Women and Development in Africa - Essay Example

Struggles and Collective Struggles of African Women Across Different Ethnic Lines While Trying to Survive Civil (Inter-Ethnic) War This paper looks at the struggles and collective struggles of African women across different ethnic lines while trying to survive civil (or inter-ethnic) war. The paper specifically looks at the ways in which, in times of civil war, working-poor women in Africa engage in various activities to help their families survive economic and/or political hardships. The paper looks at how their struggles are linked to the politics of resistance. In this paper, by looking at many different examples of women's groups across many different African countries (for example, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, amongst others), I argue that the women of Africa who have been the victims of civil, or inter-ethnic, conflict, often respond to their situations by forming women's groups (be these apolitical, semi-political, or political). These women's groups are formed for many different reasons, be these purely social (through women's practical gendered interests, to arrange day care for children in communities directly affected by war, for example), economic (i.e., organizing labor teams when men are away from the home, fighting, for example, or arranging microfinance initiatives to develop their communities, for example) or more political (i.e., strategic gendered interests, as in Uganda, where women's groups pressurized parliament to effect the largest female political representation in the whole of Africa). These different women's groups, aside from being formed for many different reasons, are, as we shall see, run differently and aim for different solutions, dependent on the particular set of problems present in the particular country under study. The following sections will look, through an analysis of ten different academic research papers (as listed in the References section), at specific cases of different political situations in different countries, and will analyze how women and women's groups have been formed in these situations, and how they have responded to these situations. As a general background to this paper, it should be noted that, as discussed in the Introduction to Part III of the 1997 book, Women's Voices, Women's Power: Dialogues of Resistance from East Africa, published by Broadview Press, much of African culture is rooted in the traditions of the past, with men's dominance over women explained, and justified, by reference to historical tradition and to cultural traditions: for example, in Marangoli, men are classed as the decision-makers, with men having rights of authority and power over women, as defined in their ideology. That women's groups arise within this historical (traditional) context, is a testament to the power of women, and their ingenuity in the face of severe trauma and tragedy. Unfortunately, in many African countries, such as Uganda, Sudan, Rwanda or South Africa, the politicization of differences has often led to civil war or violent conflict, based on ethnic, racial, religious and other differences (Tripp, 2000). In countries such as these, for example, in Uganda, women's movements have arisen, which have conceptualized the relationship between gender and race/ethnicity/religion, in order to minimize such differences, to try to minimize the resulting violence (Tripp, 2000). Women's movements are thought to be a significant force, in African countries, in terms of depoliticizing difference and searching for the common ground in situations where the politicization of difference has led to violence: for example, since the Rwandan genocidal tragedy, women's movements in that country have been instrumental in initializing contact between Tutsi's and Hutu's (Tripp, 2000). Even though women were not active participants in the genocide, the politicization of ethnicity and the orchestration of genocide and rape inflicted against the Tutsi, as well as the retributions for these events have left powerful resentments and strongly painful memories (Tripp, 2000). Tripp (2000) discusses what accounts for the frequent resistance of women's movements to engaging in the politicization of ethnicity and religion, and their attraction to the politics of unity in so many African societies that have suffered from communal conflict. She argues that there is no simple answer, but that some general patterns are evident: common causes of women's rights; associational autonomy and opposition to patronage politics; gendered divisions of labor and peacemaking strategies; building cross-cutting ties for economic survival; and lastly, building bridges across ethnic, kinship and clan lines through marriage (Tripp, 2000). Each of these will now be discussed in turn. In many African countries, the common cause of women's rights has united many women of diverse backgrounds, as women have found it impossible to mount effective challenges to legislation adversely affecting women without building broad-based movements (Tripp, 2000). As (Tripp, 2000) points out, however, the interest in strengthening women's movements for political motives is not the only incentive for building cross-cutting ties. Many attempts at founding broad-based women's movements in African countries have been founded in response to corruption, divisiveness and violence associated with state patronage politics, which have not been beneficial to women (Tripp, 2000). In many highly fractured African societies, patronage politics has resulted in the establishment of clientelistic networks along very narrow lines of ethnicity, religious/clan affiliations etc., and women's groups have often sprung up as a counter-movement against this style of politics (Tripp, 2000), for example, the Society of the Advancement of Women (Malawi), the Women's National Coalition (South Africa) or the National Committee on the Status of Women (Nigeria). Tripp (2001a) expands upon the work presents in Tripp (2000), and looks in further detail at the issue of clientalism in Africa, and how this can be, and has been, overcome by women's organizations and women's movements. Tripp (2001a) argues that gendered divisions of labor, gendered organizational models and the general exclusion of women from both formal and informal political arenas have defined women's relationships to the state, to power and to patronage, and that it is these very characteristics that have put women's movements in a position to challenge state-linked patronage practices. Women's groups have, as we have seen, also been at the forefront of efforts to create peace between opposing sides in civil conflicts; women's involvement in such efforts is argued by many to have arisen out of the division of labor present in many African societies, which forces women to remain the mainstay and key provider for the family during such times; in armed conflicts, for example, women frequently have to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining the household in the absence of their husbands and sons (Tripp, 2000). Women in Uganda, for example, have been taking up the cause of peace in an ongoing conflict between northerners and the government that is led by westerners in coalition with southerners; in 1986, Yoweri Museveni and his guerrilla movement took over the country and brought peace to most of the country, but in those parts of the country that were not quelled by Musenevi, women's movements have protested against the 'bitterness of war' and have graphically shown how war impinges on their lives and their families, taking their very visual protests to the Minister of State for the North, Betty Bigombe (Tripp, 2000). As we have seen, many factors can place a burden on women as producers and sustainers of households, and this, against a general background of economic difficulties, in many African countries, has meant that in many situations in Africa, women have become key providers in the household, leading to the need for new organizational strategies (Tripp, 2000). It has been documented that economic survival and the belief that one's own survival is contingent on the survival of others, rather than on an ascriptive affiliation, is frequently the basis of women's associations, particularly in rural areas: to cope with unprecedented hardship, for example, women have joined forces to form groups to facilitate income-generating activities, the generation of savings, and the provision of social services, for example, children's day care; it has been found that women's business organizations are also an important force in seeking cross-cutting alliances (Tripp, 2000). Further, other reasons have been found for cross-cutting organizational efforts: in a rural Ugandan context, for example, local women's groups tend to cut across pluralistic ties: married women from patrilineal societies often find it easier than men to form associations that cut across ethnic, clan and kinship ties, because once they are married, they are forced to cut themselves off from their blood kin, but once this has been done, they are never truly accepted as a member of their new clan (Tripp, 2000). This leads to situations of 'fictive kinship', or ties to other women who are not blood relatives i.e., to women in similar situations; from these bonds, new associations are thus formed, setting the scene for women's groups to arise (Tripp, 2000). In summary, therefore, there are many and varied reasons for why women's groups arise within an African context. The next section will look at the specific case of Uganda, and will attempt to define the specific reasons behind the formation of women's groups in this country. Uganda's history, since independence from Britain in 1962, has been marred by the politicization of ethnicity and religion, which has led to conflicts between Northerners and Southerners, in addition to conflicts between the countries Catholics and Protestants (which are not divided geographically) (Tripp, 2000). These divisions have been serious enough to lead to civil war, and conflicts between different sections of the military, which continued until 1986, when the National Resistance Movement (NRM) took over the country; the NRM, as a regime, initially established a broad-based government, incorporating a wide cross-section of leaders from across the political spectrum, however, the regime narrowed and narrowed its political outlook until power came largely to the hands of the movement's top leadership, who happened to be from the West of the country (Tripp, 2000). Since the founding of the NRM in Uganda, the women's movement there has been strong, indeed one of the strongest societal forces in Uganda, in that is has pressurized the Ugandan government to elevate women to key positions within government, with Uganda having the first female Vice-President in the whole of Africa, for example, and the Ugandan parliament having eighteen per cent female representation (Tripp, 2000). Tripp (2000b) looks in detail at the political networks formed by women's movements in Africa, looking at women in government across the continent, with a particular focus on Uganda, and looks at how the formation of women's groups in this country can be argued to be strongly linked to the politics of resistance. Tripp (2001c) continues the work presented in Tripp (2000) and Tripp (2001b) and discusses in detail how the pressures from women's movements in Africa have, in general, exerted limited change on states, but that in Uganda, the women's movement is one of the most coordinated and active social movements, and hence one of the most effective in the whole of Africa. Temudo and Schiefer (2003) discuss the responses of women to the events in Guniea-Bissau since it's independence from Portugal in 1974; a series of coups led this country to civil war, which led to hundreds of thousands of poor urban citizens fleeing, for their lives, to the countryside. Temudo and Schiefer (2003) point to the case of Guinea-Bissau as showing how political institutions are inherently unstable in the face of the disintegration of society, and they look at how this disintegration is faced up to, and dealt with by communities, and by women in particular. In rural Guinea-Bissau, communities are formed based on ethnic distinctions, but strong inter-ethnic relationships ensured that, pre-civil war, there were largely peaceful coexistences of various agrarian societies (Temudo and Schiefer, 2003). Following the civil war, and the consequent societal disintegration, which was marked by a fall towards alcoholism amongst a great proportion of Guinea-Bissau men, the women of these rural communities took it upon themselves, individually, not as part of a women's collective, for example, to enter in to schemes that can be classified as women's practical gendered interests, in order to provide some economic stability for their households, for example, by growing cashew nuts, making cashew nut wine etc. (Temudo and Schiefer, 2003). In addition to this, it has been noted that post-civil war in Guinea-Bissau, the principle of general reciprocity was entered in to, mainly by women, in that food, loans and produce were offered by those who have an excess of these items, to those with a deficit, in the expectation that in the future, this kindness would be reciprocated (Temudo and Schiefer, 2003). Azam (2001) discusses the redistributive state in detail, from the viewpoint of recognizing that post-civil war, for example, few African states can deliver services (such as access to health and education) adequately, and that, as such, the redistribution system within and among ethnic groups is the key to creating solidarity between these groups. It is easy, through his analysis, to see how Azam's (2001) model can be applied to the phenomena of women's groups, as women, in particular, as we have seen, can be responsible for effecting economic change (or redistribution) in communities: for example, as Azam (2001) suggests, women are often responsible for arranging for their sons to migrate to the city to study, by saving or working extra hours to bring in extra income, for example, which, as the women realize, will eventually lead to more income flowing in to the community. They see this offering of services as a long-term investment for their community. Drew (1995) and Ampofo et al. (2004) look in detail at female consciousness and feminism in Africa, and women's issues across sub-Saharan Africa, from a feminist perspective, looking at, for example, social science research i.e., gender issues, health issues, sexuality, domestic violence etc. Walker (1995) looks in detail at how motherhood can be contextualized in an African context, with particular reference to South Africa. In the paper, Walker argues that motherhood has two main themes in sociology literature: collusion with patriarchy vs the difference in 'white' and 'black' views of motherhood, and that these two themes can be united if motherhood is given a greater definitional complexity, with more reference to history (Walker, 1995). Walker (1995) argues that motherhood has been a central theme of South African women's organizations during the last century, as two major women's movements, the WEAU and the ANCWL, identify themselves, socially and politically, as mothers, as, they argued, being a mother could socially and politically transcend other divisions, for example, colour. Much political, and academic, debate followed this declaration, as this definition of motherhood seemed to suggest that motherhood could transcend the roots of conflict in this country, and could, therefore, offer a solution for peace (Walker, 1995). This is an interesting concept, in terms of the current paper, as it offers, firstly, an explanation for why women band together to form women's groups for the purposes of women's practical gendered interests or women's strategic gendered interests, in that 'motherhood' offers a form of solidarity that can be understood by the members of the group, to provide an external force for the actions to be undertaken by the group. Motherhood, when conceptualized, and acted upon, therefore offers empowerment to women, as it offers a positive self-identity for women (Walker, 1995). In this paper, we have seen, through the study of various African case studies (Rwanda, Uganda and Guinea-Bissau, in particular), how women's groups arise in the face, or wake, of civil (or inter-ethnic) war. There are many reasons for the occurrence of women's groups, from social or economic support (as in Guinea-Bissau), to a will for political change (as in Uganda). The forms of support offered within the women's groups, be these collective or individual, as we have seen, differ from situation to situation, depending on the specifics of the situation in which the women find themselves, be this a need to effect small-scale economic changes, as in Guinea-Bissau, in response to alcoholism amongst the men-folk, or whether this be a need to effect inter-ethnic communication, as in the case of Rwanda. It is, as we have seen, a testament to the power and spirit of women, that under such adverse circumstances, women can find the strength to group together to try to drag themselves out of the miserable situation in which they find themselves. References Ampofo, A.A. et al. "Women's and gender studies in English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. A Review of Research in the Social Sciences." Gender & Society 18(6) (2004): 685-714. Azam, J-P. "The redistributive state and conflicts in Africa." Journal of Peace Research 38(4) (2001): 429-444. Drew, A. "Female consciousness and feminism in Africa." Theory and Society 24(1) (1995): 1-33. Temudo, M.P and Schiefer, U. "Disintegration and resilience of agrarian societies in Africa- the importance of social and genetic resources: a case study on the reception of urban war refugees in the South of Guinea-Bissau." Current Sociology 51(3/4) (2003): 393-416. Tripp, A.M. "Rethinking difference: comparative perspectives from Africa." Signs 25(3) (2000): 649-675. Tripp, A.M. "Women's movements and challenges to neopatrimonial rule: preliminary observations from Africa." Development and Change 32 (2001a): 33-54 Tripp, A.M. "The new political activism in Africa." Journal of Democracy 12(3) (2001b): 141-155. Tripp, A.M. The politics of autonomy and cooptation in Africa: the case of the Ugandan women's movement. The Journal of Modern African Studies 39(1) (2001c): 101-128. Walker, C. Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth century South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies 21(3) (1995): 416-437. Women's Voices, Women's Power: Dialogues of Resistance from East Africa. Broadview Press, 1997. Read More