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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

  1. 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)
  2. the dominance of one cash crop over the other is determined along gender lines
  3. 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

  1. women do not own land
  2. women often work as part of the hired help and unlike the hired help they do not get paid
  3. 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
  4. often the man will handle coffee related cash transactions and the woman has no control over what happens to the money
  5. domestic violence is rife and although authorities get involved things do not work out in the favour of the the abused woman
  6. 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?

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Filed Under: Latest, Poverty in Africa Tagged With: , , , ,

Happy 49th birthday to Uganda

October 10, 2011 By idahorner 2 Comments
Idi Amin

Image via Wikipedia

On 9th October Uganda celebrated 49 years of Independence from British rule.

As  the country enters it’s 50th year of independence  I thought I would ask some questions for us to discuss

  1. What does  independence really mean?
  2. How has life changed for the ordinary Ugandan?
  3. What has been achieved in the last 49 years?
  4. Most people I come across will ask me where I am from and when they here that I am from Uganda the first thing they say to me is Idi Amin. But is there more to Uganda than Idi Amin?
  5. What will the next 50 years look like?

 

I also have some observations too from the last 49 years

  • Idi Amin  who expelled the Ugandan Asians sending the country into an economic quagmire
  • Museveni brought stability to country but 26 years on it would appear he is not ready to go
  • The Aids epidemic hit the country but the government fought back which meant that Uganda became a case study of best practice in the fight against Aids
  • Whilst the rest of the country enjoyed relative peace and development Northern Uganda suffered a terrible civil war under Joseph Kony of the Lords Resistance Army
  • Uganda proposed to pass an Anti Gay bill that was critised by the world when David Kato a gay activist died
  • The discovery of oil in the Albertine basin
  • The arrival of mobile phones  in the country
  • Women  in government
  • Walk 2 Work protests
  • A former Vice President was remanded in custody for his role in the disappearance of CHOGM funds
  • An unacceptable number of women still die in child birth
  • Why are 2 Million Ugandan children starving?

As I write this the Mo Ibrahim index of African governance has just been issued and here is how Uganda scores out of 53 African countries

  1. Country index- 20th
  2. Safety and rule of  law 23rd
  3. Participation and human rights 21st
  4. Sustainable economic opportunity 18th
  5. Human development 21st

 

Although Uganda is not at the bottom of the  the ladder in any of the categories, is this good enough?

Who’s job is it to ensure that Uganda moves to the top 10?

 

I will keep it short so that we can have a discussion

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Filed Under: Latest, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A nice road through the village

September 27, 2011 By idahorner Leave a Comment

Kikube Masindi NW Uganda

If you live in rural Uganda  and or any other Sub Saharan Country for that matter chances are that the road through your village will look like the one in Kikube, unless of course your village is on a main road to somewhere such as  a  big  city or a tourist attraction

Minor roads leading off the  main roads are not sealed (murram) and generally speaking are  OK during the dry weather bar the dust that passing traffic generates and if  well maintained they serve the villages well. Driving on these  murram roads requires exceptional skills!

The main roads  those leading to large towns and cities are usually tarmac and are part of most African countries strategy to improve trade. Goods in Uganda are mostly transported by road and I can imagine a huge chunk of the country’s infrastructure budget is spent on these  major roads.  These  roads are almost always paid for by donor agencies/AID and chances are that this is only benefit that some folk on the ground will experience –  A NICE ROAD THROUGH THE VILLAGE!

It is easy to be cynical about the idea of giving the poor a nice road when they have nothing to eat but imagine if you will a woman in labour trying to get to a hospital that is 2 hours away on a poor or no road at all!  In fact a few days ago I came across a man at a networking event who was doing some research on this issue. He is convinced that African women’s reproductive health is impacted by the quality of roads in Africa

 

Kabale Road Ruhanga SW Uganda

But for the folk of  Ruhanga SW Uganda (see photo above),   a nice road through their village has mixed blessings so to say. Ruhanga  is on the main road  to Kabale, Congo, Rwanda and a major tourist attraction- MOUNTAIN GORILLAS.  Having this nice roads means that folk can get to hospital easily and can take advantage of passing trade  but the nice road has become a death trap and only a few weeks ago we lost Witness a 4 year old in a car accident.

The irony of this situation is a couple of years ago there were some deep potholes in the road which forced drivers to slow down and in turn we had fewer accidents in the village.

We also learned that Uganda’s Minister of works has no intention of putting in any form of traffic calming measures. I am not quite sure what if anything the community can do about this whole situation as I know for a fact that Witness’ death is not the first nor will it be the last  and judging from the email we got from the secretary of the Community Based Organisation there is nothing they can do and expect answers or a solution from us.

He said- I am sure the news of Witness’ death has reached you by now and I am really not sure what you are going to do to ensure the safety of very young children a very busy high way with undisciplined drivers of small and heavy trucks

Your thoughts please!

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Filed Under: Development Policy, Latest Tagged With: , , , , , , ,