Poverty in Africa — Ethnic Supplies

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

The most commented on posts on Ethnic Supplies

September 12, 2011 By idahorner Leave a Comment

The International Fairtrade Certification Mark

Image via Wikipedia

I thought I would do something different in this post!

Compile a list of 5 posts that have received the most comments

How much do folk in the Western world know about fairtrade - in this post I discussed the issue of FAIRTRADE an how much folk in the western world understand the idea/notion of Fairtrade. I asked another question too, HOW FAIR IS FAIRTRADE. I came across an article that seemed to suggest that people didn;t know much FAIRTRADE simply because the government had not done enough to publicise if both by way of benefit to the environment as well as a means to sustainable and dignified ways of poverty- this post generated 49 comments
Are Africans in the Diaspora real Africans- in this post I discuss the issue that keeps cropping up of WHO IS AFRICAN and another WHO IS QUALIFIED to speak on behalf of Africans. My good friend @tmsruge found himself in the hot chair of those in “know” and emotions run high!- this post received 15 comments
Immigrants are not welcome here part 2- this post was the second instalment in which I looked at the issue of Immigration and why folk would be prepared to cross deserts, seas and oceans to get to Europe. Part 1 is here – this post received 12 comments
Is Educating girls the key to resolving poverty in Africa the issue of educating African girls as a key to ending poverty is gaining moment and in this post I discuss what lack of a formal education means to some women but I also wonder whether the focus should be on the education of boys in order that African women are not vulnerable to domestic violence amongst other things- this post received 12 comments too
#MDGs- the camera are switched off now what?- Although this post had set out to look at the progress of the Millennium Development goals and why we are unlikely to achieve them, the question I asked at the end appeared to have drawn folk to the conversation What can we as Africans do for ourselves today, without Aid from the West? this post received 11 comments

I will be interested in your views on any of those posts

Filed Under: Latest, Poverty Tagged With: Africa, African people, Education, Fairtrade certification, Fairtrade Foundation, Poverty, Poverty in Africa