Poverty in Africa — Ethnic Supplies

The women who survived #Kony’s war

March 8, 2012 By idahorner 8 Comments

It is International Women’s Day today and as usual I am in a reflective mood, precisely that what does this all mean for women in Africa. In my first post on IWD over at Africa on the Blog I ask the question

What can we do to ensure that the world of the African woman who has no property rights, access to education, independent income etc, converges with the rest of the world?

Whilst I was still pondering this an almighty row broke out in cyber space regarding an American based NGO called Invisible Children (IC). The NGO posted a video in which they tell the story of the war of Northern Uganda, specifically the abduction of children who were then forced to serve as child soldiers in Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). You can watch the video here

The video went viral so much has been said elsewhere, so it is not my intention to rehash what has been said already. The video has caused so much anguish, shock and disgust from many quarters for one reason or another. The war in Northern Uganda went on for 26 years and injured women and children both physically and emotionally and for this I have questioned the motivation of IC to issue a video that deals with a terrible time in Uganda’s history.

I have seen the pain of those that suffered at the hands of Kony and his Lords Resistance Army and I am privileged to work with some of those women who survived that war. We call them the Women Of Kireka and you can hear one of my conversations with them in this video

These are proud women who have against the odds worked to put the past behind them and forge a new life for themselves in Kireka a suburb or Kampala the capital of Uganda. This is not to say that they have forgotten what they went through, how can they? Some lost entire clans, husbands, children and neighbours etc

Although I have been through a war when our village was under siege for 4 months in the war that brought in Museveni, I can’t begin to imagine what these women went through or how it is that they are not outwardly angry at the whole world for allowing this to happen to them and I will never know what that was like for them.

That an International NGO that should know better has chosen to make people like the Women of Kireka relieve this pain has left me and most Ugandan’s seething with anger. In doing this IC is preventing us from moving on and appears keen on holding Northern Uganda back even though the people of Northern Uganda are working hard to rebuild their lives. I ask again WHAT IS IC’S MOTIVATION?

I also have to ask what we as Ugandans/ Africans going to do about this?

I strongly believe that IC and such like must be stopped from misrepresenting our continent in this way.

I am keen to hear your thoughts on this matter

As suggested by Joanne you can help these women by making a donation. The money will be put towards sewing machines which is something the women are desperate to acquire so that they can expand their business. If you do make donation please use WOK as your reference so we can allocate the money appropriately

Filed Under: African women, Latest Tagged With: Africa, INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S FAY, Invisible Children, Kony, KONY2012, LRA, Uganda, women of Kireka

In conversation with business Women at #VIA12

February 3, 2012 By idahorner Leave a Comment

In the first post of this year I wrote about my desire to hear more authentic stories from Africa and it would appear I am not alone. Over at Africa on the blog a question what put to readers about the contributors should focus on in the coming year

This is what Joseph told us

I would like to hear about how Africans handle the day by day working, family care, and what they do to have fun.
I had enough of hearing about Africa from the local news, mostly about Sudan and wars, I want to hear whats going on from a citizen who lives normal life. I want to stop listening to bloggers who have regular life, who speaks about their twins, husbands, with all due respect, its all the same, give us something new on the web.

I agree with him so much so that when I am out about in Uganda I get drawn to conversations that tell me about the lives of people on the ground and I will often seek out people in rural location for conversations. I am especially drwan to women. I like to hear about how they cope with life in the village, their support networks, business interests, challenges and aspirations .

VILLAGES IN ACTION MASINDI 2012

My most recent conversation was with Business women in Kikuube Masindi Nw Uganda where I attended the second Villages in action conference.

The women were keen to pick brains on all manner of things and this is what I learned about these folk

1. They need capital to scale their business

2. The cost of borrowing is way too high for those folk that do not own land or any other assests that banks can lend against

3. They need tools and machinery like tractors to make their work easier and faster

4. They need us to share our knowledge and skills as to how they could run their business more effectively

5. They would like running water and electricity in their village as it is near impossible to operate without either of those

As you can see none of those are unreasonable expectations, in addition it is not a request for handouts.

But are policy makers listening to such women?

What can you and I do to ensure that these voices are heard by the decision makers?

Filed Under: Latest, Poverty in Africa

Women’s Rights in Kisoro SW Uganda

December 10, 2011 By idahorner Leave a Comment

Kisoro SW Uganda has been named by both National Geographic amongst the 10 ten places to visit in 2012. With its rolling hills and magical landscape Kisoro is breath taking. It is home of the might Mountain Gorillas and one of the most densely populated district in Uganda. The fact that Kisoro is densely populated has implications for both resources and women’s rights. The most prized asset in this farming community is land.

If you delve deep into this community you will learn that

there are two cash crops in this community coffee and Irish potatoes ( there are two kinds of potatoes in Uganda – Sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes- this is the variety that most western readers will be familiar with)
the dominance of one cash crop over the other is determined along gender lines
women have very few rights here specifically property rights

I had a conversation wit 3 women from the community and here is what they had to say.

I apologise for the quality of the recording and if you are unable to follow the conversation the main points raised were

women do not own land
women often work as part of the hired help and unlike the hired help they do not get paid
women have a preference for Irish potatoes as a cash crop over coffee because if they do not get paid they will have food on the table
often the man will handle coffee related cash transactions and the woman has no control over what happens to the money
domestic violence is rife and although authorities get involved things do not work out in the favour of the the abused woman
if a marriage breaks down the woman is expected to leave any children and return to her parents

It was interesting to hear the views of our guide on all of this. He is from Kampala the capital city of Uganda

He told us that as far as he could work the lack of education put the women of Kisoro at a great disadvantage as it means that they do not fully understand their rights and as such cannot argue/fight for those rights. He further stated that he would never dream of treating his own wife the way these women are treated and that his wife had rights to buy and own property without his permission.

What are your views?

Filed Under: Latest, Poverty in Africa Tagged With: domestic violence, Kisoro, Mountain Gorilla, National Geographic, Uganda