Heeding the Protocol

It is common knowledge that the fabric of our African society consists mostly of male-favoured parochial views and laws. Women who are supposed to be the weaker sex get dealt all the wrong cards, constantly punished for reasons unknown to us. Today there is so much unfairness, inequality and discrimination targeted at women in most spheres of life; culturally, domestically, medically, socially, politically and even religiously. We have always had to fight for every opportunity, including for basic rights that are non-existent, and we are not asking for too much. In reality, all we want are little steps and positive measures gradually put in place. Many lives have been lost from crude occurrences like genital mutilation to quack abortions and rape. In the same that lives have been lost, so have lives been dedicated to seeing to fruition, the Africa woman given her rightful place and entitlements. The platinum South and the green West and hot North and the wild East have all in time fashioned women of great clout who have tirelessly fought for the rights of women all over the continent. To these selfless women, and partner organisations, sacrifices made, time and resources dedicated we owe a lot. We are at the point we are today; chanting for the implementation of the protocol, because of their endless activism towards showing dissatisfaction and urging for the betterment of womankind.

And so today, hovering over all African women, from the woman hawking food on the dark streets of Yendi, to the woman washing clothes with a child strapped to her back on the windswept banks of Lake Togo, to the woman in a power suit striding purposefully through the bustling city of Lagos, to the woman in a remote village toiling on her farm in the sun while her husband sits in the shade, to the woman who has just birthed in primitive conditions and is dying but worries that her daughters will meet the same fate. In me and in these places and over all of these women, a small solitary dot, now an ever increasing dot, looms closer over us, slowly but surely; a dot called ‘RIGHTS’.

It is taking Africa forever to commence the implementation and domestication of the protocol on national levels and in various countries. If the charter had been implemented even a year after its declaration, I would not have lost my friend to childbirth. The medical complications that were discovered early enough into the pregnancy may have given rise to the legal decision to abort. And so today, implementation of the protocol means to me that women will be empowered to decisions that could save their lives, figuratively and literarily. It would also mean that my community will eradicate the culture of having a woman shave her hair when her husband dies, and of making her drink the water used in bathing the corpse. I find it even more painful that it is fellow women that ensure these barbaric practices are carried out. A woman should be left to mourn in peace, she has committed no crime.

The protocol means that widows will no longer be dispossessed of their inheritances, leaving them without the means to raise her children. Laws should be put in place to protect women everywhere from these sorts of cultures that have outlived their usefulness, if there ever any usefulness. I shudder to think that anyone, even me, could fall prey to these cave cultures.

The protocol assures me that women will be protected against domestic violence and have the justice systems ready to promptly and justly penalise any form of violence against women.

It means that wives will no longer be arbitrarily thrown out of their homes by errant husbands because there have been no systems on place to stop such acts. There will now be systems.

It means that there would be a general consciousness in recruitment processes aimed towards bridging the divide of inequality, more and more women will be employed and empowered.

The protocol means that there will be general equal access to education and jobs. Women will no longer be denied these amenities because society thinks that they should lay low and be married off, be seen and not heard, thereby leaving them without a future and prospects. This is partly why there are so many cases of women trafficking in Africa and with African women beyond the continent; the Schengen areas come to mind.

The protocol means that measures favouring women should be put in place. Laws should bend over backwards for us. For example, in Nigeria the police often beats up anybody arrested, sex notwithstanding. They even go the extra length of undressing them, and there have been reports of women raped by them. I don’t know if this is a part of the law, but the protocol means that laws preventing this would be written and implementation ensured.

It means that single women can be proudly take their places in society and be allowed to hold certain positions without their marital statuses being a disqualifying quality. I personally would have no problem with ‘unmarried’ statuses posing a problem, if only it also applied to men. With the protocol I expect no more exceptions to rules; our watchword should become ‘what is good for the goose, is good for gender’’, any exceptions made should be one that is geared towards accommodating women some more. I would have also thrown in ‘’all men are equal here’, but some minds may choose to take the word ‘men’ at face value and as not connoting the entire human race.

Prior to now, women have managed to prove over and over again that we can thread nimbly where men have stomped, and with dignity. Women have played some indisputable roles in Africa, and all this at a time when the divide of inequality was enormous, and the emancipation of women a thing of dreams. My heart skips to think of what more we can do when the playing ground has been leveled for us. Doors will open, a good life and greatness awaits.

And so, soon enough, washing in like a tidal wave from the Nile to the Niger to the Congo, and to the Orange, Limpopo and Zambezi would be a renewed vigor and faith born of the African Union’s protocol on the rights of women. We are finally ready to take on the world, no, we have taken on the world amidst restrictions, but now, we have been endorsed by the powers that be. Speaking for African women everywhere, ‘it is time to heed the 'protocol'.

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http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/535/nonyelum.jpgNonyelum Umeasiegbu is a 24 year-old Nigerian who studied English Literature at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. She is an advocate for women’s rights and is passionate about development and volunteering. She has worked on a project that provides nutritional support to orphans and vulnerable children, while training their caregivers on the fundamentals of earning a livelihood. She is currently a Technical Writer for an organization that works to maximize agricultural revenue and key enterprises in Nigeria. Nonyelum is presently enrolled in a Masters Degree program in Communication for Development at Malmo University, Sweden. An ardent reader, she loves to write in her spare time.
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