through access either to education or economic opportunities.
Politics has been defined as a science of managing society, but it cannot be regarded as a bed of roses, yet being a dirty game, requires a determined commitment to move things through even taking risks. This may not necessarily be happening in Tanzania but many people who have brought significant contributions and transformations in societies have had to contend with the daunting dangers of intimidation, targeted harassment, confrontation, illegal arrests, death-threats, or even face death itself. That is how early African politicians were able to stand up to the arrogant, oppressive systems of the colonialists, to turn the tide in favour of their beliefs and goals.
In the women’s world however, the cancer of “talk, then wait and see” is taking its toll. Women form the majority in the society but they tend to wait for men to lead, nominate, appoint or back them to take particular positions; they forget that many men would not mind having all the privileged positions to themselves. The few crumbs thrown to the few vocal women sometimes serve to silence and dissuade them from their missions. When supported, women easily become bedfellows with their male exploiters, and the plight of the disadvantaged women is easily forgotten but may be mentioned only in passing. The appointment of women to senior positions of responsibilities is usally sheer windowdressing, and automatically degenerates into a policy of appeasement other than genuine empowerment.
Dictatorship, injustice, mistreatment, and general male dominance still abound in the majority of families. The plight of women in society has too been exploited for some to earn a living. Marginalisation of women has reached a level where it benefits some proclaimed gender activists who would form NGOs and get donor funding.
In the society that is largely patreneal, the few women who get adopted to key positions end up supporting and consequently lending credence to the status quo. In many cases, women’s emancipation has assumed personal, selfish undertones, since whoever accesses a position of leadership does not only rejoice over the perceived personal prowess, she also gets her eyes on how to access the next benefit by any means, including wholesomely embracing and promoting men’s dominance in most aspects of political and general social life.
That is one reason Hon.Mongella’s remark is riddled with inherent weaknesses when she points out that political parties should “encourage and promote” women in leadership, because the women themselves should come out and demand to take up such senior positions in government and politics. This struggle for the empowerment of women must not stop at mere verbal pronouncements; the women ought to adopt a more radical stand that is clearly proactive. No known political party has adopted a policy of keeping women outside its leadership parameters, and neither has the government barred women from forming political parties. It is rather the women who are shying away from what they must do.
Presently, there are a number of initiatives to resolve the conflicts that remain a plague to Africa. Still, the newly elected President of the African Parliament is largely unheard of in such initiatives, yet it is acknowledged that being peaceful, women can be better negotiators. However, Hon. Mongella has assumed a backseat and left the teering wheel to Mkapa, Mbeki or Obasanjo.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citizen