Author: African Women's Development Fund

Until recently I thought “wife beating” occurred mainly in rural communities amongst illiterate folks and not in urban areas like Accra.

The whole neighbourhood of Nyaniba Estate was deprived of their sleep last night when a scream of a little girl woke us all up, ‘daddy stop, daddy stop!!!!’ was all we kept hearing. As happens in many Ghanaian communities, people both young and old rushed out of their beds, some with towels tied around their waist, others wearing boxer shorts, others with “wrappers”, managed to find their way to the house where the crying was coming from.

The Mrs. of the house was half naked with blood on her body and with puffy eyes. According to the male perpetrator, his wife’s phone rang at about 1.30 am and she picked up the phone to speak with the caller when her husband asked who the caller was, the woman said ‘I will tell you in the morning’. Out of anger the man decided to put his muscles to the test by beating his wife.

My worry and confusion is that this is a well known and ‘respected’ man in society. The personal should be political; we must hold our leaders accountable for their personal lives as well. Our homes are full of ‘boxers’ and lions as husbands. Yet on Monday morning these same men are well dressed in the best of suits and ties. Are these the kind of Managers, Directors and Executives we work with? Mercy Lord!!!!!

So after last night’s incident, I tried to link ‘girlhood’ to womanhood. Is beating and suffering part of womanhood. As a child you were beaten for the slightest mistake. At that stage all you want to do is grow and become an adult, little did you know that even as an adult woman in Africa beating is possible?

All who still think like I used to, that wife beating is the preserve of the ‘illiterate’ should sleep with an ear open and I am sure will hear a cry of another woman being beaten.

We should as young women, be able to smell an abusive relationship a mile away before we get entangled into marriage with partners who may be potentially violent.

Hilda Gorluuh
Programme Assistant
Grants Department, AWDF

On the 18th of June, AWDF held its very first book club meeting for staff. This was an informal gathering of staff whom convened to discuss the topic of women global leaders. Each woman shared their stories from books they individually read which related to the topic of global female leaders. I enjoyed listening to the accounts of each woman’s stories. I myself do not have such a vast collection of African female authors, so after today’s meeting, I became more inspired to seek such authors and genre’s of books. I personally believe that having this sort of informal meeting is a really good way to have a forum where women can not only learn about the contributions and effects of other women, but engage discussion on issues African women face.

One recommendation I would have in order to promote a dialogue that brings into conversation the international shared struggle amongst women would be to incorporate the stories of women across the different continents. Often I’ve observed that within the women’s movement there are so many varying efforts to unite one certain group of women’s causes and then another’s. These efforts are very disconnected in the sense that women are not united so not all women are listening to the other group of women’s distresses or issues which need attention. As a result, I would provide the recommendation of looking into other women authors from around the world who speak of their respective struggles in order to generate a different approach towards issues talked about when discussing women’s rights and how to attain what the women’s rights movement is established to attain. I like the atmosphere of meetings like these and I look forward to more.

I had a few couple of favorites amongst the titles discussed. I am expecially keen on reading “Heart of Fire”, Unbowed”, “Left to tell”, “Aman story of a Somalian girl”, “The Struggle of Winnie Mandela” and many more! Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to the meeting comprised of women under 25 who met this week to discuss the millennium goals but I will try to make it to the next meeting.

Hawwa Muhammad
Political Science, Rutgers University ’09
AWDF intern

I recently read Wangari Maathai’s autobiography Unbowed in preparation for AWDF’s first book club meeting which will be held this Friday and my immediate reaction is Wow! The story of Wangari is truly an inspirational one. Wangari makes me want to go out, challenge the politicians about corruption and get thrown in jail for my efforts. Okay, not quite like that but that is what she did time and time again in her promotion of green belts across Kenya and other parts of the world. The key message for me in Wangari’s autobiography is that individuals can make a difference. I just visited the Green Belt Movement’s website and Green Belt Movement Kenya has participated in planting more than 30 million trees! Now that’s a legacy that anyone would be proud to leave behind.

In my opinion there are many lessons that young women can take from Wangari’s autobiography. (When I talk of young women I generally mean women aged 20 – 30) I am hoping that if women critically consider some of these issues at an early age it will prevent unnecessary heartache, pain and regrets in the future.

When Wangari got married her husband’s family expected her to take her husband’s name. Although she was initially against the idea, she capitulated. In her own words:

‘The practice of using the title ‘Mrs.’ after marriage, followed by the husband’s surname, was introduced by the British and I didn’t see why I had to adopt it. True that is what everybody else in the emerging elite class did, and not doing it seemed to suggest that I did not quite love Mwangi and his family. Largely to demonstrate that this was not the case, I agreed, but put a hyphen between the two surnames. Eventually I stopped using the hyphen and even dropped my maiden name for day-to-day correspondence.’

Can you imagine that after changing her name for her husband, joining him on the campaign trail in order to fulfil his political ambitions and performing all those other duties that ‘good African’ women perform for their husbands he has the nerve to ask her to change his name when they get divorced. Now, I don’t even want to get started on the divorce…he petitioned for divorce (I suggest you read Unbowed for the whole story). I could really identify with Wangari not wanting to change her name when she got married. I had faced the same pressure to change my name when I got married (I’m no longer married by the way) but I refused to change my name. My Dad when he used to ring me would call me Mrs x, I think he just did that to annoy me, and I would have to say ‘Daddy please don’t call me Mrs x’. Well reading Unbowed reminded me of that time in my life. I thought to myself that ‘Thank goodness, I did not change my name when I got married, I would have had to un change it or even worse stick with the name of a man I am no longer married to’. Actually before I got married I did think of all those things. ‘What if I get married 5 times? I will have to change my name 5 different times’. You are probably now thinking my marriage was doomed to failure…So for me the issue of taking your husband’s name if you get married is a serious one. What’s my advice? Well, I’m sure you can guess…One of the things which really impressed me about Maathai was how she bounced back from any setback which befell her. One of her favourite quotes appears to be ‘In every cloud there is a silver lining’ so when she received a letter from her husband’s lawyers asking her to change her name she did…she changed her name from Mathai to Maathai.

The other critical issue that for me is highlighted in Unbowed is ensuring that your name is on the legal documentation for any property or any other investment you may secure in partnership with your husband, or anyone else for that matter. Wangari and her husband bought property together however the property was in his name which meant that post divorce she could not claim any right to in. I think it is easy to think these issues do not matter when you are in love and all is well in your relationships but who knows what the future holds?

All in all Unbowed for me has been a fantastic read and Wangari Maathai now joins my list of female heroines and inspirational role models.

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

I had settled in to the flight from Entebbe to Nairobi on Monday June 30th , feeling a bit sorry for myself. I had to catch the 5am flight out of Entebbe, which meant leaving Kampala for Entebbe at 3am which in turn meant I got no sleep. The flight attendant offered us some local papers, so I picked out the day’s edition of the Ugandan national daily, The New Vision. There it was on the front page, ‘Mother cuts off defiler’s penis’. By the time I finished the story, my spirits were up and I have been in a great mood ever since.

According to the newspaper report, Angelina Kyomugisha from Rugyerera village in Kashari County, Mbarara district, Uganda, was weeding her banana farm, when she heard her 10 year old daughter cry out. The cries persisted, and she went over to have a look, only to find 40 year old Geoffrey Mugarura ‘defiling’ her little girl. Angelina took this horrifying scene in, and proceeded to do what every mother in the world ought to do if they find themselves in her situation – she pounced on Geoffrey and promptly cut off his penis. Just like that. Then she flung it as far as she could into the bush.

Geoffrey howled, till neighbours appeared to find out what the fuss was all about. They then proceeded to help search for his severed penis, till one of them noticed a dog running off with something in its mouth. They threw a stick at the dog till it dropped what was left of his snack. At this point in the story I was laughing so hard I had to control myself for fear being thrown off the flight for being a nuisance. The helpful neighbours then rushed Geoffrey to the hospital for treatment. One of the doctors who treated Geoffrey was able to confirm that they would refashion what was left of his penis so that he could at least urinate with it. As for any other business, well, the dog had taken care of that.

When I got back to Accra, I called my Ugandan sister Solome Nakaweesi-Kimbugwe of Akina Mama wa Afrika, to confirm the story. She told me that the Federation of Women Lawyers of Uganda (FIDA-Uganda) have sent a delegation to see what kind of support the mother needs, and they will be handling her case. Women in Uganda have been talking about this non-stop since the news broke on Monday morning. The verdict is unanimous – if men do not get the message that the bodies of women and girls are not as accessible and disposable as toilet paper, they will learn the hard way.

The woman who I will now call Mother of the Year, Angelina Kyomugisha, probably never attended the UN’s Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995. She has probably never heard of the Africa Protocol on Women’s Rights or the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, ratified by the African Union. She might not know that Ugandan women’s rights activists have been trying to get a Domestic Relations Bill passed for over ten years now. Angelina might have known that in Uganda, defilement of children carries the death penalty, but she definitely has never heard of anyone paying such a harsh price for ruining the life of a child. It is however certain that Angelina would have heard stories of the hundreds of girls raped and even killed on a regular basis by relatives, acquaintances and neighbours. She would have known about how much these poor girls and their parents suffer at the hands of local law enforcement officers, the judiciary, their families and the community at large. She would have been familiar with what a friend of mine, Toyin Mejuini who runs Women Against Rape, Sexual Harassment and Exploitation (WARSHE) in Nigeria calls the ‘Rape and beg’ phenomenon.

What is ‘Rape and Beg’? This is what they call the many powerful delegations they send to intimidate parents, especially mothers of young women and girls who have been victims of violent sexual abuse. These ‘Rape and beg’ delegations usually include local elders, traditional rulers, clergy, respected opinion leaders, and even senior members of the family. If the parents still insist on pursuing the matter, they simply face other obstacles with the legal and law enforcement system till the victims are victimised all over again.

Angelina might not have known much about all the guarantees African governments committed themselves to at the conferences in Vienna, Beijing, Addis Ababa, and other places, and all the promises they made to promote and protect women’s human rights and bodily integrity, but she definitely knew about ‘Rape and Beg’. And she was not about to be begged. She was not going to wait for the creaky wheels of justice to slowly crank into action and run out of gas. She was not about to be told how to be a good mother and member of the community, and not wash their dirty linen in public. Angelina took one look at the monster standing over her daughter and decided, ‘this will be the last time you do this to any girl’.

So what if we are asked, ‘Was it right for Angelina to take the law into her own hands’? The politically correct answer is No, but this time, permit us to say a resounding Yes! Our colleagues at Action Aid have launched an international anti-violence campaign called ‘Women Won’t Wait’. Angelina has definitely heeded that call. She has decided not to wait. Angelina has sent out a message, loud and clear, which we hope will be heard way beyond the shores of Uganda’s Lake Victoria, ‘Stop abusing and killing our children. Stop violating women. Stop the culture of impunity. Protect women and girls from violence’. Since domestic violence laws, conferences, workshops, rallies, popular theatre, and protests have not managed to drive the message home effectively enough, perhaps the thought of the wretched Geoffrey’s penis in the mouth of a fleeing dog will do the trick. Enough is Enough.

Contrary to some ill-informed allegations that have made the rounds over the years, feminists are not calling for the castration or emasculation of men. Our position is a lot simpler than that. If men decide to use certain parts of their anatomy as weapons of mass destruction to wage wars on the bodies of women and girls, they will be disarmed and demobilised. Period.

Now, for those of you who are mothers or guardians of young girls, it might not be a bad idea to keep something sharp handy, you never know. And make sure you take time out to pat a dog over the coming days. One of their brethren in Uganda has done a great job.

Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi
Executive Director
African Women’s Development Fund

At AWDF yesterday our sisters Nafi Chinery and Gifty Anim conducted a workshop on The Paris Declaration and the Aid Effectiveness Process. I have a confession to make here ‘I didn’t know much…okay, anything about the Paris Declaration’. I guess I can add this to the ‘How to be a feminist’ feature…ensure you read up on any of the major issues affecting women and development. Honestly it can be so hard sometimes to keep abreast of key issues, current issues and even the re-emergence of issues that you thought had been dealt with and was firmly in the past (Read an earlier post of Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi’s interview at CIVICUS to learn more about the re-emergence of an issue for the women’s movement in Nigeria)

So yesterday’s workshop was very much welcome for several reasons and I want to share with you what I took away from the process:

It was great to have workshops conducted by colleagues who shared their learning.
The workshop provided an opportunity for team bonding, the atmosphere was relaxed, informal and other colleagues who were far more knowledgeable than I chipped in and added more information about the subject of Aid Effectiveness, the Paris Declaration and previous challenges with Aid such as prior structural adjustment programmes which still affect Ghana and many other developing countries today.
Knowledge of the Paris Declaration and key concerns of the women’s movement which I will share with you in a 5 minute guide to the Paris Declaration below:

5 minute guide to the Paris Declaration

Unprecedented consensus by donor countries, agencies and development partners
56 action-oriented commitments for both donors and partner countries
New concepts of managing for results and mutual accountability
Built in mechanisms for monitoring progress at country and global levels
Paris Declaration guided by overarching principles of ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability

Concerns of Women’s Rights Organisations

No evidence of gender issues being comprehensively accounted for in Paris Declaration.
A lack of engagement of a broad spectrum of women’s voices and citizens voices
Will joint donor working strategies incorporate gender expertise and strengthen support for addressing gender equality and giving voices to the poor?
A lack of indicators for monitoring gender equality.
A need for mechanisms of accountability that give voice to women and the marginalised in society to monitor and demand answers of public authorities in both recipient and donor countries.

Global women’s right’s organisations have agreed to:

Ensure retention of the language of ‘gender equality and women’s empowerment’
Incorporate indicators reflective of gender equality (already been developed with the support of UNIFEM)
Call attention to the dearth of adequate reflection on gender equality and women’s rights in presentations/discussions at the round tables
Roundtables to capture the GE/WE concerns raised
Demand that women be represented as chairs of the various forums at the upcoming Accra meeting

AWDF’s Executive Director, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi has been invited to the Accra HLF 3 scheduled for the 2nd to the 4th of September 2008 which is the next key stage in the Paris Declaration process so expect more updates about the Paris Declaration and Aid Effectiveness in future blog posts.

Many thanks again to Nafi and Gifty for leading this session. What are your key concerns in regards to Aid Effectiveness and what issues would you like women activists at the Accra HLF 3 to raise? Do share your thoughts below

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

Okay, I promised in my last blog that I will give you an update of the ACHRAG awards ceremony I attended honouring our very own Ama Ata Aidoo with the highest honour of the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association Ghana (ACRAG) so here we go…there I was dressed up to the nines (I even got complimented by a lady at the National Theatre on my ‘gold’ shoes) and I was not even allowed in the awards hall because I didn’t have a ticket. As far as the man at the door was concerned without a ticket I could not enter, he didn’t care whose guest I was or that I was supposed to be on a guest list. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to reach Auntie Ama on the phone and by the time her daughter rang me back I was stuck in some serious traffic on my way back to Tema. However Auntie Ama rang me in person this morning to apologise and she is still my favourite author so all is forgiven.

The most popular blogs tend to be those that tell people how to do something so I have been racking my brains thinking of how to make the AWDF blog a ‘How to…’ blog. Let me explain what I mean, if you were running a PR company for example you could have a blog that tells people how to generate PR for free. Now let us apply that same principle to a feminist philanthropic organisation. I guess we could have blogs on ‘How to fundraise successfully’ and even ‘How to be a feminist’. I am particularly interested in the latter because I think the reality of living your life as a feminist is challenging, interesting and calls for constant self-reflection. A few days ago I was having a chat with a guy who claims to have a crush on me and he said ‘So how long have you been on the market?’ My reaction was ‘I am not for sale and I am not on the market’. My inner thoughts were ‘Aaargh, am I a cow for sale to be on the market?’. To be fair to him he instantly apologised but this for me is a small example of how the objectifying of women is normalised in society and as a feminist I think you have to be alert and challenge comments like this. Alongside challenging sexist statements you also have to know when not to sweat the small stuff. This can be quite a difficult balancing act. What are your thoughts?

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications

This week has flown by so quickly and so much has happenned. Today’s blog update is just a collection of my thoughts and feelings.

Congratulations to ‘Auntie Ama’, you will all know her as Ama Ata Aidoo, internationally renowned author and educator. Auntie Ama is the Executive Director of Mbaasem which translates from the Ghanaian language Akan as ‘Women’s Affairs’. Mbaasem was set up by Ama Ata Aidoo to increase the literary outputs of African women writers. Auntie Ama has also been recently nominated by the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana for the association’s highest honour of the Flagstar. Yours truly will be in attendance to support Auntie Ama so expect a blog on the events of the night. Auntie Ama was also featured in AWDF’s launch edition of our e-newsletter. Click the following link to read the full interview http://africlub.net/awdf/nletter/index.php/interview_with_mbaasem-3-1

Commiserations to Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, Executive Director of the Ark Foundation in Ghana. The Ark Foundation is a vibrant women’s rights organisation doing fantastic work in developing women’s leadership and advocating for women’s human rights. The Ark Foundation was part of the National Coalition that worked tirelessly to ensure the passing into law of Ghana’s Domestic Violence Bill. Unfortunately Angela and her family were targets of armed robbers two days ago when her home was attacked. A delegation from AWDF visited Angela today and are pleased to find her safe and well. She is already back at work continuing the vital work The Ark Foundation does.

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications
AWDF

Last Saturday I went with my Uncle to our local squash courts. A few months ago I had started to learn how to play squash and had really enjoyed myself hence my return to the squash court.

After a game, one of the members started to chat to me ( all the members were male, I was the only female there) and asked ‘ So, what do you do?’ and I replied ‘ I work for the African Women’s Development Fund‘. His response? ‘ ‘ Is that a women’s organisation? Are you a feminist? My response ‘ Yes‘, to which he retorted ‘ I can’t stand feminists! So are you trying to say women can play squash better than men‘. I simply replied ‘I wish it was as simple as that’.

Honestly I was in no mood to engage with a narrow minded person who has pre-conceived ideas of who or what a feminist is? In the past I have had too many arguments with many such people and the result is often me fuming, angry and my blood pressure probably way higher than it ought to be. Why did this man think this squash club at 10am on a Saturday morning was only full of men? In an earlier conversation (before he found out I was a feminist) he said to me that he looked forward to playing squash on Saturdays. I wonder if his wife/partner has that luxury. Where were all the women on Saturday morning? Knowing Ghanaian society the way I do, the women were probably at the market shopping for food or at home making sure food will be available for these men when they return from their squash games.

Men who hate feminists do not get the subtle nuances behind comments made in my presence about me whilst at the squash club:

Nana’s Uncle: (Introducing me) This is my daughter, my brother’s daughter whom I told you about, she wants to learn how to play squash

Man 1: Nice to meet you

Man 2: Is this the one you said you will give to X

Nana’s Uncle: I never said that

Man 1 and Man 2: (laughing and teasing my Uncle)

Nana: (thinking, for goodness sake, I am not a possession and are there any female squash clubs about?)

Of course Mr feminist hater would be oblivious to the insidious nature of comments such as these. If I had responded they would probably all have been shocked. We were only joking they would probably have cried out! Gosh you feminists are so sensitive. Are we? Am I? Should I have responded in an assertive manner to Mr feminist hater and the group of men making jokes about me being a gift? Your thoughts please.

Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraiser & Communications

AFRICAN WOMEN CAN CHANGE AFRICA FOR THE BETTER if supported.
Does this statement make any sense to you?

It does make sense to me. Why? Because, I see women highly involved in activities in all spheres of life, be it economic, social, or what have you, giving their best for the betterment of all – men, boys, girls and themselves- but under extremely difficult circumstances created by the patriarchs of the world. I see women as human beings in their own right. In some cases, a woman does not own any resources, not even her own self. Where are the rights of women? Are women’s rights not human rights? Does this make sense to you?

Consider agriculture in Africa. In the fields, women compete with their male counterparts sometimes with babies on their backs. After the hard day’s work, we see them plod down the road with heavy head loads and still carrying babies. When they get home, they take charge of all the home affairs single handedly (probably with some help from the children). It is believed that agriculture is the main stay of African economies. Then if the women are supported can you imagine the gains to Africa? Statistics have it that women generally, service loans better than men. If women were empowered economically, what great development that would be? So, does it make sense to you, that African women can change the African continent for the better?

Talking about peace and tranquility, this has eluded most African women. Right from their homes to national levels, their hearts are almost always heated up. Their so-called lovely boy friends and husbands treat them to various degrees of violence. Some nations of the African continent are yet to acknowledge the values of true democracy and until then, the brunt ultimately has been on women and children. How productive will a person be if all she knows is violence? Wouldn’t it make sense if women were granted their right to peace and security?

Now, just take a stroll down the general health and reproductive rights of women, what do we see? Women are dying during childbirth, about 60% of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infected people on the African continent are women and they lack access to family planning. What about fathers, would they give their partners any chance to contribute to the decision making process of reproduction? Ok, having reproduced would all fathers join hands with their partners to take acceptable care of their children? If not, does this make any sense to you?

Not forgetting the right to education for women. Some African nations have scratched the surface, where are the rest? A Ghanaian scholar, Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey, said “when you educate a man you educate an individual, but when you educate a woman you educate a nation”. So, should a girl / woman be denied education? What sense does that make to you?

Doesn’t it make much sense therefore, that organisations such as the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and others should be supported to fund women’s initiatives in a well organised manner all over Africa working towards improvement of the lives of African women? If I may ask you, where is your heart?

By the way, how far is Africa with achieving the 8 MDGs especially MDG (3)? Year 2015 is right around the corner. Indeed, it makes much sense that supporting women’s empowerment would accelerate achievement of the MDGs and Africa will change for the better.

Grace Amenyogbeli
Administration Manager
AWDF