AfricawomanF O R A N D A B O U T W O M E N I N A F R I C A ● F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 4 ● I S S U E 1 8

F I N D U S O N T H E W E B A T : W W W . A F R I C A W O M A N . N E T

PROSTITUTION IN KENYA SPECIAL REPORT – PAGES 6 & 7

By Sakina Zainul Datoo, Tanzania

EXTREME hunger has forced Chilungulu village girls inRural Dodoma to sell their bodies in exchange formaize. Girls as young as 14, some still in school, gowithout food sometimes for five days in a row.

In such circumstances, villagers told Africawoman,concerns about morality and even the threat ofHIV/Aids take back seat.

It is common practice for girls from villages in theneighbourhood of Makutopora JKT Camp to sell char-coal to the soldiers; it is also just as common for the sol-

diers to offer free food to those who agree to have sexwith them.

Says Ester Mchiwa, a mother of five, includingteenaged girls: “What do you expect? A girl who hasnot eaten for days and knows of the extreme situationback home cannot refuse. She is only thinking of hersurvival.”

Selina Mlewa, mother of two girls and three boys,told Africawoman: “We try to tell our daughters not tosuccumb to such invitations, but the situation is verytough. Many girls are thinking of their own benefits, so

INSIDEA female presidentin our times?– Page 4

Skimpy clothes raisefurore on campus– Page 8

Maternity lawshaunt women– Page 11

Sex-for-maize scandalrocks Tanzanian village

By Eunice Menka, Ghana

ELECTIONS are in the air in Ghana,Namibia, South Africa, Malawi andBotswana. Can we expect changesin women’s representation? Not ifyou go by statistics. It appearsAfrican leaders have simply paidlip service to women as a means toget power.

Under the Jerry Rawlings ad-ministration in 1997, Ghana had sixfemale ministers out of 37, fourdeputy ministers out of 34 and 19women MPs out of 200.

Very little has changed since.The number of women MPs is 18out 200 in the Kufuor administra-tion, which took over in 2000. Therewere 10 women out of 71 ministersof state in the Rawlings adminis-tration. Kufuor has 11 women min-isters out of 81.

Women who want to make it to

It’s no way to rewardwomen in politics

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Parliament must struggle for afoothold, even in the primaries.“Some of the constituencies arehostile to women being elected asMPs or entering the political racebecause of cultural perceptions ofwomen in the communities,” saysRojo Mettle-Nunoo of the NationalDemocratic Congress, the partyRawlings formed after Ghana didaway with military rule.

“The NDC has a clear policy toappoint more women as ministersof state, chief executives of organi-sation, ambassadors, district chiefexecutives and other positions ofauthority when we come into pow-er after the 2004 elections,” addsMettle-Nunoo, who is quick to addthat this is not just political talk.

Where women are representedin politics in significant numbersand work in enabling environ-ments, they make a marked differ-

After years of hard work, the Guinea worm has defiedall odds and re-emerged in Ghana, which now ranks second only to the Sudan in recorded cases. The resurgence of the disease, especially in the northernparts of the country, can only worsen the plight ofwomen. See story on page 14

Lovebrewed in anAfricanpotBy Annastazia NdlovuZimbabwe

Want to tie the love ofyour life to your sideforever? Look no fur-ther than umuthi,

magical herbs better known aslove potions all over the world.Expect a tough time of it, though.Not only are there doubts thatthey really exist, but they canalso hasten the end of a relation-ship.

Take the case of BarbaraRusere. Married to a ZimbabweElectricity Supply Authority man-ager, she reportedly wrapped hisunderwear in umuthi and placedit in the glove compartment of hercar. The couple had been togetherfor 12 years and was goingthrough a rough patch, no longersharing the same bedroom.

Her husband, Raphael, toldHarare Magistrate SithengisiweNdlovu that he found his under-wear in his wife’s car on March 31last year as he was looking for hisown car keys. He confronted herand she denied that they belongedto him. Rusere turned violent andstruck her with a stone, hurtingher left ankle.

The magistrate would hear

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

Charity Ngilu was the firstwoman in East Africa to take ashot at the presidency.

RETURN OF THE GUINEA WORM

they don’t listen. We are forced to send our girlsthere to sell charcoal so that we get money to buyfood. We know of Aids and other diseases, but whatto do?”

Ester Makasi, aged 18, says many of her friendsare involved in the trade but she has not succumbedyet: she is being obedient to her mother. “Even veryyoung girls, as young as 14, run away from schooland go to Makutopora because they know there isfood there,” she says. “They don’t tell their parents.”

Famine stalks the land, mostly the rural areas, dueto drought that has affected the harvest since Augustlast year. The situation worsened last November,when reserves depleted. Since late January, the sit-uation in many villages has become critical, withsome villages declaring deaths due to starvation.

Dodoma is particularly prone to famine. The landis not ideal for food crops. The main cash crop in thearea is grapes, whose market is presently dimin-ished due to closure of the local parastatal winery afew years ago. Kenya is the main, but limited market,for Dodoma grapes now. Other cash crops cultivat-ed in small quantities include pyrethrum, sim sim,peanuts and groundnuts while millet, cassava andmaize are grown as food crops.

Says Dodoma-based journalist Susuma Susuma:“The problem with people in Dodoma is that they arelazy and don’t use their land for their own use. Themajority will work for a tycoon, cultivating crops forhim for small pay. That is why if a natural disasterstrikes, they are hit the most as they don’t have anyreserves or their own farms to sustain them.”

People have already started eating wild insectsharvested from bark trees in Farkwa division. Theexecutive director of Kondoa District Council, FredMasele, confirmed that he had witnessed people eat-ing the insects.

In Singida Rural, meanwhile, three children havebeen reported to have died after their mother fed thefamily poisonous wild plants. The family with fivechildren had not eaten for five days and, followingwhat has become common practice, the motherboiled the only leaves she could find and fed her chil-dren. The two children who survived have been ad-mitted at the hospital in Mbulu district in Arusha.

According to Dodoma Regional Commissioner Al-hajj Mussa Nkhangaa, any long-term plan to avoidfamine will involve putting in place irrigation sys-tems throughout the region. But this requires major

investment, something the government cannot man-age on its own. “Assistance is needed,” he said.

Meanwhile, food is being sent to villages based onthe needs data compiled by village leaders. Howev-er, Chilungulu village Executive Officer SebastianMwiliko said no food had arrived here.

He had received information only that morningthat two bags of maize had arrived for the first timefor his village and were being held by the MundemuDivision secretary awaiting collection.

He told Africawoman: “How can I take two bags ofmaize when more than 100 people are critical in thevillage? How will I distribute such food? I cannottake it since I fear for my security. Villagers can at-tack me and I have no security.”

Mwiliko said they had compiled all data as re-quested by the government and forwarded it. Thereare 2,485 people in the village, but only 752 are ableto work and another 206 are disabled and feeble.

“Most of the youths have started running awayfrom the village, leaving the old in even worse con-ditions. Look around the village, there is absolutelyno food, the little cassava that was holding us to-gether is finished now. People have developedswollen legs and are extremely weak. They can’twork anymore, children can’t get to schools andwomen and babies are suffering the most,” he said.

Village women confirmed that breast-feedingmothers were suffering the most since they were try-ing to feed their babies without themselves havingeaten for days. Many of them are no longer able tonourish their children. According to Mwiliko, the sit-uation has fuelled underage sex, with parents beingpaid in food or cattle for their daughters. “An 80-year-old man can get a girl of 15 or 18 in exchange for acow or some food,’ he adds.

Older girls are running away to towns and citiesand getting involved in prostitution out of sheer des-peration. “Aids is the main threat, but you can’tchoose when you are selling your body for food,”says Mwiliko.

But Regional Commissioner Alhajj Nkhangaa sayshe was not aware of the practice at the village. Hewas not even aware of its location. “I am hearing thisfirst time. I can’t say this is not true but I can’t say itis true either … we will have to investigate…. .”

There have been reports of similar desperation inthe North Eastern Province of Kenya, which is dom-inated by drought too, with children as young as 13going into prostitution in order to get a loaf of bread.

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Sex-for-maize scandalrocks Tanzanian village

EDITORIALAfricawoman, P.O. Box 6064, Nairobi 00200, Kenya. Tel: 254-2-2721429 Tel/Fax: 254-2-2721439 / Email: africawoman@swiftkenya.com

Editor: Lucy Oriang (loriang@nation.co.ke/lucyoriang@yahoo.com)Associate Director: Lesley Riddoch, BBC The Tan, Holyrood Road, EH8 8JF, Scotland. (Lesley.Riddoch@bbc.co.uk)Coordinator: Florence Machio (fmachio@yahoo.com)

Africawoman is produced by 80 women journalists from Uganda,Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Nigeria whomeet in a virtual newsroom once a month. The information produced isthen linked to community radios throughout Africa to reach grassrootwomen.

When a rumour started recently in Nairobi that women hadonly three months to throw their trousers and mini-skirtsout of their wardrobes, the response from men taking partin radio call-ins was, to say the least, surprising.

Surprising because the idea of women in trousers is as much a fore-gone conclusion as the fact that girls will go to school and stay there un-til they get a meaningful qualification. This is the land in which the po-lice force has kitted out its women in trousers. The First Lady is particu-larly fond of trousers, even wearing one to last year’s wedding of herhusband’s vice-president.

Yet some of the men were threatening to strip women in the streetsand offices because wearing trousers and mini-skirts was "unfair" tomen.

It could have been the spirit of the times. As you will find out from ourreports from Malawi and Nigeria, there are many people who are ob-sessed with what women choose to wear. For them, it is as if the devilhas set up camp in women’s wardrobes.

They keep referring to African culture and the high morals that com-munities on the continent have. Strange, when many African communi-ties began to wear clothes just within the last century. Skins and plentyof bare skin were the norm. Mothers and sons faced each other in them,as did fathers and daughters. There is no evidence that rape and incestwere higher then than now.

Indeed, there are still many communities that think nothing of barebreasts and miniscule loin clothes just covering the essentials. You onlyhave to see the reed dance put up annually for the benefit of King Mswatiof Swaziland to see just how skewed the debate about women’s dress is.

Women just cannot win this war: France is busy talking the languageof demanding that Muslim women do not wear the veil in public places.They are so jaded there that they cannot live with this frontal evidenceof religion.

This is not the first time that the debate on a dress code for women hascome up in the world. In 2002, the highest-ranking female fighter pilot,Lieutenant-Colonel Martha McSally, sued the United States military overa requirement that women wear the Muslim Abaya while working inSaudi Arabia. It offended her Christian sensitivities and violated her con-situtional rights as a woman, she argued. She won hands down.

Whatever the excuse, we tread on dangerous ground when we allowhordes in the streets to grab every woman they consider inappropriatelydressed. As Kenya’s first attorney-general responded when asked in par-liament to declare a ban on short skirts, "Look the other way".

The trouble with these matters is that one person’s meat is another’spoison. Where do we draw the line when it comes to "suitable" dressing?And why should the power to decide this lie with a total stranger in thestreets?

There is no doubt at all in our minds that women must reserve theright to decide what to wear and enjoy the full freedom to do so. This isthe stuff of which human rights is made.

Still, it is only wise sometimes to stick to the rules. If your college de-mands that you live within a set dress code, it would be foolhardy tobreak the rules just to make a point — especially when it is part of therules and regulations that you signed at the beginning of the course.

Sometimes being appropriately dressed is simply a matter of commonsense. Just as people would raise their eyebrows if you turned up inheavy jackets and boots on the beach, they would be forgiven to thinkthere was something amiss if you wore something reminiscent of a biki-ni set or gauzy evening gown to the office.

No one has the right to strip women dressed in clothes they do notlike, but it is also just a matter of self-respect and good taste to dress ac-cording to the demands of the place and ceremony.

Leave our skirts out of it

2 OPINION Africawoman

February 2004

BEYOND THE SMILE: The women and children of Chilungulu village are faced with tough choices asfamine bitess.

Africawoman POLITICS 3February 2004

By Nabusayi L. Wamboka, Uganda

Her name is Upenzi. It means “love”in Kiswahili. If there is anythingthat seven-year-old Upenzi needs,it is love. Just a few months ago,

no one imagined she would recover fromthe trauma of watching her mother die.

Following a tribal fight between theLendu and Hema in eastern Democratic Re-public of Congo last May, Upenzi’s motherfled with her daughter in search of refuge.But the violence caught up with themweeks later: a bullet shattered Upenzi’s lit-tle hand as she held on to her mother’sdress. The same bullet ripped through hermother’s back, killing her instantly.

Other families fleeing the fightingchanced upon Upenzi, grabbed her and con-tinued the race against time. For days, theytravelled through Ituri, Bunya and on toNtoroko in Bundibugyo. They were thenferried to Kasese in western Uganda.

Says Masereka Yusuf, supervisor of thepsycho-social rehabilitation transit centrein Rukokyi, where the children are staying.“She has not uttered a word since she ar-rived here. We spent two months fixing herhand because the bullet ripped it apart.”

Upenzi is the youngest of 16 children whomade their way to the centre. A 14-year-oldboy bears machete scars across his headand a bullet wound in the leg. “This onewas hacked by people he knows,” saysYusuf. “They left him for dead but he man-aged to escape. When he first arrived here,we did not think he would survive.”

Kasese has borne a heavy burden arisingfrom internal and external fighting. Accord-ing to the district planner, Police Mugisha,over 1,000 children were abducted and 456are still unaccounted for years after the in-surgency.

Besides the refugee crisis, the threat oflandmines looms over large parts of Kas-ese, leaving residents of three sub-county’sstill displaced. Many of these people darenot go home for fear of landmines.

In Kyondo sub-county, schools were

closed and a passion fruit project that hadbecome a source of income for local resi-dents was destroyed. In Kilembe andKitswamba, villagers moved to the lowerlands and have never returned.

Ugandan rebel groups often leave land-mines on roads in the north and north westregions of the country, most notably aroundGulu and Kitgum and – to a lesser extent –around Bundibugyo and Western Nile.

According to the International Commit-tee of the Red Cross, children comprisethree-quarters of the victims of landminesin northern Uganda. The total number oflandmine casualties in Uganda remains un-clear, however, as there is no comprehen-sive data collection system. Some informa-tion on landmine casualties is available aspart of general hospital records.

Between 1991 and March 2001, 602 land-mine casualties were reported in Uganda.In 2001, the International Service Volun-teers Association reported 12 new landminecasualties in the Gulu, Kitgum and Adju-mani districts. Other sources reported that

landmines had killed at least seven peopleand injured three others in north and west-ern Uganda in 2001.

One man was reported killed in Kasese.In Gulu district, five people were treated atSt. Mary’s Lacor Hospital, including fourmen, aged 20-28, and a woman aged 22. InKitgum, a man and a boy were injured. Thedriver of a truck was killed after his vehiclehit a mine suspected to have been plantedby the Lords Resistance Army on the Gulu-Juba road. His passenger was admitted atSt Mary’s with severe injuries.

Women and children have been most af-fected in post-conflict Kasese and neigh-bouring DRC. At least 78 have died in land-mine accidents. The greatest worry for lo-cal people is that they do not know wherethe mines are.

Because of the instability, says AugustineMaserika of Kitholthu sub-county, school-ing has been hard hit – especially Kyabuk-era, Kitobira and Kiraro primary schools.He adds: “These are temporary and have notoilets. They have not been planned for be-

cause people believe they will be movingagain.”

Two women died recently after theystepped on landmines in the fields in Kab-we, he recalls. Landmine victims in the sub-county have not been compensated, eventhough they have lost their capacity to gen-erate an income or support their families.

Damascus Macheli, a Unicef official work-ing in south western Uganda has this tosay: “It is disastrous. The villagers can’t goback to their homes and the army won’t tellwhere the landmines are planted. As a re-sult, most of these communities are dis-placed. They are very poor because theycan’t farm and they are always struck bycholera epidemics.”

In 2001, Uganda received Sh360 million(US$217,800) from the government of Cana-da’s development agency for an integratedmine risk education and victim supportprogramme, mainly for northern Uganda.Funds were provided through CanadianPhysicians for Aid and Relief for 18 months.

In February 2002, the Canadian govern-ment announced a donation of $365,000 forongoing landmine work in northern Ugan-da. As detailed in Landmine Monitor Re-port 2001, the Mine Advisory Group (MAG)carried out an assessment in May 2001,finding some mined areas in northern andwestern Uganda but noting that “the prob-lem is not acute, but is causing deaths andinjuries in these areas”.

The assessment has not led to any majorchanges, but has spurred more funding fornon-governmental organisation mine riskeducation and support programmes, whichhad stopped due to lack of funding.

The Uganda People’s Defence Forces isreported to have acquired new mine clear-ance and detection equipment, including“chubbies or mine breachers for detectinglandmines” – a likely reference to the SouthAfrican “Chubby” mine clearance and de-tection machine. The military displayedthese during the 16th Anniversary of Na-tional Resistance Movement celebrationson January 26, 2002.

Landminehavoc

in a landof despair

Land mine survivors

By Diana Nkhulembe, Malawi

VERA CHIRWA is an academician,human rights activist and lawyer. Ifshe has her way, she will crown herlong list of achievements by be-coming president of Malawi.

So determined is she that whenshe could find no party to back herpresidential bid in the May 18 poll,Chirwa declared that she would goit alone. It is the very first time thata woman has sought the highest of-fice in the land.

It is a long shot in a country thathas only 17 female MPs out of 193.Only eight women are ministers.

Women comprise 52 percent ofMalawi’s population. But she wouldbe ill advised to bank on drawingher support from this pool. Thepublic has received Chirwa’s candi-dacy with mixed feelings. She ap-pears to have support among theintellectuals who think it is abouttime women came out of thekitchen and played a leading role ingovernance.

But the average Malawian ratesher chances of winning the presi-dency as very slim, consideringthat she is 71 and has not been ac-tive in politics over the past 20years.

At a meeting held on January 23,in the capital, Lilongwe, eight op-position parties that want to form aunited front against incumbentBakili Muluzi, rejected Chirwa’snomination unanimously. Allowingher to contest would create a situa-tion where anyone could come inand contest without representingany party, they said.

Billy Gama, spokesperson for thefacilitating committee for the coali-tion, said it would bring togetherpolitical parties and not individu-als.

Chirwa wrote the facilitators toconsider her as a presidential can-didate, but says she has not re-ceived any official communication.

Chirwa’s credentials are impres-sive. She holds a masters degree inlaw and has won several interna-tional awards for her human rightswork and appears in the worldWho is Who. She was votedMalawi’s woman of the year for2003 and in 1998 won the GeuzenHero’s Medallion in the Nether-lands.

Chirwa, the first woman barris-ter in East, Central and SouthernAfrica, was also commissioner ofthe presidential commission of in-quiry on land policy reform and a

board member of Women in Law inSouthern Africa. In 1992, she re-ceived an award for distinguishedachievement and for being an in-spiration to women lawyers inMalawi.

She serves as commissioner onthe African Union’s African Com-mission on Human and People’sRights and is a special rapporteuron prisons and conditions of deten-tion in Africa.

Chirwa is also the coordinator ofthe Southern Africa Peace Womenfor Nobel Peace Prize 2005 and amember of the United Nations Sec-retary-General’s Task Force onHIV and Aids relating to womenand children. She formed MalawiCarer, a non-governmental organi-sation that has worked with pris-oners, in 1994.

James Ntale, a tycoon in the com-mercial city of Blantyre, believesChirwa should be taken seriously.The issue, he says, is not whetherthe president should be male or fe-male. It is simply a question of ser-vice delivery and capability. Chirwahas also received crucial supportfrom women’s non-governmentalorganisations, including Women’sVoice. Director Makoko Chirwasays her organisation will be back-ing the woman whose achieve-ments have put Malawi “on theworld map”.

Says an indignant Chirwa: “Somecritics have described the role ofwomen in politics as insignificant,and have said that they cannot holda high public office like that of thepresident.”

Yet others argue that Vera Chir-

wa is better known in the context ofhuman rights and this will likelyhurt her chances in the politicalarena. She was imprisoned for 12years by the Kamuzu Bandaregime. Her husband, Orton, diedin custody in Zomba in 1992.

“She should have identified her-self with a political party when shecame out of prison and played anactive role in trying to sell herself.Many people know her as a humanrights activist and not as a politi-cian. It is difficult to raise her pro-file in less than four months to theelections,” said a University ofMalawi don.

Joel Phiri suggests that Malaw-ians might also be reluctant to sup-port Chirwa because they wouldnot want to be associated with fail-ure. He argues that Chirwa has notdone enough leg work – the elec-tion being only three months or soaway.

Chirwa is not alone in her at-tempt: in Benin, Marie-Elise Ak-ouavi Gbedo, a lawyer and divorcedmother of two, is the only womanamong 17 presidential contenders.She is the first woman presidentialcandidate in West Africa and it isnot plain sailing for her either.

The first Ghanaian woman tocontest her party’s 1996 primariesas a presidential candidate wasconsidered to have gone “crazy”,even by her fellow women, but shewas able to beat at least two malecontestants out of six.

In the United States of America,a White House Project started byMS Foundation President MarieWilson is seeking to build the polit-ical climate necessary to elect awoman president by the year 2008.The project publicises the names of20 accomplished women, and willeventually campaign for five.

Whatever comes of Chirwa’scampaign, political analysts reckonthat she will have laid the ground-work for the drive to raise the levelof women’s representation in par-liament to 30 percent.

HIGH HOPES: Vera Chirwa seeks to make history in Malawi.

A femalepresident inour times?

4 POLITICS Africawoman

February 2004

‘Some women have described the roleof women in politics as insignificant’

If you enjoyed this issue, you canfind back copies at:www.africawoman.net and at www.coldtype.net/africawoman.html

HAVE YOU READ PREVIOUS ISSUES OF AFRICAWOMAN?

ence to governance, says a study byGender Links of South Africa. In astudy released last December, theorganisation says women’s equalparticipation in decision-making isnot just a democratic right but it iscritical to more accountable, trans-parent and responsive governance.The study was based on interviewswith 172 politicians in six SouthernAfrican countries.

In 1997, heads of state of the 14Southern Africa DevelopmentCommunity countries signed aGender and Development Declara-tion in which they pledged toachieve 30 percent representationof women in decision-making by2004.

Only South Africa and Mozam-bique have reached this target sofar. Three countries will not haveelections again until after 2005. Butnine of the countries have electionsbetween now and the end of 2005.

Ntlhoi Motsamai, Speaker of theLesotho National Assembly andchairperson of the SADC Parlia-mentary Forum has called on theleadership of political parties in theregion to adopt policy initiativesaimed at ensuring more women

seek election in the forthcomingpolls in South Africa, Malawi andBotswana.

The Ghanaian government hasapproved 40 per cent representa-tion of women at all levels of deci-sion-making. But local women haveyet to be equally represented in pri-mary areas of decision-makingsuch as in governance.

Some analysts link women’s poorstanding in society with their ab-sence in political and economicpower. December, a petty trader inKpong, in the Volta region ofGhana, was sentenced to 10 yearsin jail for procuring an illegal abor-tion. The woman, a single parent,already had three other children.

Demonstrations by a section ofGhanaian women during the latterpart of 2003 over the murders of 34women have yet to yield any prose-cutions. These gruesome murdershave now been politicised as for-mer president Rawlings points ac-cusing fingers at top ministers inthe Kufuor administration as beingresponsible for the deaths of thesewomen killed towards the end ofhis government.

Until women are empowered andwell represented in all areas of gov-

ernance, they will continue to bepowerless against such brutality;they will continue to face discrimi-nation as leaders continue to paylip service to convention after con-vention directed at enhancing therights of women.

SADC women have made somegains: at last December’s SADCParliamentary Forum Plenary As-sembly held in Lesotho, severalwomen were elected chairpersonsof standing committees of the fo-rum, which is soon to be trans-formed into a regional parliamentto complement the work of theAfrican Union Parliament.

They included Zambian MPEdith Nawakwi, who is chairpersonfor the standing committee on re-gional integration, and SouthAfrican Lulama Xingwana, chair ofthe standing committee on the re-gional women’s parliamentary cau-cus.

Already, there are indicationsthat civil society groups are gear-ing up to push the empowerment ofwomen further during this year’selections.

The British High Commissionand the Department for Interna-tional Development (DFID) are

jointly providing 500,000 pula to theBotswana Caucus for Women inPolitics to support training to en-courage more women to take a rolein all forms of government.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundationhas developed a training of train-er’s programme and sought sup-port from co-operating partners tocover the costs of a series of na-tional workshops – at which thetrainers intend to identify and trainwomen parliamentary and local au-thority candidates. These candi-dates will then be prepared for pri-mary elections in the 57 con-stituencies and subsequent councilelections.

In South Africa, which hasachieved critical mass representa-tion, women were drawn togetherbefore the first democratic elec-tions in 1994 by the Women’s Na-tional Coalition, which drafted theWomen’s Charter for EffectiveEquality.

Out of 490 politicians elected tothe National Assembly and Senate(now National Council ofProvinces) in April 1994, 117 werewomen —108 in the National As-sembly and eight in the Senate – afar cry from the apartheid govern-

ment’s 2.8 per cent parliamentaryrepresentation of women.

Today, South Africa has 33 per-cent women parliamentarians andholds the distinction of being one ofthe countries in the world with thehighest numbers of female MPs.

It is about time that womenplayed a more assertive role in de-manding their right to participatein governance as political leaders.Power will not be delivered to themon a silver platter. They must makethe demand if they are to get any-where

Ghana’s Hawa Yakubu, MP forBawku Central, appears bent onpushing the women’s agenda fur-ther: she is one of the few womenrepresented on the Economic Com-mission for West African StatesParliament.

Ghana’s 2004 elections is astraight fight between Rawlings’NDC and Kufuor’s New PatrioticParty. Local gender activists arenot sleeping. They have put togeth-er a Women’s Manifesto that theyhope to push down the throats ofpolitical parties. The elections willno doubt be exciting. The real chal-lenge, however, is how to translateinto reality what is on paper.

No way to reward women in politics

Women and power go well togetherBy Yetunde Oladeinde, Nigeria

THINK Golda Meier, MargaretThatcher, Indira Gandhi, BenazirBhutto, Corazon Aquino. Thinkpower. These women must surelyrank among the best known lead-ers of their times.

Women have also wielded greatpower in the ancient and classicalworld. Cleopatra, Hatshepsat andthe Celtic queens are just some thatcome to mind.

Today, a quick survey indicatesthat most women heads of govern-ment come from the Asian and Pa-cific regions. Here, they hold 8.9percent and 8.6 percent of all par-liamentary seats. In the Common-wealth’s collective 8,180 parliamen-tary seats, women have a cut of 14.1percent – just slightly higher thanthe global 13.8 percent.

How to translate women’s num-bers into at least half the parlia-mentary seats and political powerin their countries has preoccupiedwomen’s rights activists for the bet-ter part of the past 30 years.

Tina Amoke Oladimeji, who hasbeen in the crusade for women’semancipation for three decades,advises that women should get in-volved in business, education andpolitics early. The labour activistbelieves that sustained campaign-ing has started yielding dividends.She told Africawoman: “It’s getting

better now. Most of the elected can-didates (women) came from theNorth. When I started with AdamsOshiomole in the 1970s, it was notlike that. We had people like Gam-bo Sawaba, who were fighting alone battle.”

Oladimeji adds: “I started as oneof the officers of the then UnitedLabour Congress led by Alhaji Has-san Sumonu. Then I went througha lot of tutorials that helped shapemy life. My most famous sobriquetthen was, ‘Ever Ready’. I becamethe secretary of the union and heldthat position for 13 years.”

Erelu Olusola Idowu Obada,deputy governor of Osun State,takes the matter further. The onlything that women need is dogged-

ness and determination to takethem to the top. At the beginning ofher career in politics, there wereenough people trying to discourageher. They gave up and let her be: to-day she is the number two citizenin Osun, south west Nigeria. But itis not enough for Obada: “Look atthe Budget. We have qualifiedwomen economists, they have nosay in it.”

Having been on the ground forsome time now, her exposure to theintricacies of politics in Nigeria, asit affects women, has sharpenedher skills. “I have realised that allyou need to do to get to the top iswork hard and carry the men alongwith you. That has really helped inmy case and I have the support of

the men in my state. I would en-courage every woman interested inpublic office to do the same. Weshould look above the odds becausethey will always be there.”

Obada explains some of the hin-drances for women in politics: “Allparties have caucuses, which arevery powerful. They are the one sthat select candidates. Our womenmust learn about them and how touse them. For me, money is noteverything. Integrity is what willgive any woman an edge.”

Olufunke Daniel, first lady ofOgun State, believes it would begreat to have a female president inNigeria some day. “Women shouldbe seen as go-getters who add val-ue. I know that we can get to the

top if we really want to. All we needto do is support one another. If wedid that, we would have more op-portunities and get more positionsin government. We are prudentmanagers and this is why we excelin business and other sectors of theeconomy.”

In 1996, women made up 6.9 per-cent of Cabinet ministers world-wide, rising to 7.4 percent in 1998.As of march 2000, there were onlyeight women heads of government:in Bangladesh, Finland, Ireland,Latvia, New Zealand, Panama, SanMarino and Sri Lanka. Asia hashad several female heads of Stateand counts many respected womenchief executive officers, but theoverall achievement rates varywidely, especially outside of the up-per classes. The women who rise topower are often related to powerfulmen, and are helped by namerecognition.

Probably Africa’s highest-rank-ing female leader yet, Ruth SandoPerry was sworn in as head ofLiberia’s interim government in1989, just after the rebel forces ofCharles Taylor assassinatedSamuel Doe. The former teacher,bank executive and senator is re-membered for her dogged pursuitof peace in a country racked by civ-il war. How much longer before wecan speak of another femaleAfrican head of state?

They should get involved in business, education and politics early, advises activist

Africawoman POLITICS 5February 2004

Yeye Olufunke daniel, first ladyof Ogun State

Margaret Thatcher, formerPrime Miniter of Britain.

Erelu Olusola Obada, DeputyGovernor Osun State

From Page 1

6 POLITICS Africawoman

By Mildred Barasa, Kenya

The oldest profession in the worldhas just become the latest bone ofcontention in Kenya, following anumber of swoops on women in the

streets. Arrests and jailing of commercialsex workers is nothing new here. The buzzis about prominent people in governmentreportedly being caught red-handed pickingup women in the now infamous KoinangeStreet cutting right across the central busi-ness district in Nairobi.

According to local media reports, politi-cians and prominent businessmen wereamong those netted in the December raidthat also netted 102 women. Fifty eight weresaid to be students at the University ofNairobi and diploma colleges.

Commercial sex work is illegal in Kenyaand some of those arrested were as youngas 12. The men got off scot-free while thewomen were hauled to court and fined orsent to jail.

But while the arrests have generatedenough controversy in themselves, someKenyans now suggest that commercial sexwork be made legal. It is a case of “If you

can’t beat them, join them”, they argue. Among those who back the validation of

the trade is MP Nick Salat, who argues thatcommercial sex work is here to stay andshould simply be regulated. Commercialsex work should be seen as any other tradethat can benefit people and not necessarilyruin them, he says.

“The government should work towardsregularising the trade, like any other beingcarried out in Kenya,” he says. “This is themost ancient business and it cannot be doneaway with. Some countries have legalisedthe business, why shouldn’t we as a countrydo it?”

Critics argue that this would be tanta-mount to throwing morals to the dogs, butthe MP reckons it is a personal matter andindividuals should be left to choose whetheror not to engage in it. “If a person is Christ-ian, Muslim or whatever religion, theyknow where to go and what to do accordingto their religious beliefs. They should not betold what to do.”

Speaking strictly in business terms, headds: “It is regulated, the people involved init will have frequent check-ups and will op-erate in a controlled environment, thusmaking sure they are healthy. It is one wayof working towards eradicating HIV/Aidsrather than spreading it.”

But Nominated MP Julia Ojiambo is scan-dalised that anyone should even think of le-galising commercial sex work. “Why shouldwe allow it? Our daughters should have agood life, not legalised prostitution.”

Like many others in a society that somedescribe as ultra-conservative, she believesthat commercial sex dehumanises womenand propagates sexually transmitted infec-tions. If working in certain areas will ex-pose Kenyans to a high risk of infection anddeath, then the government has no businesslegalising it. “Some people think it is a plea-sure to venture into such activities. Butthere should be better ways of earning a liv-ing,” she adds.

MPs chair their constituency Aids control

committees, and a cross section of Kenyansargue that they must behave like role mod-els if they are to be taken seriously. Beingfound in comprising situations is unlikely tohelp the cause.

Thailand is one of the few countries thathave turned commercial sex into an “hon-est” business. The trade reportedly injectsthree percent into that country’s Gross Do-mestic Product.

But some have argued that, given themoral implications of commercial sex work,it is highly unlikely that it can be regulatedeffectively.

Any talk of regulation raises the spectreof increasingly jobless young people ventur-ing into the high risk business of commer-cial sex – and it is enough to send shiversdown the spines of many parents here.

It is bad enough that young women aged15 to 19 appear to be hardest hit in terms ofnew infections, probably because of highlevels school dropout and the subsequentpoverty. But local people argue for “gainful”employment and income-generating oppor-tunities —which may be harder to start outwith, but will eventually be easier on bodyand soul.

Caught in a bind

February 2004

Kenyans find themselves face to face with a dilemma over commercial sex: should it be legal or condemned out of hand?

PROSTITUTION IN KENYA: THE STORY

SCANDALISED: ominated Mp Julia OjiamboHERE TO STAY: MP Nick Salat says prostitution should be regulated.

“Why should we allow it? Our daughters should have a good life, not legalised prostitution.”

By Lucy Oriang’, Kenya

There’s a stanza of our na-tional anthem that res-onates in my mind thisweek. Part of it goes: “…Jus-

tice be our shield and defender….” Nowhere in that anthem does it

say that justice is divisible. Nowheredoes it say that some are more enti-tled to it than others. There were nodegrees of justice mentioned at allwhen we put words to the traditionalPokomo lullaby that ended up asKenya’s signature tune. We simplywanted a fair and just society, period.

Yet independent Kenya has hadgreat difficulty dispensing justice –whether politically, economically,legally or socially. Nowhere are thedisparities felt more acutely thanwhen it comes to men and women.After this past week, we are in nodoubt whatsoever that, even in mat-ters below the belt, there is one set ofrules for men and another forwomen. The effects of these doublestandards have been felt deep andwide, and in all the wrong places.

It’s been a rude awakening for some. It’sone thing knowing about the night life onthe streets and shady little joints that wetake for granted by day and another to haveit thrust into our faces so graphically.

Yet the lasting message that has beensent out is this: men may prowl the streetsof urban centres all over the country insearch of what one colleague describes, in arather old fashioned way, as “sexual gratifi-cation” and get away with it. Women go intothe business knowing that they are not onlyputting their lives at great risk but that theycan expect no mercy or understanding fromauthorities that persist in seeing prostitu-tion as a woman’s problem.

There are some of us who would arguethat it takes two to tango. Yet we have be-haved like those mirrors that throw distort-ed images back at you. We have little girlswhose upper legs have barely firmed out in-to thighs being thrown into dingy cells forbeing picked up by male customers in thestreets and back alleys of our towns as themen who prey on them get away by simplypulling rank on the officers.

The way I see it is this: girls can stand at

any street corner that they choose. It was afree country the last time I checked. Menare under no obligation to look at them, letalone strike a deal.

It becomes commercial sex only when themen glide to a stop in their fancy cars andbegin negotiating terms and conditions.And, when you come to think of it, they doso from a position of advantage: they can af-ford to haggle, given the fact that the peoplethey are dealing with are generally so poorand desperate that, rather than miss out al-together, they will eventually take anythingoffered.

There have been enough stories ofwomen who have been killed in fights aftertheir cheapskate clients refuse to pay up. Orthe men that hire their time could be intogang rape or kinky sex. Their pimps couldbeat them up for not delivering. They couldbe unwittingly drawn into the internationaltrade in human trafficking. The risks aremany and varied.

The women arrested in police swoops of-ten have no means to hire lawyers. Theyare given no time to call news conferencesor get court injunctions like the men in-volved in this latest ignominy. The womenand girls simply pay the fines slapped onthem or serve the alternative jail terms.And then head back to the streets for moreof the same.

They are only the supply end of things.As long as the demand exists, they will turntricks on the streets and in brothels.

It has always been so. Grace Onyango, thefirst woman to be elected an MP in Kenya, ison record as far back as the 1970s, askingwhy it was that only women were being ar-rested and prosecuted over prostitution,these days referred to as commercial sexwork in politically correct language.

Prostitution may be as old as time, but itis an abomination – whatever the sex of theperson involved, whatever their age and lev-el of education or status and no matter how

desperate the circumstances. When we lay the blame solely on

women and girls – in practice, if notin law – is it to say that men are soeasily led by the nose that they haveonly to see a skirt strutting down thestreet to drop all pretence at rationalbehaviour?

Predictably, there has been littleinterest in putting a human face tothe women involved as much as themen who have solicited their ser-vices. Hundreds of women have coa-lesced into one faceless and name-less body labelled “hooker”. Theyhave no feelings, no history and nofuture.

Even in this critical hour, whenKenya must look deep into itself insearch of values, these women havebeen reduced to mere objects. Theyare only the tool by which we seek toplay politics, and they do not qualifyas people in their own right.

Yet, it would hardly be honest forus to gloss over prostitution as pure-ly a system that works againstwomen. Life is rarely split into blackand white. There are many shades of

grey in between. Commercial sex is boom-ing business worldwide. During certain sea-sons, women and girls from as far afield asthe Democratic Republic of Congo reported-ly buy one-way tickets to Mombasa (on theKenyan coast), hoping to clinch the dealwith visiting marines that will change theirlives. Some may even come from middleclass families.

It is just business, no offence meant. In-deed, one sex worker in the coastal townonce owned up to earning as much asSh6,000 ($80) a night, coming to Sh180,000($2,400) tax free a month if she workedevery day of the week. By my reckoning,she could have retired comfortably at theend of her first year in the sex business.But, no, she had dug in for a long haul. It’sthe demand and supply thing again.

Whichever way you look at it, commercialsex is fuelled and driven by men. PoliceCommissioner Edwin Nyaseda and his menin blue can round up as many women andgirls as they wish. But as long as they donot sweep the male prostitutes who pull thestrings in this business, they will be wastingour time and theirs.

It’s a question of supply and demand

Africawoman SOCIETY 7February 2004

This commentary was initially presented for publication in the Daily Nation, in response to a crackdown on commercial sex workers in Nairobi last December. It could not be published, however, after a gag order slappedon the Nation Media Group by the courts barring the newspaper from reporting anything to do with the scandal

in which prominent politicians were said to have been released after being arrested along with 102 women. Since Africawoman was not one of the publications ordered to keep off the subject, we take

this opportunity to carry it as it would have appeared in the Nation.

PROSTITUTION IN KENYA: COMMENTARY

NABBED: Twilight girls caught by police.

“There has been little interest in putting a human face to the womeninvolved as much as the men who have solicited their services”

By Diana Nkhulembe, Malawi

WITH the advent of multi-party pol-itics in 1994, Malawian womenachieved more than just the free-dom to speak their minds. Theycould dress in whatever mannerthey chose – something they couldonly dream of during the 30-yearreign of founding president Hast-ings Kamuzu Banda.

Thanks to the new political dis-pensation, women could keep upwith fashion trends they admiredon television. Trousers, shortskirts, high slits and figure huggingclothes became the in-thing.

A decade after, and with the De-cency in Dress Act well and trulyout of the statutes, the freedom todress as they wish is being inter-fered with from the most unexpect-ed quarters. Street vendors andminibus touts in Blantyre, Mzuzuand the capital, Lilongwe, havetaken it upon themselves to “pun-ish” trendy dressers – who theydismiss as prostitutes.

The vendors, who claim to sim-ply “finish exposing what the own-

ers started”, have pounced on un-suspecting women in short skirts,hipsters, clothes with high slitsbare backs. Women have beenstripped and raped under the pre-text that their mode of dressing isagainst “Malawi’s culture”.

The street boys demand that thewomen be “fully covered”, prefer-ably in the traditional plain or mul-ti-coloured wrap locally known aschitenje. A rice vendor in Blantyre,Matthews Dikisoni, argues that aslong as women continue to “over-expose” themselves, they will betaken to task because it is “improp-er” for them to “copy outside influ-ences”.

He continues: “Those tight fittingtrousers are just too much, espe-cially on one with plenty of flesh.We do not mind loose fittingclothes or a moderate slit on askirt. It is the horrendous types ofdressing that we fight against.”

Most of the vendors said they

strip such women to “teach them alesson and to deter others from re-peating their mistake”.

The latest incident involved aBrazilian living in Malawi, PiedadeMarques. She was assaulted,stripped and nearly raped by streetvendors in the heart of Blantyre.

Marques was wearing a miniskirt on a sunny day. The vendorsshouted and taunted her as shepassed by and finally descended onthe unsuspecting woman. A bravemotorist whisked her away to safe-ty, but not before she suffered cutsand bruises on the thighs.

The attack on Marques, high-lighted by the media and the hu-man rights non-governmental or-ganisation Civil Liberties Commit-tee, so outraged Malawians thatthey organised a protest march inthe city despite efforts by about 20representatives of the vendors todissuade them. Carrying placardsreading “Castrate all rapists”, the

marchers were confronted by ven-dors who hurled abuse at them andvowed to continue raping allwomen as long as they continuewearing “revealing clothes”.

Said Cilic Executive Director Em-mie Chanika: “There is a law inMalawi that gives people the free-dom to dress any way they want. Iwish the president would do some-thing about this because this notonly damages Malawi’s reputationbut also causes psychological in-juries which last a lifetime.”

The organisation was criticised,however, for taking to the streetsonly when it was a Brazilian underattack when many Malawians havesuffered at the hands of the streetboys. Chanika retorted that shewas sick and tired of critics whoconstantly took her organisation totask, pointing out that Cilic was notthe only group set up to campaignagainst violence.

She said: “Malawians are my-

opic. They personalise everything.Why don’t they give Cilic credit forthe so-called little it does ratherthan condemn it every time?”

Catherine Munthali of the Centrefor the Advancement of Womensaid it was disheartening to see theattackers of the Brazilian womango scot-free, even going to the ex-tent of continuing to make morethreats. “Dressing is free in thiscountry and vendors should besensitised to the fact,” she added.“However, in a society that has notyet embraced change, it would besafer to dress accordingly.”

Street attacks on women havebeen reported in many other coun-tries, including Kenya. In Malaysia,the conservative Terengganu stateplans to ban non-Muslim womenfrom wearing mini-skirts or figurehugging dresses to places of workas part of a drive against indecen-cy. Muslim women will have towear headscarves and loose dress-es to the office and employers risklosing their business licences andface fines if their staff flout therules.

By Bimbo Oloyede, Nigeria

A BAN on skimpy clothes at LagosState University has raised a stormnot only on campus but throughoutNigeria.

|While some people welcomethis ban, saying that the dictates offashion have made Nigerianteenaged girls throw caution to thewind, others argue that school daysare supposed to be the best days ofanyone’s life and that trendy dress-ing is just an expression of youthfulcreativity.

Kunle Ogundare, a 23-year-oldpart time student of business ad-ministration at the University ofAdo Ekiti, is appalled at the way fe-male students dress on campus.Says Ogundare: “It has reached apoint where male students deliber-ately drop items near girls wearingvery short skirts just to see whathappens.”

According to him, the boys takegreat delight in hurling verbal in-sults at the girls when they exposetheir underwear as they bend toget the items.

If exposed cleavages and shortskirts have become a thing of sport,Pamela Boyle-Roberts, a 72-year-old with five undergraduate grand-daughters, has other concerns.

Girls should be concentrating ongetting better grades, she argues,not exposing their bodies on cam-pus.

She says: “Our girls should re-alise things are very different now.With so much cultism in universi-ties these days, girls should notdress in ways that attract the basernature of young men.”

But while some gripe over theamount of exposed flesh on Niger-ian campuses, others point out thatstudents can hardly be blamed forwanting to be fashionable. Televi-sion, magazines and billboardsbombard the senses at every op-portunity, usually featuring prettyyoung women in suggestive attirethat leaves little to the imagination.

Advertising agencies and televi-sion production companies are in-undated every day by youngwomen looking for opportunities tobecome models in television com-mercials and calendars or even asushers at product launches, bookpresentations or corporate dinners.The girls inevitably turn up forcasting sessions in various stagesof undress.

May Nzeribe, chairman of theAdvertising Practitioners Councilof Nigeria, says that the way stu-dents and young women dress sug-

gests that they are promoting per-missiveness. Western styles andfashions is not in keeping with localtraditional heritage, he says. “Thiskind of skimpy dressing is likely tolure a lot of people into immoralacts. It becomes a vicious cycle,with indecent dressing perpetuat-ing immoral behaviour.”

He adds, however: “We have tobe very careful in making laws thatmay be in keeping with out ownevaluation of morals yet fall foul ofthe constitution.

“Parents and teachers shouldwork together to train youngadults. Parents should be more re-sponsible and not abdicate theirobligations to teachers.”

Babcock University, in OgunState and privately owned by a re-ligious organisation, forbids trou-sers for female students. Shouldthe students flout the rules, theycan expect severe sanctions. Otherprivate universities are beginningto follow suit.

In Abia State, the rule extends toall women. The state governmentaccused women of behaviour capa-ble of distracting men from per-forming their administrative du-ties.

A government circular has beenissued, threatening public disgracefor any woman found in trousers inGovernment House.

8 SOCIETY Africawoman

February 2004

The high cost of keeping up with fashion

Skimpy skirtsraise a furoreon campus

POLITICS OF STYLE: Most countries in Africa are short ofenforcing a law on dress code

Malawi women stripped and raped by street vendors who prefer traditional values over trendiness

By Madube Pasi, Zambia

AT 27, Rachael Wamunyima con-sidered herself lucky to have founda man willing to marry her as a sec-ond wife. To her surprise, however,her new husband soon startedbeating her at the flimsiest excuse.

Things came to a head duringthe festive season when he threw astool at her, leading to a miscar-riage two months into her preg-nancy. On being released fromMongu General Hospital in West-ern Province, she was told to ab-stain from sex for a while.

Her husband, brought up to be-lieve that he had the right to sex ondemand, pinned her to their bedand raped her, completely ignoringher pleas. Worse still, he gave her asexually transmitted disease andleft her to find her own money topay for treatment.

Wamunyima decided to reportthe rape to police, who asked for amedical report to prove the assault.Like many poverty-stricken womenin Zambia, however, she could notafford the 11,000 kwacha fee (US$2.5) that the hospital demanded.She chose instead to file for divorcein a local court.

If Zambian women have troublereporting physical abuse by theirpartners, there is total silencewhen it comes to marital rape. Atthe Zambian Young Women Chris-tian Association’s shelter for bat-tered women and girls, no one everspeaks openly of having beenraped by her husband, and it is leftto the officials to read between thelines.

Says Lillian Kaoma, the genderadviser: “A woman will say, ‘myhusband came home drunk andbattered and undressed me andthen had sex with me’. But whenreporting to police, they talk only ofthe physical assault and remainsilent on the sexual assault.”

Part of the problem could be be-cause African culture encourageswomen to keep their marital prob-lems to themselves. Besides, shehas no right to reject her husband’s

sexual demands. Many women arealso afraid to prosecute abusivehusbands for fear that they willlose the main source of their liveli-hood.

Traditions such as bride pricehave not helped, says Kaoma. It isalso a matter of power relations.Men are socialised into believingtheir needs come first, and forcingtheir wives to submit is evidencethat they are “real” men and thatthey are in control of the relation-ship.

Kaoma adds: “When a man is in-secure and suspects his wife of in-fidelity, he will usually resort tosexual violence.”

Steven Mbati, coordinator of theYWCA Drop in Centre, says mari-tal rape deserves special attentionin an era of soaring HIV/Aids sta-tistics. In one instance, he says, awoman reported that her HIV-pos-itive husband had been trying toforce her into sex without a con-dom. She was reticent when ad-vised to take action against him,only to report back shortly afterthat he had raped her.

Though women who are educat-ed are also abused, Mbati says, ed-ucation is important for women asit is the starting point of empower-ment to negotiate for safer sex withtheir husbands and report abuse.

Women have also been condi-tioned into submissiveness byChristian teachings: Sweta Mulon-da of Lusaka says she cannot denyher husband sex because the Bibletells her to submit. But UnitedChurch of Zambia’s Bishop VincentKagaya argues that people quotethe Bible out of context. “It startsby saying couples should submit to

one another, and not only thewoman,” says the clergyman. “Peo-ple concentrate on the part of thewife submitting to the husband.The husband also has to love hiswife as his own body. If you loveyour wife, you will not rape her.”

In traditional society, he says, vil-lage elders would be called in to re-solve matters such as marital rapeand a man would be asked to com-pensate his wife with a cow or goat.The proceedings would be con-ducted in secrecy, however.

Peter Kanunka, director of theZambia Police Service Victim Sup-port Unit, which handles cases ofmarital abuse, says he would like tosee a test case where a woman re-ports her husband and police takethe matter to court.

“This would act as an authority.As it is now, some police officerswould not even know how to han-dle such a matter. The problem thatpolice have had with sexual of-fences is that the women are notwilling to testify against theirlovers.”

Zambia has no laws on gender vi-olence, and such cases are handledunder the penal code, which is notspecific on marital rape.

Women in Law in SouthernAfrica (Wilsa) has conducted astudy on the justice delivery systemand its response to women’s issuesin Zambia. But though the govern-ment was initially responsiveenough to appoint a technical com-mittee to look into the issuesraised, things have gone silent, ac-cording to Programme OfficerJoyce Macmillan.Wilsa wants marital rape made acriminal offence in the penal codebecause of the increased risk ofHIV. The law should also providefor damages to be awarded towomen so they can have some-where to start from even if theyhave to leave their husbands. Theabuser should be the one to leavethe matrimonial home in caseswere the couple owns a house.

But women first have to be ableto speak of marital rape.

By Sarah Ngwenya, Zambia

SHE came to Zambia a rich woman– one of the wealthiest people inthe world, in fact. Oprah Winfreyleft after her first visit to the coun-try still a well-endowed women butfar richer in life experiences forhaving met some of the poorestpeople in the world. Said the popu-lar talk show host at the end of itall: “It’s only women who will re-solve the many problems that theAfrican continent is faced with.”

But only if they are given thechance. “I am a woman myself andunderstand what it means to be awoman with power,” she said. “Iunderstand what it means to be awoman who can empower otherwomen worldwide.”

On a continent where HIV/Aidsand poverty levels are so high, on-ly women who are empoweredenough with education, informa-tion, financial resources andequipped with different skills intheir respective field can changethe course of Africa.

“I have seen so much hope andwill from the women themselves.With the little they have, they man-age to sustain big families – howmuch more would they do if about60 percent of them are empoweredin their respective fields?” sheasked.

The TV star shared her own ori-gins: “I understand what it is like togrow-up in a house without run-ning water, what it is like beingwithout a house, to have to go andfetch water and live under poor cir-cumstances. Today am a differentwoman because I have been em-powered.”

Visiting Zambia under the aus-

pices of Unicef, Oprah’s missionwas to tour projects touching onthe welfare of women and childrenaffected by HIV/Aids in Zambia.

Among the centres visited wasChelstone Clinic, one of the gov-ernment health centres the gov-ernment was using to distributeanti-retrovirals to mothers andtheir children. She also visited Gar-den Drop-in Centre, where she metAids orphans forced by circum-stances to become heads of house-holds. She also met grandmotherscaring for up to 10 orphans at atime.

“Aids is the greatest moral issueof our time. It is necessary to everyhuman being who has an under-standing of the issue to do some-thing to fight it .We need changepolitically, medically, socially, emo-tionally and spiritually because weare all affected and infected in oneway or the other,” she said.

Oprah launched the Angel Net-work in 1986 to assist women andgirls boost their confidence tomake it in life, despite the HIV/Aidspandemic. The network is buildinga 450-student school for girls inSouth Africa.

“We all have to get involved inthe fight, we have to do what wecan as individuals,” she said. “Asfor me, I am going to use my influ-ence and even my wealth to helpthe fight against HIV/Aids.”

Bwalya Beupe, a grandmothertaking care of nine children left be-hind by six of her children lost toAids, said: “I have heard of power-ful women in the world, but meet-ing hery was a great moment. Itwas particularly inspiring as OprahWinfrey is a product of a grand-mother’s care.”

Africawoman SOCIETY 9February 2004

From one womanto another…

Rape on themarital bed

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POWERHOUSE: Oprah Winfrey

‘When a man is insecure and suspects his wife of infidelity, he willusually resort tosexual violence’

By Ada Agina-Ude, Nigeria

Davista Nnamani, a newly-married graduate fromDelta State, was in highspirits on the first day of

September as she approached thereception room of the NationalYouth Service Corps camp atIyana Ipaja, a Lagos suburb. Justa year earlier, she had graduatedfrom the Department of MassCommunication of Bayero Uni-versity, Kano, in northern Nige-ria. She was getting closer to re-alising her life ambition, which isto become the editor of a nationalnewspaper. But first, she had tocomplete the one-year mandato-ry youth service.

The long wait for the call-up let-ter now behind her, she was joyfulon arrival at the training camp forthe one-month orientation. Whilewaiting, she surveyed the colour-ful posters on the wall. The onethat read, “The NYSC is now ba-by-friendly, no pregnant Corper,no nursing mother” held her at-tention and she studied it for awhile. If she had any doubts overwhat appeared to be a contradic-tion in terms, they were cleared atthe parade grounds, where Direc-tor Rita Uzo-Akinlade issued astern warning that “pregnancyand nursing of baby will not betolerated and defaulters will bedecamped as soon as they are dis-covered”.

Even though Nnamani was notpregnant, she was looking for-ward to it as a young bride. To bedecamped does not mean an ex-emption but a suspension of ser-vice for one or more years. Criticsobject to the new policy as it ap-pears to single out women forpunishment.

The current director-general,who served under the programmein 1973 as one of the pioneers, in-troduced the policy last yearshortly after taking over from hispredecessor. The rule drew muchflack from women’s rights ac-tivists before it quietly became op-erational, only resurfacing as anational issue when Ekiti State di-rector, A. Kolajo, said during a me-dia interview that married andpregnant women in the youth ser-vice were unproductive.

Led by Unifem’s programme of-ficer in Lagos, Funmi Balogun,women sent a petition to the thenminister for women’s affairs andyouth development, Aisha Ismail,

condemning Kolajo’s remarks ut-terances. They described the poli-cy as one that “effectively disen-franchises most adult women onthe flimsy justification that theyare married, a reason that clearlydoes not apply to men, from a na-tional programme that is support-ed by resources generated by bothwomen and men of Nigeria”.

Kolajo was quickly transferredto Oyo State, but the policy wasquietly implemented. Some ob-servers see the new rule especial-ly the suspension of service forpregnant and nursing women as a prelude to excluding them entirely.

Bayo Adenaiya, NYSC directorof information in Lagos, argues:“When the NYSC started 30 yearsago, it was unusual for girls to getpregnant while still at university.But these days, because of inces-sant strikes by lecturers, girls nowspend more years in school andthey can’t wait to graduate beforegetting pregnant. The new policy

is in everyone’s interest. Imaginewomen coming into camp with ba-bies, nannies and husbands. Imag-ine pregnant Corpers doing man-o’-war exercises.”

But he is philosophical aboutpregnancy during service. ‘We arestill trying to fine-tune the system.It is not yet perfect and you knowthat the moment you try to solveone problem you create another.With time all the issues will be re-solved.”

Indications that there may beother reasons for the new ruleapart from the comfort of babyand mother in camp lay in thestatements and actions of officialsat the camps. Tina Edewor, fromWarri in the oil-rich South and acomputer science graduate of theUniversity of Ibadan, says: “Uzo-Akinlade warned us that even ifone comes to camp with hiddenpregnancy she would be de-camped when the pregnancyshowed. Every female Corpersigns an undertaking that she is

not pregnant and that she is fit totake part in camp activities.”

Some people believe that trulythe problems associated withpregnancy justify the new rule.Tinu Odugbemi the chief execu-tive of a non-governmental organi-sation says: “A female Corper iscurrently serving with us but, if Ihad known initially that she waspregnant, I would not have takenher. I had a choice between herand a single woman but I took heron the assumption that she wouldbe more responsible. But, shortlyafter, she she started asking fordays off to go to the antenatal clin-ic. Now she goes to clinic everyThursday, and doesn’t come to theoffice all day sometimes. OnWednesdays, she goes for compul-sory community developmentfieldwork, so she actually worksfor us only three days in the week.I wonder what will happen whenshe is in her third trimester.’

But for Iheanyi Osuji, head of acomputer graphics typesetting

company, the NYSC is not aboutbeing productive or not. “Themain objective of the scheme is toexpose young graduates to com-munities outside their places oforigin in order to forge nationalunity. But, on medical grounds, itis a good idea to excuse pregnantwomen and allow them to servelater, although I think that thisnew thing is meant to reduce thenumber of people serving on thescheme. Making the service vol-untary would achieve the same re-sult without creating the addition-al problem of infringement ofrights.”

Mariam Marwa, from AdamawaState in the north east and a lawgraduate of the University ofBuckingham in the United King-dom, is worried about the trend ofspecial rules for women. Says she:“If the trend to single out preg-nant women and nursing mothersis not nipped in the bud, discrimi-nation may spread to other areassuch as dressing for women,which I hear is becoming a prob-lem now in some state camps.Something must be done quicklyabout this systematic erosion ofwomen’s rights.”

Her friend, Idayat Hassan, adds:“The NYSC by-laws that Corperswere given in camp clearly statespregnant Corpers are entitled tothree months’ maternity leave andthat they can apply for it, so howdoes one reconcile that sectionwith the new policy?”Nse Jacob, a part-time undergrad-uate student, feels that womenhave every reason to protestabout the policy, which he de-scribes as unnecessarily punitive.“If, after 30 years of the pro-gramme, the government is hav-ing problems with babies in camp,it should seek alternative solu-tions such as providing crèchesand making the man-o’-war exer-cises optional. It can also makethe whole scheme voluntary likethe American Peace Corps.”

There seems to be a consensusthat the programme needs a radi-cal readjustment, such as shiftingthe target beneficiaries from grad-uates of tertiary institutions toyoung school leavers anddropouts, as is the case inBotswana and Zimbabwe. At thatlevel, there will be less pregnan-cies and nursing mothers to dealwith. Besides, it is easier to instildiscipline and a sense of nationalunity in adolescents.

10 WORKPLACE Africawoman

February 2004

Much ado over babies in camp

‘Because of incessant strikes by lecturers, girls now spend more years in school and they can’t

wait to graduate before getting pregnant’

By Ruth Butaumocho, Zimbabwe

MARTHA Chireya’s search for a jobafter completing her degree inmarketing yielded nothing. In hersecond month job hunting, a malefriend remarked that “women areno longer employable”.

“What employer would want toemploy a woman who after a yearwould go on fully paid maternityleave?” her friend pointed out.

Zimbabwe’s amended maternitylaw that was a much-celebratedpiece of legislation a year ago hasbecome a handicap to women ofchild-bearing age in search of jobs.The Labour Relations Act ensuresthat women get their full salarieswhile on maternity leave.

The law stipulates that a femaleemployee is entitled to 90 days ma-ternity leave on full salary. The sec-tion on maternity was amended af-ter women’s organisations lobbiedParliament and the Governmentfor full maternity benefits.

Previously, women received be-tween 60 and 75 percent of theirpay while on maternity leave. Thereduced salary was not enough,given the demands of newbornsand the health of the mother. Theamendment of the law was toutedas a victory for motherhood and

the scores of women’s organisationthat rallied behind the cause.

Now the same platform that hadoffered respite to women hasturned out to be a source of misery.Most employers no longer want toemploy women women of childbearing age, saying it is costly forthem to meet the 100 percentsalary payments and also find a re-placement for the woman while sheis on maternity leave.

Says Ahmed Naidoo: “The wo-man wins, but the organisation suf-fers. Who then would reimburseme for the losses I incur when shegoes off, leaving me with an extraburden to keep her job while pay-ing someone else to do it?”

Naidoo says many organisationshave become “cautious” when re-cruiting. Employers, says Naidoo,can only consider employing morewomen if the Government commitsitself to paying half the salaries ofthe employees on maternity leave.

Women are shattered by the turnof events. “I have worked all my lifeto improve my professional qualifi-cations to get better pay, but I cansee this was all for nothing,” saysLucy Kamwango.

Even legal experts are no longersure if the law will work towardsthe advancement of women, judg-

ing by response coming from in-dustry. Josephine Mandagu, says:“Women are being punished, yetchild bearing is a human right.”

Stifling employment opportuni-ties for women would result in re-duced incomes for families sincewomen contribute significantly totheir household resources as eco-nomic and social challenges taketheir toll on the ordinary Zimbab-wean family. The stand taken byZimbabwean employers contra-venes the international labourstandards formulated by the Inter-national Labour Organisation thatstrongly encourage member or-ganisations to grant paid materni-ty leave to female employees.

An International Labour Organi-sation report says that most indus-trialised countries – except Aus-tralia, New Zealand and the UnitedStates – provide paid maternityleave by law. More than 120 coun-tries do provide paid maternityleave, including Algeria, BurkinaFaso, and Togo (all 14 weeks paid at100 percent).

The ILO asserts, and rightly so,

that “all women are workingwomen” and that “Maternity pro-tection is a pre-condition for gen-uine equality”. The basic elementsof maternity protection include theright to maternity leave.

They also have right to cash ben-efits to replace earnings lost duringthe leave period, enabling them torecuperate fully from childbirth be-fore returning to work. They alsohave the right to medical benefits,including prenatal, confinementand postnatal care. They must alsobe guaranteed protection againstloss of jobs and retraining for a re-turn at an equivalent job level aftermaternity leave.

But ILO acknowledges that thegreatest barrier to ratification bymember states is the question ofwho bears these costs when mostcountries do not have adequate so-cial security systems. The longerthe period of paid maternity leave,the higher the financial costs in-volved and the greater the need forretraining. If the employers arelegally bound to bear these costs,then they may be more reluctant to

hire women workers. A study carried out by Dy Ham-

mer of the ILO chief conditions ofwork branch found pregnantwomen in developing countries arefaced with the threat of job loss,suspended earning and increasedhealth risks due to inadequate safe-guards of their employment whenthey go on maternity leave. “Lossof continuity in employment is amajor handicap for women’s careeradvancement and is costly in termsof seniority and reduced pensionsand other employment-related ben-efits,” she said

The study noted that these con-ditions exist at a time when the per-centage of women of child-bearingage in the work force continues torise. “Women now provide themain source of income in some 30percent of all households world-wide,” the report notes.

While paid maternity leave hasbecome the standard in most in-dustrialised countries, progresshas not been uniform. Africancountries are lagging behind, withthe exception of those where gov-ernments have invested in systemsto meet the maternity benefits ofemployed women.

Meanwhile, $800 billion is spentyearly on military budgets world-wide – with the Bush administra-tion proposing to spend additionalbillions on Star Wars II – when $80billion would provide the essentialsof life for the whole world. Yet themoney needed by African coun-tries to meet maternity benefits forits people is very little.

In Ghana, the employer meets 50percent of the employee’s wage,while in Kenya the employee getsher full salary while on maternityleave.

The majority of employers inUganda pay full maternity benefitfor only one month. In Lesotho, themajority of employees get no ma-ternity benefits.

In the case of Zimbabwe, wo-men’s organisations must return tothe drawing board and lobby thegovernment to pay half the mater-nity benefits.

Africawoman WORKPLACE 11February 2004

Maternitylaws returnto hauntwomen

By Christabel Addo, Ghana

Becky Asantewa is in an introspec-tive mood, tears in her eyes: “If Ihad known of my HIV status beforepregnancy, Maaa Abena Ampo-maa, now four-years-old, wouldhave been spared the agony of thisdeadly disease. Any time I set myeyes on her, I weep inside, prayingthat she dies before me to spare herfurther pain of being orphaned andrejected by both family and society.I have been rejected by both friendsand family ever since they discov-ered I am HIV-positive.”

Parent to child transmission ac-counts for 15 percent of the modesof transmission of HIV in Ghana.Sakyi Awuku Amoa, director-gen-eral of the Ghana Aids Commis-

sion, says about 600,000 babiesworldwide have been infectedthrough parental infection, 90 per-cent of them African. The statisticsare likely to double in the absenceof serious interventions.

Transmission rates from HIV-positive mothers range between 25to 40 per cent in the absence of anyintervention at all. But this drops to15 percent with the use of anti-retroviral therapies and further totwo per cent or less with the use ofanti-retroviral therapies and infantfeeding alternatives to breast-feed-ing.

Two-thirds of infants are infect-ed during pregnancy, with labourand delivery being the time ofgreatest risk, while breast-feedingaccounts for one third of the infec-

tions.A 2002 survey showed that 38

percent of nearly 3,000 women at-tending ante-natal clinics in Ghanawere infected. This may well be atip of the iceberg, considering thatmost health facilities are not ade-quately equipped to ascertain thestatus of pregnant women.

Besides, mothers are encour-aged to exclusively breast-feedtheir babies for the first six months,without water or any breast milksubstitutes.

But there is hope: a pilot study isunderway at Atua GovernmentHospital in the eastern region,where HIV-positive pregnantwomen are put on Nevirapine toprevent the transmission of thevirus to their babies.

A single 200mg oral tablet ofnevirapine is taken by the motherat the onset of labour and a singleoral dose of nevirapine in suspen-sion (2 mg/kg) is given to the new-born within 72 hours of birth. Re-search suggests that the oral tabletfor the mother can be taken athome at onset of labour. However, itis essential that the child is broughtto a health facility within 72 hoursof birth for its own dose.

Nevirapine has been used suc-cessfully in countries such as Ugan-da. The project in Ghana is beingconducted in collaboration with theministry of health, non-govern-mental organisations and somequeen mothers.

But the cost, at $30 per day, islikely to limit women’s access to

the anti-retrovirals. In his state of the nation address

this year, President John Kufuorcalled for support for his govern-ment’s proposal for a national in-surance scheme that will take careof medical expenses. This wouldput paid to the cash and carry sys-tem that has been a major setbackto providing quality health care.

What would be of greater valueis for pregnant women to knowtheir HIV status early enough totake precautions so they do not in-fect their babies. Pregnant womenmust not play down the importanceof antenatal clinics. Health profes-sionals must also create an en-abling environment – one devoid ofdiscrimination – to attract morepregnant women to their clinics.

Cry, the beloved children …

MOTHERS: Child bearing is one of the fundamental roles thatwomen play without recognition

By Joyce Gyekye, Ghana

After years of an intensive cam-paign, the guinea worm has de-fied all odds and re-emerged inGhana, which now ranks second

only to the Sudan in recorded cases. Theresurgence of the disease, especially inthe northern parts of the country, can onlyworsen the plight of women.

They seem to bear the brunt of the dis-ease as they come more frequently in touchwith infected water. Performing their tradi-tional domestic chores such as fetching wa-ter, cooking and washing becomes an en-durance test against the pain of the disease.

Rudolf Amenga-Etego, director of advoca-cy and campaigns at the Integrated SocialDevelopment Centre, attributes the returnof the guinea worm to poverty and lack ofpotable water.

Not only has the disease risen in thenorth, but waterborne diseases such ascholera and typhoid have been diagnosed inthe capital, Accra.

Ghana faces an acute water problem: the

major river basins are drying up due to pop-ulation pressure, bad agricultural practicesand environmental degradation.

There are inadequate supplies of drink-ing water because the facilities have notbeen expanded in tandem with the rise inpopulation. The urban water supply standsat 59 per cent.

With half the population having no accessto potable water, the burden on women and

children searching for water for domesticneeds rises. Indeed, some women in Africaand Asia walk up to six kilometres to collectwater. The weight of water they carry isequivalent to the baggage weight allowedper person by airlines —20 kilogrammes.

Men, especially in rural areas, do not tra-ditionally fetch water. Their relation withwater has more to do with agriculturalwork. This has implications for women’sdaily lives. Carrying water not only leads tophysical disorders in some instances but al-so makes it difficult for them to get involvedin education, income generation, politics,leisure and recreation.

At the Millennium Summit, heads of stateappended their signatures to a commitmentto implement the Millenium DevelopmentGoals by 2015. Key among them was to re-duce the number of people without accessto safe drinking water by half.

Three years on, Ghana has made noheadway in achieving the targets. Amenga-Etego is convinced that the public sectorparticipation in urban water sector deliv-ery strategy that Ghana has adopted will

not deliver. Rather, it will worsen the plight of the

poor because the multi-nationals involvedare profit-oriented .

“An essential service like water deliveryshould not be in the hands of global corpo-rations,” he argues.

The deadline for making a decision onprivate-public partnership in urban deliverycame and went last March. Still, the govern-ment remains silent.

About 6,200 women have been recruitedto help in the fight against the guinea worm.According to Mwando Diallo, the residenttechnical adviser of the Global 2000 projectof the Carter Centre in Ghana, greater in-volvement of women in the eradicationcampaign makes sense because of their do-mestic role.

There is no cause for celebration, howev-er. There is no excuse whatsoever for theresurgence of the disease. All that this tellsus is that the government has failed to fulfillits duty of ensuring potable water for its cit-izens. Is even this too much to ask of ourgovernments?

12 HEALTH Africawoman

February 2004

A cure for Guinea worm: Not too much to ask, surely?

Scarce: Half the population do not have access to potable waterSEARCHING: Some women in Africa and Asia walk up to six kilome-tres to collect water

GUINEA WORM CASES: Ghana ranks sec-ond to Sudan in recorded cases.

Mua Mission Hospital sets simple, but effective standards in maternal care

By Wezi Phiri, Malawi

YOUNG people aged between 14 and24 in sub-Saharan Africa are high-ly infected by HIV/Aids, accordingto the World Health Organisation.The reason is simple: most do notknow how their bodies work and gointo sex on an experimental basis,leaving them exposed to sexuallytransmitted infections and un-wanted pregnancies.

And this against the backdrop ofcultures in which parents find it dif-ficult to talk to their children onsexual matters. They will not pro-vide contraceptives to their chil-dren, considering it taboo. Theyoung people have paid a highprice: HIV infections among thisage group keep rising.

Now the Malawi government hasstepped into the breach with the in-troduction of Youth FriendlyHealth Services.

Blandina Kambala is the nation-al youth coordinator for Banja LaMtsogolo, a non-governmental or-ganisation that provides reproduc-tive health services in Malawi. Shesays youth friendly health servicesare not only “appropriate, afford-able and accessible” but they alsodo not discriminate against the

young, treating them as they wouldadults.

The outlook is that there is greatimprovement in the demand for theservices. Prior to the introductionof the programme, young peopleespecially those under 16, found itdifficult to walk into clinics. Theywere bombarded with questionslike: “Are you married? Why doyou need them?”

If they had a sexually transmit-ted infection, the questions wouldbe: “How and where did you getthis? How could you let yourself beinfected?”

In most cases, the questionswould be fired at them in the pres-ence of other people, making it wellnigh impossible for them to ex-press their real problems. Manyyoung people simply chose to keeptheir problems to themselves andshunned treatment for fear of be-ing embarrassed.

Besides, many parents woulddiscourage their children, especial-ly girls, from going for reproductivehealth services on the grounds that

this would promote promiscuity. Though the situation has greatly

improved, between 10 and 15 out of40 young people who are trained inreproductive health issues drop outbecause their parents will not con-sent to their extending this serviceto fellow youths.

Says Kambala: “We deal withyouths in school, but we mostly tar-get those out of school as they gointo rural communities where theymeet people who know little ornothing about their reproductivehealth.”

Abstinence, though touted as theonly solution, does not work in re-ality, says Kambala: “Nowadays,you get people as young as 12 beingsexually active. There is need tomake sure that young people get allthe information they need for themto make informed decisions. We be-lieve in laying the cards on thetable: while abstinence is best, it ishard to practice.”

But what do the youth them-selves say? Marcel Chisi, directorof Active Youth Initiative for Social

Enhancement, says the changesthat youth undergo during adoles-cence confuse them, especially inthe absence of meaningful infor-mation.

The National Youth Counciltrains young people in Blantyre totrain their peers on sexually trans-mitted infections.

Chisi worries, however, that rur-al and privately owned hospitalsmay not jump on board the trendtowards youth friendly services.This can only lead to youth lyingabout their real problems, furtherexposing them to health risks.

He adds: “Although there are nostatistics, I’m sure that many youngpeople flock to clinics and othergovernment health centres thesedays, indicating the trust thatyoung people are slowly buildingregarding these facilities.”

Though the situation is greatlyimproved in urban centres, girls asyoung as 12 are still dropping out ofschool in rural areas because theyhave no information on sexual andreproductive health. “Quite a largenumber of youth are unemployedand girls usually fall prey to sugardaddies and get infected,” saidChisi.

Joyce Mphaya of Unicef argues

that the information that used to begiven to youth was superficial. Shesays: “It would be meaningful if theyouth were equipped with lifeskills. They should be bold enoughto know what to do. They should beable to go out and buy a condomand have negotiating skills to beable to abstain and resist peer pres-sure.”

In neighbouring Zimbabwe, theCentre for Reproductive Rightsand Child Law says that there is astate of denial among the youthand their parents. Zimbabwe’s le-gal policy and social barriers inhib-it adolescent’s ability to protectthemselves against unwanted preg-nancy and sexually transmitted in-fection, including HIV/Aids. Up to26 percent of women aged 15 to 24are infected with HIV/Aids and 40percent adolescents are mothersby the time they are 19.

Zimbabwean service providerscannot provide adolescents withcontraception, including condoms,without parental consent due toconfusing laws and policies. Ado-lescent rights to privacy and confi-dentiality in seeking medical careare virtually non-existent. Will theMalawian project live long enoughto set standards in the region?

Africawoman HEALTH 13February 2004

By Sinqobile Ndlovu, Zimbabwe

DRIVEN to desperation by a short-age of foreign currency to buy anti-retrovirals, Zimbabweans livingwith HIV/Aids have resorted to theunconventional in order to stayalive.

“There is more to life for an in-fected person than drugs,” saysSukoluhle Ndlovu, an activist whohas lived with HIV for more than adecade. “What’s the point in wait-ing for something that will proba-bly never come? It is best for us tocome up with strategies for sur-vival, strategies that are practicaland easy enough anyone despitetheir social status.”

She was diagnosed in 1992 andworks as a counsellor with theMatabeleland Aids Council, a non-governmental organisation that of-fers HIV testing and counselling inZimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo.She is also a member of the Zim-babwe Network of People Living

with HIV (ZNPP+).Last year, the Ministry of Health

and Child Welfare was allocated $4billion for Aids drugs but was un-able to do so for lack of forex.

Now Ndlovu says: “Our messageto all those who have been infectedis that since there are no drugs inthe country, why not marry thevirus?

“If you promise to love it, it willlove you in return and will let youlive longer. Promise to take care ofit, in sickness and in good health,for better, for worse, as death willonly part you.”

Positive thinking has worked sowell for her, she says, that she hasgone a long time without being ad-mitted to hospital. “When you lovesomeone, you make sure that s/heeats proper food everyday to en-sure good health.

With the virus, people who areinfected need to make sure thatthey have a balanced diet. Shouldthey fail to do so, the chances of

falling sick on and off become veryhigh.”

Just as married couples are ex-pected to be happy together, thevirus and the person infected arealso supposed to learn to live inharmony, Ndlovu continues.What’s the point of leading a mis-erable life when you are HIV-posi-tive, knowing very well that youwill never be separated from it? Behappy to live with it, as it is yourlifetime partner.”

Gracious Linda, also a memberof ZNPP+ has been living with thevirus since 1995. She has a 15-month-old daughter who was bornunder the Nevirapine programme.“When I was told my status, I want-ed to commit suicide but, aftersome time, I realised it was notworth it. I recalled a counsellortelling me that some people couldlive with the virus for several yearswithout getting sick and I said tomyself that I could be one of them.”

She continues: “I accepted my

status because I realised that it wasno use crying over and over againwhen nothing was going to change.I talked to the virus in my body andwe agreed to take care of each oth-er. I have been taking care of itsince 1995 and it has let me surviveall this time, even having a baby.”

She wants her baby tested whenshe is 18-months-old.

“As a network of people livingwith the virus, we will not rest un-til we change the attitudes of thou-

sands of people living with thevirus. The virus has been with usfor a long and it’s high time peopleaccepted it instead of getting wor-ried sick once diagnosed positive,”Linda adds. “We want to see manymarriages of the virus and the in-fected so that people can livelonger.”

Zimbabwe is one of the worst af-fected countries in Africa, with atleast 1, 800 people dying everyweek due to HIV-related diseases.

Young people have rights, too

For better and forworse: Positivethinking on Aids

LOVE YOUR VIRUS: Sukoluhle Ndlovu.

Family planning advice is madeavailable to teenagers in Malawi

By Wezi Phiri, Malawi

MUA Mission Hospital has no pre-tensions to being posh. It is smalland has none of the sophisticatedequipment that some hospitalstake for granted. But Mua providesmaternal health care that is milesahead of the sub-standard serviceprovided by most African hospitalsreeling under lack of resources.

What’s the trick? It is simple, re-ally. Nurses, midwives and othermedical staff from the hospital donot wait for expectant mothers tocome to the hospital. They go to thevillages, seeking out women ofchild-bearing age and their hus-bands – and then instruct them onhow to handle their reproductivehealth needs.

“Charity begins at home,” saidMua nurse Patricia Kaunga. Tak-ing maternity lessons to the vil-lages makes things easier for herhospital. Not only are the expectantmothers alert to potential prob-

lems, but their families also knowwhat to do at any given time.

“They know when exactly torush to hospital,” says Kaunga.“They don’t wait until things arevery bad before they come to us.”

Mua delivers 120 to 160 babieseach month, the only complicationsarising where mothers take tradi-tional herbs to speed up delivery.“This becomes a problem as themother who takes this stuff has alot of contractions when she is notfully dilated,” said Kaunga.

Some women even bring the stuffinto hospital secretly. “They end uphaving caesarean section needless-ly,” said Kaunga.

Mua’s story is remarkable in acountry with a maternal death rateof 1,100 per every 100,000 births.Most hospitals in Malawi do nothave telephones and getting re-ports of emergencies can be verydifficult. The Mua case has provedthat even in places where re-sources are at a bare minimum,

women’s lives can be saved. The majority of mothers who

come to Mua come from surround-ing villages and simply walk to thehospital. Some come in oxcarts, bi-cycles or the bus. But when tradi-tional birth attendants have to re-fer cases to the hospital, they usebush ambulances – a bed attachedto wheels and pulled by a bicycle.

Traditional birth attendantAnamiliso Zakeyu lives at Msolovillage, just a few kilometres awayfrom Mua. She has been doing thiswork since 1964. The only formaltraining she has had was six yearsago when she delivered about eightto 10 babies in one month under thesupervision of medical personnelin a hospital ward.

The health education that Mua

personnel give in the localitymakes her work easy as the womenknow when to seek her or to go tothe hospital. In the past two years,she has referred only three compli-cated cases, including a breechbirth.

In the second case, the baby hadsevere deformities and her lifecould not be saved even on the op-erating table. Says Zakeyu: “Themother survived and now has an-other healthy baby. She had ob-structed labour in the other caseand this was successfully managedat the hospital.”

Jane Namasasu, deputy directorof clinical and population services,laments that maternal health carehas not been much of a success inMalawi. “We measure success as

when maternal death is reduced,”she says. Maternal deaths remainhigh, mainly because of delays at-tributed to hospitals and patientsthemselves. “It would be of help ifpatients recognised a developingproblem and did not wait until thelast minute, in which whatever as-sistance is offered is of little use.”

Many women seek the assis-tance of elderly relatives such asaunts and grandmothers beforethey turn to hospitals. Lack oftransport becomes even more crit-ical during an emergency. Besides,their husbands rarely considerchildbirth important enough to in-vest in. “They feel it’s normal for awoman to get pregnant and gothrough all the pain of child bear-ing without their help,” says Na-masasu.

The ministry of health is tryingto get men involved in improvingmaternal health care – from thetime a woman conceives to deliv-ery. They are kept informed abouthow to care for their pregnantwives, including providing themwith good food and antenatal careand helping them prepare for thecoming baby.

“They are advised on dangersof taking drugs that have not beenprescribed and traditional drugswhich, if taken in excess, are harm-ful to both mother and unborn ba-by,” says Namasasu.

But maternal healthcare has notbeen a failure altogether: the con-traceptive user rate stands at 26percent, midwives have beentaught life saving skills andHIV/Aids education has been givento expectant women.

14 HEALTH Africawoman

February 2004

By Rebecca Kwei, Ghana

PART of the emergency section ofthe Child Health Department at theKorle-Bu Teaching Hospital couldbe forced to close down for lack ofnurses. The looming threat hasbeen urgent enough to send the au-thorities pleading with retirednurses to return to work, even go-ing to the extent of offering them aspecial package.

Like most African countries,Ghana has been grappling foryears with a brain drain in thehealth professions. Thousands ofnurses, pharmacists, doctors andmedical technicians have left forBritain, the United States andSouth Africa due to poor pay andconditions of work.

According to the chief executiveof the hospital, Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, other wards in the na-tion’s premier teaching hospitalcould be closed down if the exodusof nurses is not averted.

Ghana’s contingent of nurses hasdropped to 10,000 although nursingtraining schools all over the coun-try graduate about 600 nurses year-ly.Frimpong-Boateng cites a seri-ous shortage in areas such as neo-

natal and intensive care, paedi-atrics, cardio-thoracic care and car-diology, pulmonary medicine, dia-betic care, ophthalmology and ear,nose and throat.

Children admitted to the emer-gency unit lie in their mothers’arms for days until they or othersare discharged. Up to four childrenshare a cot in a dilapidated struc-ture with few nurses and doctors toattend to the patients. The unit,built to accommodate 30, now han-dles more than 100.

The State of the Ghanaian Econ-omy Report 2002 indicates that3,157 health workers left between1993 and 2002.

Africa spends about $4 billion an-nually to recruit and pay 100,000 ex-patriates to work on the continent,while developing countries trainhealth professionals for the devel-

oped world.Statistics from the British Med-

ical Journal in 2002 indicate thatover 2,000 African nurses left theircountries to take up jobs in Britain,with South Africa losing 2,114 nurs-es and midwives, Zimbabwe 473,Nigeria 432, Ghana 195, Zambia 183and Kenya 155.

Speaking during the nationaldelegates congress of the GhanaRegistered Nurses Association,Frimpong-Boateng expressed re-gret that nurses were leaving at atime when the health delivery sys-tem was encouraging specialisa-tion. He appealed to nurses to bereasonable in their demands sinceno African government could com-pete with the developed countriesin terms of pay and conditions ofservice.

The chairperson of association,

Emma Banga, noted however thatit was not only about pay packagesbut also deteriorating structures inhospital that were a great disin-centive to workers.

She said: “The inadequacy ofnurses in the country has broughtabout heavy workloads, tirednessand a burnt-out syndrome in nurs-es. Overworking has both physicaland psychological effects, leadingto stress at work. About 9,000 nurs-es doing work meant for 40,000nurses.”

It is estimated that Zambia,which had about 1,600 medical doc-tors, now has only 400 while Kenyais able to retain only 10 per cent ofthe nurses and doctors it trains.

In an attempt to deal with thesituation, the Ghanaian ministry ofhealth has raised the intake oftrainee nurses in anticipation of

forestalling staff shortages in thecoming years. It has also intro-duced the Additional Hour Duty Al-lowance and other incentives.

According to Yaw Antwi-Bosi-ako, the director of human re-source for health development, theministry has developed careerpathways for staff that include newprogrammes for nurses and alliedprofessionals, expansion of sand-wich programmes, accreditationfor diploma programmes and stu-dent vacation attachments.

The ministry will also to re-initi-ate training of health care assis-tants, with the district assembliesinvolved in the selection of traineenurses. The assemblies had beengiven quotas to identify and spon-sor qualified candidates from theirdistricts. This is expected to ensurethat the assemblies-sponsorednurses will serve in the communi-ties for a period not less than threeyears before changing location.

It is estimated that more than 10million children die each year inthe developing world, the vast ma-jority from causes preventablethrough a combination of goodcare, nutrition and medical treat-ment.

Children pay for nursing brain drain

Keeping mothers aliveneed not be expensive

MATERNITY: In Africa onewoman in 16 is at risk of dyingfrom a complication related topregnancy and birth.

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Africawoman HEALTH 15February 2004

By Diana Nkhulembe, Malawi

THE fate of the woman who testsHIV-positive within marriage isdesperate – especially if she doesso before her husband. She can ex-pect to carry the burden on herown and suffer the consequencesof a “sin” she probably did not com-mit on her own. As they say, ittakes two to tango.

In our culture, it is conceivablethat a man may come home, eat thedinner he finds waiting, smile at hiswife and casually drop the bomb-shell, “Dear, I am sorry I testedHIV-positive. Would you go for atest tomorrow just to be sure?”

The woman will probably clearthe dishes and ask her husband toescort her for testing. And life goeson. If the roles were reversed andit was the woman announcing thatshe was HIV-positive and wantedhim to go for testing, the end resultwould probably be violence, accu-sations of infidelity and an end tothe marriage.

Says Marrium Yona of Chiradzu-lu district, just outside Malawi’scommercial centre, Blantyre: “Myhusband and my in-laws wereblaming me, saying that I hadbrought HIV to the home. Theychased me out of the house. Themoment I revealed my status, I be-came a pariah and was dispos-sessed of everything except myclothes. I made a huge contributionto the construction of the house

and several investments towardsour well-being as a family.”

Because of this hostility, womenoften decline to divulge their statusto their husbands. And this despitepublic campaigns encouraging vol-untary testing and counselling,raising questions about hopes forthe success of the project.

Yona is now destitute and veryill. “My husband leads a promiscu-ous life but his relatives are blam-ing me,” she complains.

In many parts of Africa, the firstsign of HIV trouble comes when ex-pectant mothers turn up for ante-natal care, which includes full med-ical examinations. Hilda Mulauzi ofLilongwe reports that her husbandleft her in hospital, helpless and

bed-ridden, after she had a babygirl who is also HIV-positive.

“My husband dumped me whenI was six months pregnant uponhearing the news that I was HIVpositive,” she says. “This was afterbeing tested at the antenatal clinic,where they run a programme onthe prevention of HIV transmissionfrom mother to child through theprovision of Nevirapine.”

After being counselled, she wasadvised to bring along her husbandso he could be tested and consid-

ered for the free anti-retroviralsprogramme. “He did not even letme continue explaining, justslapped and booted me out of thehouse,” she recalls. “And that wasthe end of our marriage. He evendenied being responsible for mypregnancy and claimed I had beenunfaithful. And that even before hewent for testing!”

According to Mercy Kawonga,who coordinates the Prevention ofMother To Child Transmission pro-gramme at Chiradzulu DistrictHospital, most of the women werereluctant to disclose their status totheir husbands for fear that theywould be divorced. MTCT is thesedays referred to in politically cor-rect language as parent to child

transmission.Even after diagnosis, pregnant

women still turn up alone for theirnext clinic appointment, says Ka-wonga. When asked why they didnot bring their husbands as re-quested, they inevitably report thatthey had been unable to pass onthe message for fear that theywould lose their husbands. Some-times, they do not return to theclinics at all. In one instance, Ka-wonga reports, a woman kept hernevirapine dose secret, not even

taking it when she went intolabour, for fear of reprisals.

The Zimbabwe Report PositiveWomen Voices and Choices, pre-pared by the International Com-munity of Women living with HIVand AIDS in Africa, says women inAfrica are blamed and accused ofbringing the virus to their hus-bands even before the men aretested and often suffer discrimina-tion as a result of their diagnosis.

The report also advocates couplecounselling and testing to reducethe blame and conflict that followsa positive HIV diagnosis that re-sults in women being victimisedand stigmatised.

Director of Gender Isabel Maten-je says that Malawi’s laws providefor a fine of one million kwacha(US$10,000) for people who grab theproperty of dead people, leavingdestitute their spouses - in mostcases women. Yet this has neverbeen a deterrent for people deter-mined to victimise widows, espe-cially in HIV/Aids cases.

United Nations VolunteerMphatso Tambala said it is hightime organisations became in-volved in action and advocating forlegal protection for people livingwith HIV/Aids, especially women,through special policies that willaddress power relations and gen-der inequalities. He also wantscommunity legal aid centres thatwill help solve cases of discrimina-tion and abuse of human rights.

Thrown out by husband for being HIV-positive

By Bisi Yomi-Layinka, Nigeria

CERVICAL cancer kills about 300,000 womenevery year worldwide and disproportionate-ly affects the poor. More than 80 percent ofthose deaths occur in developing countries.But bad as the disease is, it can be treated ifdetected early enough.

The sad news is that whereas the diseasecan be nipped in the bud – even in at highrisk, such as commercial sex workers -–through screening and early treatment usingrelatively simple technology, only a paltryfive percent of women in developing coun-tries present themselves for screening. In thedeveloped countries, it is 40 to 50 percent.

Says Sina Oladokun, consultant gynaecol-ogist at Nigeria’s premier teaching hospital,University College Hospital Ibadan: “This iswhy women die a lot from these things. If wecould identify these problems early, so manylives could be saved.”

A study of market women in Nigeria indi-cates that less than four percent are aware ofcervical cancer. Besides poverty and low lit-eracy levels, tradition does not allow womenhere to talk openly about their bodies and

sex. This means that they often suffer in si-lence, seeking little help from hospitals - noteven when the symptoms become pretty ob-vious, like bleeding after sex. By the timethey get to hospital, it is often too late.

Cervical cancer is generally caused by thehuman papilloma virus, which is sexuallytransmitted and gradually causes changes inthe cells of the cervix that are a precursor tocancer. It often occurs in women aged 30 to50.

According to Cecilia Amotsuka, director ofthe cervical cancer prevention progamme atthe J-Rapha Hospital in Ibadan, the criticalfactors incude early age at first sexual expe-rience, recurrent sexually transmitted dis-eases, multiple partners and poor socio-eco-nomic conditions.

Poor women are more likely to go intoprostitution. Their daughters are also morelikely to be abused and raped. And they canrarely afford to go to hospital for propertreatment.

A woman who has never had sex is unlike-ly to have cervical cancer, says Amotsuka. InNigeria, cervical cancer is most common inthe north, where girls routinely marry under

the age of 18. At these ages, the lining of thecervix is not developed enough to resist in-fection.

Women who have had many children arealso susceptible to cancer due to the frictionthat occurs between soft tissues and thechildbirth process. Grace Oluwatoye, a nursespecialising in reproductive health, adds thatcervical cancer may also be hereditary, withthose whose mothers and sisters have suf-fered being more likely to get it.

When a woman is first infected, cellularchanges begin in the cervix which may revertto normal depending on her immunity levels,the load of virus and whether or not she hasa sexually transmitted infection. Thechanges may lead to cervical cancer betweenfive to 20 years of infection. Full blown canceroften develops at ages 35 to 50. Cervical can-cer progresses faster in HIV-positive women.

The irony is that even big teaching hospi-tals often concentrate so hard on pressingdaily challenges that they often do not pay at-tention to prevention. Instead, they invest inexpensive cancer treatment machines - andthe women still die, anyway. And this despitethe fact that it is cost effective to screen

rather than treat cervical cancer as this in-volves no pain, is less expensive and over ina few minutes.

The World Health Organisation recom-mends that sexually active women shouldhave a cervical check every two to threeyears in the early ages to catch any abnormalcells. With regular pap smears, a woman’slifetime risk of cervical cancer could be aslow as 0.8 percent, according to Oluwatoye.The visual inspection of acetic acid test, al-ready in use in Asia, East Africa and Ghana,uses vinegar to expose abnormal changes tothe naked eye.

However, both the pap smear and the VIAwill be of value only if women who have can-cer also have access to treatment. AlthoughNigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health has poli-cies on women’s reproductive health, theyare rarely implemented.

Besides the usual diet of social mobilisa-tion, training and advocacy, the trio of Amot-suka, Oluwatoye and Oladokun have a simplesuggestion: Attitude really makes the differ-ence when it comes to cervical cancer. Get itright today and head for the nearest clinic. Itmight just save your life.

Cervical cancer: a killer easily disarmed

“My husband and my in-laws were blaming me, saying that I had brought HIV to the home. They chased me out of the house.The moment I revealed my status, I became a pariah and was dispossessed of everything except my clothes”

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16 NEWS Africawoman

February 2004

none of it, however, and sentenced him to 15months in jail, nine of which were suspend-ed conditionally and six of which he had tomake up for by doing 210 hours of commu-nity service at Pararenyatwa Hospital inHarare.

Rusere has appealed against the convic-tion and sentence; the rest of Zimbabweansare debating the value of love potions.

Ukudlisa (Zulu for secretly administeringa love potion to a spouse) is a highly contro-versial subject. Debate usually centres onwhether or not it exists. Some say it is amyth and an invention of jealous peoplebent on destroying other people’s relation-ships.

The relatives of a husband are usuallyquick to accuse the wife of using love po-tions to ensure that their son listens to herand no other person in the family. It ap-pears, however, that men too use love po-tions.

According to the president of the Zimbab-we National Healers Association, GordonChavunduka, men also use herbal concoc-tions to win and seal the affection of theirwomen. “It is not true that women are onlyones involved in ukudlisa. Men also uselove potions to get women to fall in lovewith them,” said Chavunduka.

Love potions come in various forms, in-cluding tree roots and concoctions. Some ofthe potions are believed to help a man suc-cessfully propose to women. “The men putthe herbs under their tongues so that theycan talk their partner or girlfriend into do-ing whatever they want,” said Chavunduka.“Some men dissolve a mixture of herbs inwater and gurgle it.”

As they spit out the mixture, they sayaloud all their wishes and plans for the ob-ject of their love. Others have talismans thatthey keep in their pockets so that anywoman they meet and fancy falls in lovewith them.

“With others, it is inborn, and womendream about such men and just fall in loveeven when the man makes no effort,”Chavunduka added.

But for those who must work hard to getnoticed, Chavunduka and company have avariety of ingredients for concoctions thatcan be secretly slipped into food and offeredto lovers:

Scraps of flesh from a blind puppy willmake a woman blindly do whatever a manwants. A lizard’s tail will tie a woman to thehouse when she has finished her duties athome instead of going out to look forboyfriends and gossip. The heart of a pi-geon ensures that the wife is always in the

company of her husband. Love potions are particularly common

among men and women who are anxiousabout marital fidelity in light of HIV/Aids.

A snap survey in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’ssecond city, revealed a booming trade inlove potions. The elderly women in thistrade usually conduct business in public toi-lets to avoid detection.

Seemingly oblivious to the smell in thefilthy toilets, the women advertise theirwares to every person who comes in. Thosewho cannot stand the smell can always visittraditional healers. And a new breed of lovepotion peddlers move from door to door,selling the love potions to housewives in thecomfort of their homes while their hus-bands are away at work.

“These women sell a variety of products,ranging from aphrodisiacs to love potionsthat ensure that the husband sticks aroundand does not run around with otherwomen,” said a woman who was once con-fronted by a trader selling “women’sthings”.

There is a widespread belief locally thatlove potions and aphrodisiacs from Malawiand Zambia are the most potent. These arepeddled door todoor, at work places, on thestreets and in public toilets.

A visit to the public toilets at the Bul-

awayo Communal Bus Terminus is an eyeopener.

Women display their potions on the toiletfloors, touting for customers. A bus termi-nus for urban commuters in Bulawayo isusually also a hive of activity, with herbal-ists announcing an assortment of love po-tions for men and women.

Some of the herbalists travel overseas,and one even has agents in the United King-dom to handle that end of the business.

She added: “These herbs were in use be-fore you were born and no harm has cometo society because of them. Those who over-dose give us a bad name, but it is possible todo so even with Western medicine. If yougive a chloroquine overdose, do you thensay that chloroquine is not good?”

But Pastor Raisden Sawasawa arguesthat some potions are artificial and may ex-pire, eventually backfiring on the user. Andstill the debate continues, especially in cir-cumstances that are not easily explained:How else to account for situations where awoman is abused physically and emotional-ly, such as when her man brings anotherwoman into the house in her presence, andyet stays put?

Chavunduka and his team have the an-swer: it is the power of the love potion.

Love brewed in an African pot

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