By Prince Charles Dickson PhD
“Through her voice I saw a free
woman, down on her land, a woman who knew how to kill her own chickens, hunt
her own possum, cut her own cotton, fix her own roof, make her own whiskey,
walk in her own shoes, and speak her mind, tell her own story. ― Bonnie Greer,
A Parallel Life
So, Annet, has for as long as she
remembers been a good daughter, a good sister, wife, and a good mother. No one
gave her a chance at being a good diplomat, lawyer or doctor. Three decades of
fighting in her native country of South Sudan has seen her become everything
but good. She has been raped on countless times, she sees the men that are
responsible, but what can she really do. She is the bearer of all the
atrocities of a senseless conflict; conflicts caused by men, yes men! A
conflict like many where women and children bear the real brunt.
In Nigeria, it is not just the
Chibok girls that are being released in piecemeal after over 900 days in
captivity; they were taken as girls and are being returned nursing mothers.
Used, abused, and what is left of them most likely to be misused for all sorts
of political gains.
What about the amiable educated wife
of the Nigerian President, Aisha Buhari whom the President categorically
insisted and reiterated, her role is to "cook, and work in the other
rooms"
The stories are the same all over
Africa, women are rarely newsmakers in the media. News about women hardly make
front pages and when they do, often contain negative portrayals and stereotypes
of them in domestic and dependent roles.
They are mostly attached to the fame
or achievements of husbands, sons, fathers or their children instead of people
with their own capacity, achievements or rights.
Thus it is common to read them as
Cheikh’s wife, Paschal’s daughter or Frank’s mother doing this or that.
There is also lack of gender balance
in many media reports and when women in positions make mistakes or commit
offences, the news is usually hyped beyond proportion in comparison to when men
do same or even worse.
So, what are women, and indeed men
doing about it?
A few people are doing something
about it, and yes a few, this is because a new movement often is the function
of few people that believe in what they are doing to tilt the balance, and this
was the case as I listened to the Special Envoy on Women, peace and Security of
the Africa Union Commission speak, she was passionate as she explained
interventions in nations such as Sierra Leone, Rwanda, I knew that it was not
just political talk, commitments from friendly nations that also understand
what women in conflict are going through in Africa was one that gave hope, as
one reflected on events at the last Peace and Security Council Meeting
graciously chaired by another woman in the person of Catherine Muigai Mwangi
the Kenya Permanent Representative to the AU, IGAD, UNECA.
Listening to Ms. Laity of the
UNWomen as she spoke and the belief with which the Special Envoy of AU on
Women, Peace and Security went about what I called a revolution that would
leave the African woman and off course man a better human with dignity; You
could not but say, the narratives are changing.
I strongly debate that rather than
gender continue to remain a fault line running through the ethno-political, and
faith engineered wars and conflicts across the landscape of Africa. New
narratives must emerge; for women, efforts by the likes of Bineta, the UNWomen
in various African states, feminism is both remarkably successful and a work in
progress: It won't work like magic, the narrative of a woman's place is in her
husband's four walls, be it kitchen, bedroom, sitting room all will change.
Our young women need to be helped to
be ingrained into systems, and structures in politics, media, agriculture, as
we kill flat and despondent traditional feminine behaviors and harnessing other
traditional norms like— being polite, cultivating meaningful connections,
listening and communicating effectively; because such can be a panacea for
successful resolution of the many African conflicts, because these same
qualities work to our benefit in the classroom and workplace.
(Dickson, a Journalist and
Development worker based in Jos, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria conducts
field research and investigations in the Middle Belt Region of Nigeria with an
extensive reach to the entire North and other parts. He worked on projects for
UNWomen, Search for Common Ground, and International Crisis Group, among
others. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Humanitarian Academy at Harvard and
Knight Center For Journalism, University of Texas at Austin and
Georgetown. He is a Henry Luce Fellow, Ford Foundation grantee.)
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