I’ve just been reading Upenyu’s recent interview with Patricia McFadden, and these two parts really stood out for me:

Zimbabwe really needs a constitution, not because it’s going to give the poor rights, but because it’s like a salve, the healing balm after the fractures. It’s a site where people can come together and collectively imagine themselves as one people. To have common identity, we need that so much in Africa.

But constitutions are deceptive because they appear as though they are giving people rights, but there are no instruments that can endow you with a right. You have to struggle for a right as a collective. You have to conceptualise it, you have to imagine it you have to engage with those who control the sites where your rights are located and then you can create the possibility for that right to be not only located in the state and then the state can protect it, but you’ll also have to have access to it.

You can read and listen to the whole interview here

There is a lot of hype about the male circumcision issue. It is being hailed as the answer to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Is it? I do not think so. On what assumptions is the success of the male circumcision program being based on?

Are those pushing the program assuming that an alarming number of men do not use condoms to begin with? Because if they believe that condoms are being used consistently and correctly, then there is no need to be trying to replace or ‘compliment’ something that has got a 99% chance of preventing infection with something with a 60% chance.

My opinion is that the male circumcision program will actually increase the rate of infection: When it comes to sexual matters, the human brain is feeble at best of times. The logic will be why wear a condom if I have just had a procedure that’s supposed to reduce my chances of getting infected. If it is insisted that one were a condom even after being circumcised, then what’s the point in being circumcised.

So we can only say male circumcision is a worthwhile intervention if we assume that a large number of men do not use condoms. Those who use condoms do not use them correctly and consistently:  Say a man is spending the whole night with a woman; he will wear a condom the first time around and remove it when he is done.  If he feels like having another he might wear another condom if she insists. But does he wear another condom if he wants to have another go at midnight, I don’t think so. And if he has been sleeping with the woman for a week?

Those who use condoms correctly and consistently please stand up.

What about the young man who has been dying to sleep with a beautiful local girl for months. A chance presents itself and there are no condoms around. Does he dash off to the shops fro a packet of condoms? And risk her changing her mind?

We have to admit that a lot of men are not using condoms or at least not correctly and no amount of shouting will ever change that. So male circumcision might save a few of them; after all 60% is better than 0%, trying to sell condoms and male circumcision at the same time sounds absurd to me.

We can only hope that the male circumcision program will not convince the few who were using condoms to stop using them altogether: Honestly, how many will actually think of the percentages? The message that a shocking number of men – and women will get, is that male circumcision prevents HIV infection and the proponents of the dubiously noble initiative do not intend that to the message. And HIV/AIDS messages should not be mind-boggling, like the one that says that people should use both contraceptive pill and the condom. The contraceptive pill is for married couples, Period! Asking a married couple to use condoms is expecting too much.

I hope the male circumcision program achieves its desired goals, whatever they are. Honestly it’s all a bit vague in my mind.

One of my favourite feminist quotes comes from Mary Wollstonecroft and it says “I do not wish them (women) to have power over men but over themselves” because I believe that is the essence of women empowerment.

I never resonate with the preoccupations of some activists with ‘demanding’ that men create spaces for women in politics, in education etc… the whole idea of creating quota systems sits rather uncomfortably with me.

For what a man gives to a woman, he has the power to withhold at some point and there is no empowerment derived from being ‘given’ – empowerment only comes with what one achieves, attains and realizes from their own efforts.

I don’t doubt women’s capabilities, potentials and talents – I don’t think they need men to ‘liberate’ them – I think they can pretty much liberate themselves – if they acquire education, work their way to the top, begin to actively participate in the highest echelons of decision-making, policy-formulation and governance.

In 2007, when I was at the University of Zimbabwe, we were witnesses to the first ever female candidate to run for the powerful (and often violently contested) post of Secretary General of the Students’ Executive Council, Maureen Kademaunga.

She won the elections in that year because she managed to galvanize the female students into one cohesive, critical mass of voters and became the most powerful student in the country at the time because student activism was very robust, radical and influential.

I have come to believe that what women need is to have power over themselves and that power manifests in overturning the status quo whenever it is employed to oppress, marginalize or discriminate against us.

Recently there was a landmark passport ruling by a Supreme Court Justice Rita Makarau ruled in favour of Margret Dongo who, two years after filing a constitutional challenge (seeking the, nullification of certain provisions of the Guardianship of Minors Act, which she claimed were discriminatory against married women who were not regarded as natural guardians of their children) finally triumphed.

I want to believe that having a female Justice presiding over the case had a lot to do with the verdict; I want to believe having a determined woman who knows her rights had a lot to do with Margeret Dongo daring to challenge the status quo.

I want to believe that the results of that ruling, which will impact favourably on married women were wrought through the actions of fellow women and that no man played a part in ridding us of that cumbersome piece of discriminatory legislation. I want to believe that these are just examples of women exercising power (not over men) but over themselves, over their lives and ultimately over the system of patriarchy that informs the conditions of their oppression, marginality and discrimination.

So, I too, wish that we as women, may choose to have power over ourselves, choose to exercise that power and choose to liberate and empower ourselves.

It is unfair that the HIV and AIDS pandemic has a face of a woman. I heard this statement at a discussion that I was in and it hurt me a lot. I know that women especially in Africa are the most infected by the virus but to hear that being said my heart tore apart. To think that every time HIV and AIDS is spoken about the image given to it is a woman’s face. In most cases it is the man who brings HIV and AIDS in the home. With men being socialized to think that there are the bulls and bhuru rino onekwa nemavanga aro encouraging men to have multi partners. The majority of women living positively are infected by their male partners, why then is the woman the most discriminated?

One of my earliest childhood memories was being hit by my brother. I was watching television and because he was bored he decided to pick on me for sport. Prior to this I remember my parents always stepping in, saying he shouldn’t pick on girls because they can’t fight back. For them, and him, girls were weaker, lesser. That day, I suppose he thought it would be safe as there wasn’t an adult in the in the same room as us to defend me.

He hit me one too many times, and, being my father’s daughter, I ran to tell. My father was tired, probably from the noise and from work. He was short and exasperated in his reply.

“Hit him back.”

I remember seeing the expression on my fathers face. He couldn’t understand why I had not thought of this myself.

I am the oldest child in my family, and, for many years I’ve wondered why I let my brother carry on as he did. Even at that young age I had the authority to stop him. More than that, I was physically able to stop him, but I didn’t. It wasn’t until my father said to hit him back, that it occurred to me that I could.

That moment was the beginning of a change in the way I saw myself as a woman. Empowerment and equality are not concepts that easily occur to a seven year old, but in that moment, I experienced both. I was not weaker, I was not ‘just a girl’, I was equal to the one who was hitting me. I was equal enough to hit him back.

Empowerment for women should not start when they are adults. It is too late then to undo a lifetime of being made to think that one is weaker in mind and body. To try to undo the work of well meaning but misguided parenting, and social and cultural indoctrination when girls have become women and boys have become men has little effect on present and future generations. Men and women will continue to live as their parents did. They will raise their children the same way they were raised. As adults they seek the security and common identity that are provided by their parents traditions.

Empowerment for women begins when they are girls. Before women are distinguishable from men. Before either knows that they are different from the other.

Zimbabwean cool drink vendor, Memory Murinda, is motivated to work as hard as she does in order to provide for her children. She wants to make sure that they eat, wear clothes and go to school. Her day starts at 7am and can end as late as 8pm. Business is good when its summer because she can serve up to 200 thirsty people a day.

The challenges are many in her line of her work. “Some people have juju (magic) money . . . one minute you think you are holding a $5 note from a person and the next moment when they leave, you find out its only a dollar.” Not only does she deal with people who have juju money but also some customers are rough. Just like in any working place where you meet people on daily basis, the customer is always right and you just have to accept it.

I cannot believe that Memory is talking to me with all the drama around us in Zimbabwe where you are in fear of being labeled this or that, and everyone has an agenda. I am really surprised that she agreed to speak with me without requesting payment. She is easy going and she reveals a lot to me about her life and what made her take the step of going out into the world to fend for herself.

And so, I ask her a very daring question. Daring because often people do not want to realize their own value. So I say, what difference does your occupation make to the people of Harare? And this lady replies with a lot of self worth saying that people would die because a central part of being a vendor is taking care of people, and without vendors, people would struggle to buy products.

When I asked her about strikes she said, “Strikes are not good because if they happen most of us who are single parents are worried about being fired. I think that employers, to avoid strikes, must give their employees good working conditions and salary increases at the appropriate time.”

Her face brightened when I asked her if she had any funny experiences related to her job. With laughter in her voice she said that a lady once left R5 change with her and came back the following day saying that she wanted her US$5 back! Memory asked the lady how her money could have grown over night?

Memory told me that the situation in her home made her desperate for a job. One day she just went to Lyons and asked for a job but they turned her down. But because of the situation at home she kept going back until there was an opening.

I asked Memory what her biggest wish for Zimbabwe is? She said that wants people to respect one another – especially the people in government. She said if they respected us we would not have so much unemployment and we would have better working and living conditions.