The blog continues
The blog, like the WSF, is a process that continues after the forum itself in Nairobi. Now that participants are arriving back home, we will be inviting a number of women’s groups to contribute news, reports, reflections and plans over the next two weeks. So please keep visiting the blog.
Breaking out of internal colonisation
Many thanks to Susan Willett for posting this comment on the article about women and civil society published on openDemocracy before the World Social Forum began
I have been a peace activist/academic/feminist for the past 30 years and am only too aware of the ways in which women are marginalised in all manner of national and international forums. Gender inequality even thrives within NGOs and civil society organisations that should know better. But I have to say there is some truth in the words of Candido Grzybouski when he states that women are ‘a minority created by ourselves’. All to often womens groups/oprganisations/and womens officers in NGOs promote women as victims- the victims of poverty, the victims of violence, the victims of war, the victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, the victims of global inequality etc etc. Men are also victims of these social and political evils but this is not what defines their gender identity or politics.
I have witnessed little progress for women in fighting these issues in the last three decades because we seem to have absorbed the ideology of victimhood into feminist identity and praxis. Little wonder that men are not interested in attending feminist workshops at forums like the WSF. There are only so many years that you can listen to a discourse of woes. As women we need to break out of this form of internal colonisation and empower ourselves in positive practice that changes the world around us. This means abandoning our self created ghettos where we bemoan our fate and create narratives of victimhood and elite discourses that only initiates with PhDs can understand. Rather we should be engaged in the mainstream to bring our voices to bear on the policies and practices that marginalise us, to fight for positions of leadership, to influence events at a local national regional and international level. The practice of fighting for equality and recognition in ones own life is as much a part of feminist politics as is campaigning to improve the plight of others.
The personal is still political – this is where we most acutely experience discrimination, insult and abuse. It is through the aquisition of personal power and confidence that we can most easily change power relations between men and women. Institutional inequality and gender discrimination persists despite reams of legislation because we have not yet purged our sense of ourselves as a minority.
Be strong in yourselves Sisters and the world is yours for the taking.
Susan Willett
Capacity
See suryamurthy’s blog on what G8 countries are saying about Africa at the World Economic Summit. Personally, I see lots of capacity in Africa…
Film: Moolaade
This is the controversial but courageous story of girls who refuse to be circumcised. They take refuge with an older woman under a traditional spell of protection. The film, set in Burkina Faso and directed by Ousmane Sembene was screened after the forum ended at a public meeting of the Fund for Grassroots Activism to end Female Genital Mutilation (supported by Equality Now.)
The good news is that in Burkina Faso, the incidence of FGM has reduced, thanks to systematic enforcement of the law. However, according to Efua Dorkenoo statistics from the Demographic Health Survey indicate that this is exceptional: in many African countries the incidence rate remains at 98%.
Grassroots workers at the meeting agreed that, while the law is necessary, it is not sufficient. Girls who run away from home are often too frightened to testify against their parents in public, while lawyers and the police lack training and sensitisation on how to deal with these cases.
Information campaigns, use of songs and drama, work with youth and community dialogues are all strategies that are being used to combat the myths surrounding FGM.
The fact that the film is being screened more widely indicates that the silence – which has surrounded this issue for so long – has now been broken. The topic has so far been deemed by governments to be ‘too sensitive’ for open discussion.
Too sensitive for whom? Babies as young as 5 days old are now being mutilated. It constitutes torture – and has lifelong effects on women’s health. While men try to shrug off the responsibility as ‘women’s business’ they are in fact the major shareholders. Bernadette, a Kenyan working with the Masai to raise awareness of the link between health problems and FGM, tells me, ‘it’s used as a way of maintaining power over women.’
See the film, if you get the chance. And don’t forget. No holy scripture, no religion, requires harmful practices or discrimination against women. This is just one of the myths.
One woman at the World Social Forum
Thanks to Olivia Greer for her reflections of the WSF.
This is my first WSF. I’m the director of an annual multi-disciplinary arts festival focusing on women artists who are calling our attention to issues of social justice globally. So I’m very interested in what’s happening here, and particularly interested in the conversations here about women.
Growing up a young white woman in New York City, my world was comfortable, it was integrated, and my feminism was without a name and assumed. I say with not a small amount of shame that it was only very recently that I understood acutely enough that only for white and privileged women is feminism about reproductive rights, glass ceilings and the stiletto-or-not debate. And I am looking for deeper connections, for wider, meaningful work.
In 2007, there is a palpable paradox: women take leadership positions from Chile to Germany, as women from Ukraine to the Dominican Republic are trafficked into prostitution and the right of women in the United States to sovereignty over their bodies is carefully dismantled. Countries like Mexico and South Africa allow employers to keep women from work due to pregnancy; in Morocco, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, women’s legal rights belong to male family members. Each day, in every part of the world, women are beaten in their own homes.
The World Social Forum has made this co-existent diversity and commonality of experience palpable.
Reflections
While the cultural activities at the closing ceremony continue, these are reflections so far on my initial questions about the World Social Forum in Nairobi.
What do the women of Africa have to say? What are their main struggles and alternatives for the future?
1. First and foremost: an end to violence. This includes the capitalist-driven conflicts across Africa which impact on women and girls as victims – and as survivors in post-conflict societies. Mobilisation around UN Resoultion1325 remains as relevant as ever.
It also includes the hidden violence against women at home and in particular the contravention of women’s reproductive and sexual health rights which deprives them of human dignity and is often life-threatening.
In Africa, there are cultural practices which add to this problem: FGM, arranged marriages for 12 year old girls; abuse and disinheritance of widows; polygamy and the promiscuity of many African men.
The Protocol for the Rights of Women, ratified by the heads of state of the African Union, addresses these issues in addition to the rights in the international Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. There is an ongoing struggle for African women to convince their governments to put these pledges into action. They also need to work at the grassroots, with their own families, religious leaders and village chiefs, in changing male attitudes and behaviour.
At the same time, the rise of east-west militarism and the related increase in religious fundamentalism have served to entrench traditional practices which adversely affect women’s rights.
There have been many concerns expressed at the very visible presence of church groups at the forum, which seems to contradict the common stand on fundamentalisms.
The African church has a wide constituency and, while often playing an important role in supporting livelihoods for poor communities, upholds conservative positions on issues such as abortion and sexuality.
Secondly an end to neo-liberalism and globalisation
Since women perceive the connection between violence and the global economy, this issue is also a recognised part of their struggle. Their voices have been heard loud and clear in all the debates, highlighting the impact of all the big abbreviations – EU, G8, US with their EPAs and FTAs – on women’s livelihoods and their opportunity to become economically independent.
The G8 approach to linking development assistance with conditions based on their own economic interests is exemplified by Angela Merkel’s proposal for G8 partnerships with African countries, which will also depend on opening up private investment to companies from abroad.
Food sovereignty (rather than food security which depends on international assistance) has been the term widely used in discussions about the need for Africa and other southern continents to become self-sufficient in food through south-south and intra-continental trade.
Thirdly an end to government corruption
The responsibility of African governments in ensuring the rights and dignity of both women and men has been widely addressed in the different themes. Labour rights, land and housing rights, water rights, women’s rights, the right to health and education – all converged in the social movements assembly.
Young African women were particularly active, which is encouragig for the future, since these issues affect the power they will have to control their own lives, make their own decisions and play a full part in development.
Government corruption, specifically the alliances between governments and multinational companies – which benefit government officials from the top down and increase inequality between rich and poor – is seen as a key factor in the human rights and dignity debate and is a primary target for grassroots action.
Meanwhile, Wangari Maathai has petitioned the member states of the African Union for failing to honour their pledge of allocating 15% of their annual budget on health care, since the Abuja declaration was signed in 2001.
‘An estimated 40 million Africans have died from preventable health-related conditions as a result of the Abuja commitment not being met.’
To what extent has a process of ‘engendering’ taken place in the organisation, content and dialogue of the WSF?
To a large extent, the pledges made by the WSF2007 organisers were fulfilled. One notable exception was the absence of a creche or ‘child camp’ as last year in Mumbai. This inhibits attendance by women who don’t have the finances or friends and family to provide childcare support for the duration of the forum.
In the post below, which is a slightly enhanced version of my audio-diary for the openDemocracy podcast, there’s a summary of the good news. The presence and participation of women in all processes was one of the most striking aspects of the forum.
In addition to equal relations between women and men, Beatrice Ndayizigamiye, a journalist from Burundi with the Panos Institute, also observed ‘equal relationships between south and north’ at the forum, as opposed to the usual hierarchy.
Within the perimeter fence of WSF2007, another world does seem to be possible. However, women now return to the existing world. The struggle continues, despite the fact that certain African countries (South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda) are leading the so-called developed world as regards numbers of women in parliament. There’s no room for complacency, since others are still setting the agenda – which is why the following question is significant.
How far have African women’s concerns been taken into account in the G8 lobby preparation process and discourse?
The anti-G8 activists from Germany and the UK, many of them women, were successful in raising awareness about the relevance of the G8 Summit to African concerns and were able to develop strong alliances with the social and women’s movements.
The same issues of militarism, debt and transparency (of international institutions) were discussed at the mobilisation meeting, having broad resonance with general themes of the forum. The proposal for a global day of action to coincide with the G8 Summit in June, endorsed by the social movements assembly, indicates that the bridge from Nairobi to Heiligendamm, where the G8 Summit takes place, has been built – and that women will be involved in the process.
In conclusion
It’s satisfying to be able to report good news. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find in Nairobi, but I travelled hopefully – and I was right to do so. Of course, these plans for the future need to be concretised, but the move towards strategic action has certainly begun.
Please keep visiting the blog, since there will be post-forum activities – and reflections – to report.
Good news
This is the text of my audio-diary for the openDemocracy podcast today.
There are about 50,000 people here and over four days something like a thousand separate activities. Times and venues – and even activities themselves – are subject to change. The forum’s been held at the international sports stadium, which has 24 gates and then there are kiosks and tents around the outside. So you do sometimes have the feeling of going round in circles. Really too much too absorb.
But it’s a party atmosphere everywhere, with street theatre, African drumming, spontaneous rallies, songs and rousing chants to introduce the debates. A very African experience.
I’m here to see whether the organisers have succeeded in their aim to involve women equally in the process – and, to a large extent, they have. The presence and participation of women is one of the striking aspects of the forum. They’re here on the organising committee, experts on panels in conferences of 500 people, facilitating discussions.
There are a lot of women from grassroots communities here to exchange experiences – and they’re in all the debates: especially on peace and conflict but also debt and trade. For example, one group in red T-shirts campaigning against the Economic Partnership Agreements – EPAs – which are being imposed on Africa by the European Union and affecting women’s livelihoods.
Another characteristic of the forum is the human energy. Most of the women I meet tell me how energised they are, how the forum provides encouragement for continuing their struggle back home, how it helps to strengthen their voice. And several local women have told me this is the only place in Kenya where they have felt free to stand up and speak out.
Nevertheless, I was beginning to wonder – as far as the forum itself was concerned – how all this energy was going to be channelled, whether there would in fact be any concrete outcomes. The answer there is also – yes. This is the first time that the organisers have structured the forum so that groups and themes converge in order to develop collective proposals and begin to strategise.
I’ve just got a few examples:
Firstly, at the Women’s Assembly, four or five key issues for all the women’s groups to campaign on when they get back home – these include Violence Against Women, – which has been highlighted here in discussions – Globalisation, Fundamentalism.
Another assembly announced a plan for global mobilisation to coincide with the G8 summit in June – for action in different countries on the same day. To be honest, I hadn’t expected this, but the anti-G8 activists from Germany and the UK – many of them women – had worked hard to raise awareness about the G8 and to build alliances. The World March of Women – which mobilises women every year – will be a key partner.
Finally, at the assembly for human dignity and human rights, a young Ugandan woman got up to announce the launch of the African Water Network. She said: ‘This aims to bring the voices of Africans together to send a strong message to their governments to stop the privatisation of water, which is a basic human right.’
So it’s good news so far from Nairobi. I won’t pretend there haven’t been some logistical problems. But, certainly, sisters – and Africans – are doing it for themselves.
Inclusion
There have been peaceful demonstrations of local Kenyans, with support from registered forum-goers, demanding free entrance, free water and food, in order to be able to participate equally in the forum.
The WSF takes place at Kasarani, near one of Kenya’s many slums. In fact, the organisers have worked to involve local slum dwellers in the forum by organising visits to, and events in, the slums. Slum dwellers have also been invited to take part in activities and one event I missed was the Slum Magic Circus.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that a lot of money has been spent on the forum and some of the visitors from abroad are staying in five star hotels. A local company was invited to provide catering, which was way out of the pocket of local people – and also too expensive for visitors from other southern countries.
‘How can we talk about poverty when there are capitalists at the forum?’ asked one protester from South Africa.
This morning the protesters entered the VIP lounge and took over the press conference. The main speaker was a woman from the People’s Parliament, who refused to give her name, saying she spoke in the name of her community.
She told us that 60% of Kenyans live below the poverty line, on less than one US dollar per day. ‘To ask us to pay seven dollars (entrance fee) to talk about our poverty is criminal.’ She claimed that all the organisers were university professors. ‘You don’t need to go to university to learn about poverty – you live it.’
According to the organisers, arrangements had already been made for local people to register at the gates for free, there are free water fountains around the site for those who can’t afford to pay, and a food outlet selling lunch for 20 Kenyan shillings (about 20 pence).
I believe this is genuine. The surface problem is one of information and communication, which has been lacking in many aspects of the forum.
But the fundamental question remains valid. To what extent are these events truly inclusive? Those of us who have been involved for a long time know that civil society can’t mobilise without funding and it can only get that from people with money.
Representatives from the WSF Youth Camp at the press conference told us that perhaps this sort of thinking shows our minds have been ‘colonised’ – and that it’s up to the youth to come up with real alternatives.
Sisters are doing it for themselves
I joined the Feminist Freedom Rally, organised by the coordinating group of Feminist Dialogues and FEMNET, with the support of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya.
The women had brought a huge loudspeaker and DJ with them so, in between rousing speeches, we could all sing and dance along to classics like ‘Sisters are doing it for themselves’ and ‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T’ by Aretha Franklin.
Everything makes a statement. Women from all over the world are wearing a black T-shirt bearing the slogan: This is what a feminist looks like
There’s also a mask with a huge lipsticked kiss and the slogan: Your mouth fundamental against fundamentalisms
It was the opportunity for any and all women to come up to the microphone and say what they want. In whichever language they choose, it’s always the same:
Women’s sexual and reproductive health rights
One of the free daily newspapers available is WSF GEM News supported by the Ford Foundation and the African Women and Child Feature Service, with a focus on issues around gender, human rights and social justice. It is published in English and Swahili. The following excerpts are taken from forum reports in the first issue today.
Rosemary Okello writes that ‘the muted voices of suffering women across the world have long been silenced by painful haemorrhage, unsafe abortion, maimed because of ruptured uterus and cursed to death because of cultural practices like female genital mutilation and leaking because of the fistula problem.’
‘The delay in recognising the link between women’s rights and the spread of HIV/AIDS has led to the death of millions of women. Participants at the forum decried deliberate efforts at community and national level to silence women whenever they raise issues over the injustices they face… They cautioned governments and the donor community for failing to consider women’s issues as a priority when funding HIV/AIDS programmes. In particular the ‘abstinence’ approach doesn’t work for women. It is also wrong to roll money into treatment and sideline prevention measures.’ Sarah Muwanga
‘Girls and boys as well as women are being trafficked to western countries to serve as sex slaves. There are those who are used locally in sex tourism. Kenya was recently named as one of the leading countries where child sex tourism is deeply entrenched.
The situation gets worse in countries at war as soldiers take boys and girls into captivity to work as servants or to satisfy their sexual demands.’ Josephine Namukwaya
Sarah Muwanga also writes: ‘ It’s generally recognised that sexuality can bring misery through sexual violence, female genital mutilation, maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS or the marginalisation of those who break the rules such as non-macho men, single women, sex workers, people with same sex sexuality and transgender people… For many poor people sexuality is a survival issue.’
