By Andrew Besi.
Over the last 30 years, the ideological landscape in Africa has become increasingly complex with the rise to prominence of new systems of thought especially feminism.
Ideologies of liberalism, socialism, conservatism and nationalism are all primarily concerned with questions of power such as “who controls human communities, and to what end?”. The rise to prominence of feminism is as a result in part of what Inglehart termed ‘post materialism.”
In the late 17th century, a core argument in Europe and America was that women had the same intellectual and moral capacities as men and should therefore have the same legal rights.
This argument was enforced through writings by women such as Mary Wollstonecraft who argued that equality for women was the logical corollary of an attempt to create a political system based on equality before the law – equality within the family. In other words, “make women rational creatures and free citizens and they will quickly become good wives and mothers.”
Indeed, this liberal form of feminism had a general theme the “equality of rights.’ Early liberal feminists took for granted that the traditional division of labor between the sexes would continue as the social norm rather than the legal.
Pre-colonial Uganda (1700s upwards) like much of Africa at the time was largely a feudal traditional amalgamation of chiefs and kings. Our great grandmothers’ only roles were to give birth and ensure pristine homes for their husbands. Men were the bourgeois while women were the proletariat.
Europe and America were not so different either – in spite of their economic fruits from especially the Industrial Revolution.
When formulating the “10-point program” of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), the realization that for Uganda to pursue her development agenda successfully, Women would have to be brought into the main political and production prisms of all sects of government was one of several key drivers.
The NRM as one of its first acts gifted girls joining Makerere University with an extra 1.5 points. At village level, every Resistance Council (RC) – now Local Council (LC) – cell had a slot purposed for Women and occupied by a woman.
Even the highest decision-making bodies of National Resistance Council (NRC) had women representatives. Miria Matembe a known feisty activist of the day was one of these as was Capt. Olive Zizinga a veteran of he infamous 5-year guerilla bush war waged by the National Resistance Army (NRA) against Milton Obote’s rapacious regime.
The African woman like her global counterpart now has similar rights as her male counterpart for access to Education, contestation of pollical and corporate office, purchase, development, ownership of enterprise and property. Like her global counterpart, Ugandan women are now inheritors from their fathers.
However, the gains made by the Ugandan woman are now in danger by a new breed of feminist – the radical feminist. Radical feminists threaten the future of the girl child. By focusing on a misguided concept of society being a war between “sexual classes”, radical feminists seek to abolish the essential principle of patriarchy. They justify their unfortunate ideology by misusing Kate Millet’s opinion – “all historical civilisations” are driven by an ideology of “male supremacy.”
Before the rise of radical feminism, discussion mostly revolved around the liberal agenda of legal equality for women who wanted to take their place in the world of work and politics. Typical issues were discrimination in employment, admission to professional schools – which is why in Uganda girls still have a 1.5 points bonus for entry to public universities – and nomination as candidates for political parties and political office – every district in Uganda has a Woman MP.
In other words, the male is no longer “supreme” but rather an equal partner in our general societal set up.
By seeking to politicize rape, violence against women, the sexual abuse of girls, sexual harassment, pornography only within the dimension of woman; they are attempting to do away with the function and necessity of ‘Men” within society – a tragedy of commons. Politics is and has always been a contest for and of power within the matrix of state control of resources.
It is critical that as we celebrate the “milestones on gender equality and women empowerment in Uganda”, we be not deceived by these radical naysayers. Our battle is not one of patriarchy or even matriarchy – it is one of economic and political transformation to prosperity. Happy Women’s day.
The Writer is a Communication Assistant at Government Citizen Interaction Centre (GCIC), Ministry of ICT & National Guidance.
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