In the Congo, where tens of thousands of women are brutally raped every year, Dr. Denis Mukwege repairs their broken bodies and souls. Eve Ensler visits him and finds hope amid the horror.

I have just returned from hell. I am trying for the life of me to figure out how to communicate what I have seen and heard in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. How do I convey these stories of atrocities without your shutting down, quickly turning the page or feeling too disturbed?

How do I tell you of girls as young as nine raped by gangs of soldiers, of women whose insides were blown apart by rifle blasts and whose bodies now leak uncontrollable streams of urine and feces?

This journey was a departure for me. It began with a man, Dr. Denis Mukwege, and a conversation we had in New York City in December 2006, when he came to speak about his work helping women at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu. It began with my rusty French and his limited English. It began with the quiet anguish in his bloodshot eyes, eyes that seemed to me to be bleeding from the horrors he’d witnessed.

Something happened in this conversation that compelled me to go halfway around the world to visit the doctor, this holy man who was sewing up women as fast as the mad militiamen could rip them apart.

I am going to tell the stories of the patients he saves so that the faceless, generic, raped women of war become Alfonsine and Nadine—women with names and memories and dreams. I am going to ask you to stay with me, to open your hearts, to be as outraged and nauseated as I felt sitting in Panzi Hospital in faraway Bukavu.

Before I went to the Congo, I’d spent the past 10 years working on V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls. I’d traveled to the rape mines of the world, places like Bosnia, Afghanistan and Haiti, where rape has been used as a tool of war. But nothing I ever experienced felt as ghastly, terrifying and complete as the sexual torture and attempted destruction of the female species here. It is not too strong to call this a femicide, to say that the future of the Congo’s women is in serious jeopardy.

I learned from my trip that there are men who take their sorrow and helplessness and destroy women’s bodies—and there are others with the same feelings who devote their lives to healing and serving. I do not know all the reasons men end up in one or the other of these groups, but I do know that one good man can create many more. One good man can inspire other men to ache for women, to fight for them and protect them. One good man can win the trust of a community of raped women—and in doing so, keep their faith in humanity alive.

Dr. Mukwege picks me up at 6:30 A.M. It is a lush, clean morning. Eastern Congo, where Panzi Hospital is located, is wildly fertile. You can almost hear the vegetation growing. There are banana trees and cartoon-colored birds. And there is Lake Kivu, a vast body of water that contains enough methane to power a good portion of the sub-Sahara—yet the city of Bukavu on its banks has only sporadic electricity. This is a theme in the Congo. There are more natural resources than almost anywhere else on the planet, yet 80 percent of the people make less than a dollar a day. More rain falls than one can imagine, but for millions, clean drinking water is scarce. The earth is gorgeously abundant, and yet almost one third of the population is starving.

As we drive along the semblance of road, the doctor tells me how different things were when he was a child. “In the sixties 50,000 people lived here in Bukavu. It was a relaxed place. There were rich people who had speedy boats in the lakes. There were gorillas in the mountains.” Now there are at least a million displaced Congolese, many of whom arrive in the city daily, fleeing the numerous armed groups that have ravaged the countryside since fighting erupted in 1996. What started as a civil war to overthrow dictator Mobutu Sese Seko soon became “Africa’s first world war,” as observers have called it, with soldiers from neighboring countries joining in the mayhem. The troops have various agendas: Many are fighting for control of the region’s extraordinary mineral wealth. Others are out to grab whatever they can get.

But you have to go back further than 1996 to understand what is going on in the Congo today. This country has been tortured for more than 120 years, beginning with King Leopold II of Belgium, who “acquired” the Congo and, between 1885 and 1908, exterminated an estimated 10 million people, about half the population. The violent consequences of genocide and colonialism have had a profound impact on the psyche of the Congolese. Despite a 2003 peace agreement and recent elections, armed groups continue to terrorize the eastern half of the country. Overall the war has left nearly 4 million people dead—more than in any other conflict since World War II—and resulted in the rape of hundreds of thousands of women and girls.

In Bukavu, the people escaping the fighting walk from early morning to late at night. They walk and walk, searching for a way to buy or sell a tomato, or for a banana for their baby. It is a relentless river of humans, anxious and hungry. “People used to eat three meals a day,” says Dr. Mukwege. “Now they are lucky to eat one.”

Everyone knows the doctor, an ob-gyn. He waves and stops to inquire about this person’s health, that person’s mother. Most doctors, teachers and lawyers fled the Congo after the wars started. It never occurred to Dr. Mukwege to leave his people at their most desperate hour.

He first became aware of the epidemic of rape in 1996. “I saw women who had been raped in an extremely barbaric way,” he recalls. “First, the women were raped in front of their children, their husbands and neighbors. Second, the rapes were done by many men at the same time. Third, not only were the women raped, but their vaginas were mutilated with guns and sticks. These situations show that sex was being used as a weapon that is cheap.

“When rape is done in front of your family,” he continues, “it destroys everyone. I have seen men suffer who watched their wives raped; they are not mentally stable anymore. The children are in even worse condition. Most of the time, when a woman suffers this much violence, she is not able to bear children afterward. Clearly these rapes are not done to satisfy any sexual desire but to destroy the soul. The whole family and community are broken.”

We arrive at Panzi Hospital, a spread-out complex of about a dozen buildings. Eight years ago Dr. Mukwege created a special maternity ward here with an operating room. Panzi as a whole has 334 beds, 250 of which now hold female victims of sexual violence. The hospital and its surrounding property have become, essentially, a village of raped women. The grounds are overwhelmed with children and hunger and need. Every day at least two children here die from malnutrition. Then there are the many problems that result from severe trauma: women with nightmares and insomnia, women rejected by their husbands, women who have no interest in nurturing the babies of their rapists, women and children with nowhere to go.

It is early morning, and the hospital courtyard has been transformed into a temporary church. Women dressed in their most colorful, or perhaps only, pagne (a six-yard piece of brightly patterned cloth that can be wrapped into a dress or skirt) sit waiting for the doctor to arrive and lead the prayer service that begins each day. A dedicated staff of female nurses and social workers are there as well, dressed in their starched white jackets. There is singing, a combination of Pentecostal calls and Swahili rhythms, Sunday-morning voices calling up Jesus.

This morning service is a kind of daily gathering of strength and unity. When the women sing, everything else seems to disappear. They are with the sun, the sky, the drums, each other. They are alive in their bodies, momentarily safe and free.

As they sing, Dr. Mukwege tells me stories about the women in the chorus. Many were naked when they arrived, or starving. Many were so badly damaged he is amazed they are singing at all. He takes enormous pride in their recovery. “I will never be ashamed,” the women sing. “God gave me a new heart that I can be very strong.”

“At the beginning I used to hear patients’ stories,” Dr. Mukwege tells me. “Now I abstain.” I soon understand why. I meet Nadine (like others in this story, she agreed to be photographed, but asked that her name be changed, as she could be subject to reprisals for speaking out), who tells me a tale so horrendous it will haunt me for years to come.

When we begin talking, Nadine seems utterly disassociated from her surroundings—far away. “I’m 29,” she begins. “I am from the village of Nindja. Normally there was insecurity in our area. We would hide many nights in the bush. The soldiers found us there. They killed our village chief and his children. We were 50 women. I was with my three children and my older brother; they told him to have sex with me. He refused, so they cut his head and he died.”

Nadine’s body is trembling. It is hard to believe these words are coming out of a woman who is still alive and breathing. She tells me how one of the soldiers forced her to drink his urine and eat his feces, how the soldiers killed 10 of her friends and then murdered her children: her four-year-old and two-year-old boys and her one-year-old girl. “They flung my baby’s body on the ground like she was garbage,” Nadine says. “One after another they raped me. From that my vagina and anus were ripped apart.”

Nadine holds onto my hand as if she were drowning in a tsunami of memory. As devastated as she is, it is clear that she needs to be telling this story, needs me to listen to what she is saying. She closes her eyes and says something I cannot believe I’m hearing. “One of the soldiers cut open a pregnant woman,” she says. “It was a mature baby and they killed it. They cooked it and forced us to eat it.”

Incredibly, Nadine was the only one of the 50 women to escape. “When I got away from the soldiers, there was a man passing. He said, ‘What is that bad smell?’ It was me; because of my wounds, I couldn’t control my urine or feces. I explained what had happened. The man wept right there. He and some others brought me to the Panzi Hospital.”

She stops. Neither of us has breathed. Nadine looks at me, longing for me to make sense of what she’s related. She says, “When I got here I had no hope. But this hospital helped me so much. Whenever I thought about what happened, I became mad. I believed I would lose my mind. I asked God to kill me. Dr. Mukwege told me: Maybe God didn’t want me to lose my life.”

Nadine later tells me that the doctor was right. As she fled the slaughter, she says, she saw an infant lying on the ground next to her slain parents. Nadine rescued the girl; now having a child to care for gives her reason to keep going. “I can’t go back to my village. It’s too dangerous. But if I had a place to live I could go to school. I lost my children but I’m raising this child as my own. This girl is my future.”

I stay for a week at Panzi. Women line up to tell me their stories. They come into the interview numb, distant, glazed over, dead. They leave alive, grateful, empowered. I begin to understand that the deepest wound for them is the sense that they have been forgotten, that they are invisible and that their suffering has no meaning. The simple act of listening to them has enormous impact. The slightest touch or kindness restores their faith and energy. The strength of these women is remarkable, as is their unparalleled resiliency. Dr. Mukwege tells me I need to meet Alfonsine (her name also has been changed). “Her story really touched me,” he says. “Her body, her case is the worst I have ever seen, but she has given us all courage.”

Alfonsine is thin and poised, profoundly calm. She tells me she was walking through the forest when she encountered a lone soldier. “He followed me and then forced me to lie down. He said he would kill me. I struggled with him hard; it went on for a long time. Then he went for his rifle, pressed it on the outside of my vagina and shot his entire cartridge into me. I just heard the voice of bullets. My clothes were glued to me with blood. I passed out.”

Dr. Mukwege tells me, “I never saw such destruction. Her colon, bladder, vagina and rectum were basically gone. She had lost her mind. I was sure she wouldn’t make it. I rebuilt her bladder. Sometimes you don’t even know where you are going. There’s no map. I operated on her six times, and then I sent her to Ethiopia so they could heal the incontinence problem, and they did.”

“I was in bed when I first met Dr. Mukwege,” Alfonsine says. “He caressed my face. I lived at Panzi for six months. He helped me spiritually. He showed me how many times God makes miracles. He built me up morally.”

I look at Alfonsine’s petite body and imagine the scars beneath her humble white clothes. I imagine the reconstructed flesh, the agony she experienced after being shot. I listen carefully. I cannot detect a drop of bitterness or any desire for revenge. Instead, her attention is fixed on transforming the future. She tells me with great pride, “I am now studying to be a nurse. My first choice is to work at Panzi. It was the nurses who nurtured me day after day, who loved me back into living.”

Alfonsine has ambitions that go beyond Panzi: “I feel like a big person in my community; I can do something for my people. Women must lead our country. They know the way.”

Every day about a dozen new women arrive at Panzi Hospital. Most come for surgery to repair a fistula, a rip in their internal tissue. There are two types of fistulas seen here: One is the aftermath of brutal rape, the other the result of birth complications, something that could be prevented if there were adequate maternity health care. These obstetric fistulas are the result of abnormal tearing during the birth process. Many occur when women flee the militias while they are in labor; there is no time to give birth, and the baby dies inside. The women who make it here are the lucky ones. They limp on homemade canes made from tree branches; they trudge slowly in deep pain. Some have walked 40 miles. Because it takes so long to get to the hospital, women have no chance to receive the anti-HIV medications that must be taken within 48 hours after rape. Health experts fear that in a few years, there will be an explosion of AIDS in the Congo.

Dr. Mukwege was once the only doctor at Panzi Hospital able to perform fistula surgery; now he has trained four others. The hospital does 1,000 such operations a year.

I sit in on a typical operation in a clean, safe, but seriously underequipped operating room (nurses use torn pieces of a green dressing gown to tie the woman’s ankles to the stirrups). I am able to see the fistula—a hole in the tissue between the woman’s vaginal wall and bladder. A hole in her body. A hole in her soul. A hole where her confidence, her esteem, her spirit, her light, her urine leak out.

Because of the prevalence of fistulas, the Panzi complex is soaked in urine. The smell pervades everything. Pee spills out of women in a huge, dirt-floored hangarlike space where hundreds sit all day. Pee spills out in classrooms, leaving puddles on the floor. The women are always wet. Their legs chafe and their skin burns. There are many little girls in pee-stained dresses roaming around Panzi; shy and ashamed, they, too, are victims of rape. The week of my visit, a state agency had turned off the water for the hospital after billing Panzi $70,000 (an insane amount by Congolese standards) because it heard that the hospital, which is private, was receiving money from the West. Staff had to bring in buckets of water from the surrounding neighborhood. To have hundreds of women with fistula-caused incontinence and no water seemed like a crime upon a crime.

I can’t help wondering what happened in Dr. Mukwege’s life that compelled him to work here, sometimes 14 hours a day. “I was born in Bukavu on March 1, 1955,” he tells me. “During my young age my mother was suffering with asthma. In the night when she became ill, I was the one who would go and look for a nurse or bring her medication. We all thought she would die. Even now, each birthday she celebrates, I am so happy to see her alive.

“My father was a pastor. He was very gentle, very human. From him I got the caring to treat patients. When we would go and visit sick people together, he would pray. I would ask, ‘Why can’t you give them tablets or prescriptions?’ He said, ‘I am not a doctor.’ I decided then that prayer is not enough. People must take things into their own hands. Asking God does not change anything. He gives us the ability to say yes or no. You must use your hands, your mind. When I receive women here who are hungry, I can’t say, ‘God bless you.’ I have to give them something to eat. When someone is suffering, I can’t tell her about God, I have to treat her pain. You can’t hide yourself in religion. Not a solution.”

Dr. Mukwege began as a general practitioner, focusing on pediatrics. When he worked in a clinic in Lemera, a village south of Bukavu, he saw dreadful things happening in maternity. “Women were coming in bleeding day after day, many with severe infections. A woman had a baby and carried it dead in her vagina for a week. It was terrible. This helped me make a total engagement in a new career.”

He went back to school to study gynecology in Angers, France, and then returned to Lemera to train the staff in obstetrics and gynecology. After he moved to Bukavu he created a special maternity ward at Panzi. Women who were victims of extreme sexual violence began to arrive. The number grew every day.

Who was—and is—raping the women? The better question might be, who isn’t?

The perpetrators include the Interahamwe, the Hutu fighters who fled neighboring Rwanda in 1994 after committing genocide there; the Congolese army; a loose assortment of armed civilians; even U.N. peacekeepers. Christine Schuler Deschryver, who works for a German aid organization and is a fierce advocate for Panzi Hospital and Congolese women, says, “All of them are raping women. It is a country sport. Any person in uniform is an enemy to women.”

Many women do not even report the violations, because they are afraid of rejection by their husbands and families. Although there are laws against rape in the Congo, if a woman reports her rape and her rapist is arrested, he can pay his way out and come back and rape her again. Or murder her.

Dr. Mukwege, in contrast, is motivating a different kind of healing army. I speak with a hospital employee named Bonane. “I was in Uganda,” he says. “I saw the doctor on TV. He was explaining the atrocities. I realized these are my mothers and sisters. I was so inspired, I came here to work with him.”

Dr. Mukwege is married with five children, but his brother, Herman, tells me his family doesn’t see him much because his devotion to the women has consumed his life. Although the doctor’s energy never flags, I notice an underlying exhaustion in his face and his being, a sleepless despair that comes from dwelling constantly amid violence and cruelty. He says to me, “When you rape a woman, you destroy life and you destroy your own life. Animals don’t do this. When a pigeon has sex with another pigeon, it is kind. I am wondering how man has the power of such destruction.”

And yet, the status of women in the Congo was dismal long before the wars started. The women work all day in the field and market, carrying the Congo on their backs (sometimes up to 200 pounds in bags strapped to their foreheads). They prepare the dinner, wash the clothes, clean the house, take care of the children, have mandatory sex with their husbands. They have no power, no rights and no value. Many women I talk to ask why I am “wasting my time” with them.

I interview a man who is the keeper of a gorilla preserve. He tells me that when dangerous militias began staking out territory in the park, he went to their commanders and asked if their soldiers would work with him to protect the gorillas. In the end they all agreed. I ask him why he didn’t feel compelled to do the same for the women. The question surprised him. He had no answer.

I ask the doctor about the Congo’s leader, Joseph Kabila, who in November 2006 became the country’s first democratically elected president in 46 years and promised to be the “craftsman of peace.” Are things getting better?

Dr. Mukwege sighs. “Kabila,” he says, “has done nothing. The fighting here in the east has not stopped. During 2004 my life was threatened; I got phone calls warning me to stop my work or die. The calls have ceased, but it is still very dangerous.

“Visitors come from the international community,” he continues. “They eat sandwiches and cry, but they do not come back with help. Even President Kabila has never put his foot here. His wife was here. She wept, but she has done nothing.”

UNICEF, ECHO (the humanitarian aid office of the European Commission) and PMU (a Swedish humanitarian organization) are the major supporters of Panzi. Although the hospital can always use more money, the real need is for a political response to the violence. Barring that, Dr. Mukwege would at least like to get real protection for the women once they leave the hospital. “I patch them up and send them back home,” he says, “but there is no guarantee they will not be raped again. There have been several cases where women have come back a second time, more destroyed than the first.”

On my last day, the doctor asks me if I will lead some exercises for the women that will help alleviate their trauma. We go to the hangarlike building where 250 depressed and sick women are waiting. We begin with breathing. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Then we attach a noise to the breath. Other noises follow. One after another, noise after noise. Then we attach a movement. There is stomping. There is punching. There is mad waving of arms. The women are up on their feet, screaming, releasing guttural sounds of sorrow, rage, terror. In a matter of minutes, I watch them go from broken, mute women to wild, laughing, ferocious beings.

In the midst of this energy, Dr. Mukwege challenges the women to a dance contest. Celebration and power explode from their bodies. A part of each woman is fierce, unbreakable. No one has killed their spirits. The doctor whispers to me, “When I see this joy, this life in the women, I know why I must come back here every day.”

The women’s frenzy builds and builds. They dance in the hot African sun. They dance in the open road. They literally dance us up a steep hill, hundreds of women and children moving in a single, radiant feminine mass.

If 250 women who have been raped, torn, starved and tortured can find the strength to dance us up a mountain, surely the rest of us can find the resources and will to guarantee their future.

*Eve Ensler is a playwright, an activist and the founder of V-Day. Her latest book is Insecure at Last. This essay first appeared in Glamour Magazine (http://www.glamour.com).

Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

A positive twist towards human rights for Zimbabwean citizens, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, seems imminent if elections favour the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). While President Robert Mugabe has over the years condemned homosexuality in Zimbabwe, MDC spokeperson Nelson Chamisa revealed that the his organisation will build a new Zimbabwe for all its citizens irrespective of their social associations or even sexual orientation.

Women in Ndele, a remote town in northern Central African Republic, are making a stand for their rights. The local chapter of the national women’s organisation, OFCA, has launched a campaign to alert women to their rights on issues such as female genital mutilation/cutting, early marriages and polygamy.

A growing number of women around Senegal, choose to take charge of their reproductive health with the help of something that looks like a necklace. That decision may keep them from ever being counted among the millions of women globally who are seriously injured or die during childbirth.

When Jacinta Marete discovered that she was pregnant, she was in her first year in one of the public universities in the country. Having been among the chosen few who secure themselves a place in these institutions of higher learning, her dream of becoming a pharmacist was slowly shaping up.

For a long time woman’s place in the political landscape has been too rough especially in Africa. For a woman to feature in politics, she must be having a skin as thick as that of an elephant as Wangari Maathai Nobel laureate equips it in her memoir Unbowed.

The EISA has availed information on the proportion of women in the lower house of parliaments of Southern African countries. As far as is possible, every effort has been made to exclude nominated and ex officio members from the tallies.

A new report by Dr. Fareda Banda, “Laws that Discriminate Against Women,” reveals the harsh realities of these discriminatory laws around the world, and explores possibilities for new processes to eliminate such discrimination. Dr. Banda used existing UN mechanisms and national data on the subject to inform the report, which finds that the female half of the population continues to experience state-sanctioned and state-condoned discrimination.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/370/48056women.jpgAs a result the terror campaign by the military and the youth militia, the most affected are women and children as 80% of Zimbabwean women live in the rural areas. This statement urges women in Africa and the world to take action against the Mugabe government.

On March 29,2009 Zimbabwe went to the polls to elect its next government until 2013.Results for the Presidential elections were announced a month later and people in Zimbabwe maintained peace. From 2 April 2008 the government organised a retribution campaign to target those who allegedly voted for the opposition and since then there has been terror in mostly rural Zimbabwe with youth militia under the command of the army and police have gone on to unleash terror in a campaign to teach the rural people how to correctly vote in the forthcoming presidential run off supposed to take place on 23 May according to the law but whose date remains unannounced

As a result the terror campaign by the military and the youth militia, the most affected are women and children as 80% of Zimbabwean women live in the rural areas. So far, over 800 homes have been burnt down, over 10 000 people have fled their homes, over 40 people have been shot dead in cold blood, over 7000 teachers have fled their schools as a number have been beaten in the eyes of parents and pupils, Doctors for human Rights report that over 2000 serious cases of physical torture and beatings have passed through their hands and a lot of those they treated have suffered serious fractures to an extent that most are permanently handicapped. The oldest victim of the post election violence is an old woman with 12 grandchildren all of them orphaned and whose son is alleged to have campaigned for the opposition. The youngest female victim is a 15 year old girl who was stripped naked together with her pregnant mother forced to lie down and beaten on the breasts and buttocks. Many women including the old have been forced to strip naked and beaten on the breasts and buttocks. 7000 teachers, a third of them women have fled their homes and several schools mostly in rural areas are closed. Several girls and women are feared raped. The youngest child seriously assaulted is only 3 years. Despite calls from all corners of the world for the violence to stop, it has become worse and we fear more and more people are getting killed and buried

Our situation is such that an estimated 5 million Zimbabweans mostly professionals and the young have left the country. An estimated 3 million are in South Africa with half being illegal immigrants facing inhuman deportations daily. Women cross border traders cross over the crocodile infested Limpopo River and many have been allegedly raped. HIV and AIDS prevalence is 60% among women and girls and their life expectancy is 34 years. Domestic violence is rife with a woman killed or left dead weekly. Unemployment is 80% and inflation is 165 000 % and the highest in the world. 95% of women of the 200 000 women made homeless and jobless by the government 2005 Operation Restore Order which demolished their homes and markets that earned them an income has left them in the open cold and in commercial sex work since then and now the same women are alleged to have voted opposition and have gone through torture.

At least 6800 girls get raped annually and with the current displacements the number is expected to treble. Most female teachers have been displaced and many have fled the country and a lot more have sought refuge in the cities. Access to the rural areas has always been a big challenge for humanitarian organisations but now that women in rural areas are held hostage by the militia and the army and the rural areas have been declared no go areas we have seen it almost impossible to assist. Women Directors of NGOs are on government hit list that seeks to arrest, detain and destroy the organisation.

Zimbabwean women in rural areas constitute women abandoned by husbands and dumped in the rural areas because of HIV status, they have gone through the war of liberation in the 1960s and 1970s and war songs by the youth militias at their doorsteps have left them semi slaved. The worst is that they have been beaten because their husbands, brothers, uncles, boyfriends ,grandsons and other male relatives allegedly campaigned for the opposition. Old grandmothers struggling to feed orphans and sickly, women who are bed ridden, orphaned HIV positive children, the poorest and weakest have been tortured, terrified, displaced from homes and the organisations that normally help them are denied access and with most of the leaders on the government hit list.

OUR URGENT APPEAL FOR ACTION TO AFRICAN WOMEN AND THE WOMEN WORLD ALL OVER THE WORLD

- First we come to you because we have exhausted all channels and have failed to get help and urgent attention .Please help us find how best we can deal with the situation and appeal to anyone you know who can help victims get immediate help like medication, safe shelter, counselling and support leaders of women’s groups with security as they are also under threat and have been victimised and most of them are on the government hit list for those to be tortured and eliminated

- Reach out to SADC and AU Countries to put in place measures to protect women and girls fleeing Zimbabwe to take refuge in neighbouring countries

- Help us to see how we can use the AU protocol for women’s rights for protection of women and girls. Zimbabwe ratified the AU protocol

- Help us get SADC and UN put in place a security and protection plan for women and girls and help demilitarise the youth militia and stop torture of ordinary citizens

- Get our case on crimes against humanity taken to the UN security council. We have all the documented evidence since the terror started in 2000 to have the perpetrators brought to book

- Mobilise female ministers and female vice Presidents to convene an urgent meeting in the region and make appeals to the Liberian President Her Excellency Ellen Johnson to help us broker peace talks in Zimbabwe with leaders of women’s groups in the continent

- Help us set up African women in solidarity with Zimbabwe women focal point persons in African countries who go to their Presidents to lobby them to come to the urgent rescue of Zimbabwean women

- Pass on this message to any networks you know and those who can assist should email [email][email protected] or [email][email protected] and we will refer you to all the women in Zimbabwe working in various areas.

**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Aimed at building leadership, advocacy and technical expertise of women - particularly HIV positive women - who are working on the frontlines in the fight against AIDS throughout Nigeria, this intensive, three-week workshop represents a collaboration between the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) Washington D.C., and Africa regional master trainers who have graduated from CEDPA's past training programs.

Offered by the Center for Women's Studies in Education of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, from May 30, 2008 to July 8, 2008, this five-week human rights institute brings feminist perspectives and an activist orientation to the issues of peace, human rights and development.

The Women PeaceMakers Program is an annual selective program that allows four women on the frontlines of efforts to end violence and secure human rights to have their stories documented. Deadline for 2008 Women PeaceMakers' Application is May 23,2008

Differential impact on men and women: The Gender and Climate Change website states: "Climate change is not a neutral process; first of all, women are in general more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, not least because they represent the majority of the world's poor and because they are more than proportionally dependent on natural resources that are threatened. The technological change and instruments that are being proposed to mitigate carbon emissions, which are implicity presented as gender-neutral, are in fact quite gender based and may negatively affect women or bypass them.

The Greatest Silence is an apt title for the film this article reviews, since it keeps under wraps one of the most common crimes, so common that people just shrug their shoulders, sometimes with the words: it is human nature. The filmmaker, Lisa F. Jackson, has brought out something which horrifies people, but the horror, strangely, does not seem to lead to anything serious enough to change the dominant mindset about rape. Why do the offenders brag about raping one might ask?

The top United Nations official in Liberia has called for furthering the rights of women as a crucial element in advancing peace and development in the West African nation that is recovering from a decade-long civil war.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/369/47868ghana.jpg Mawuli Dake looks at the ways in which women are being locked out of the democratic processes in Ghana and argues that societies "cannot claim to be committed to the principles and ideals of democracy and the universal values of equality" if groups within are marginalized.

This year, over ten million eligible Ghanaian voters will again exercise the power to choose a President and 230 members of Parliament. This election is extremely important in many regards. The electioneering process and its outcome will determine whether we will as a nation continue or disrupt our forward march for democracy, especially in light of what we have witnessed in Nigeria and Kenya. It also presents the unique once in four years opportunity for citizens to hold Ghanaian politicians accountable for their actions vis-à-vis their rhetoric and promises. When all is said and done, the elections and the subsequent appointment of Ministers and District Chief Executives will determine our political platform and direction for the next four years, and the interests that are represented over the period. In this light, it matters who participates in this process.

For many citizens, the single most important opportunity they have to meaningfully participate in the democratic process is voting. It is also the primary means for Ghanaians, especially the poor, women and other disadvantaged groups of society, to participate in and influence government policy, priorities and practice. This article highlights how the choices we have in the 2008 elections significantly exclude citizenry majorities like women, and what we can and must do about it. It is needleless to emphasize that one of the most fundamental principles of democracy is equity: Even if not equal, fair and reasonable participation and representation of all. This of course is recognized not only in many international and regional instruments like African Union and United Nations declarations, conventions and protocols, but also clearly recognized in our own laws. In this spirit, I hope everyone will concur, that the current situation, given the appalling female to male ratio at local, regional and national levels of political leadership, is neither fair nor equitable by any standard, and definitely not democratic.

It is intriguing how our democratic institutions and processes have been able to craftily and systemically exclude “majorities”. As Ghanaians go to the polls in December, a majority of the electorate will be choosing from candidates who have little in common with them. Like in previous years, Ghanaian women will not see the face of any “sista” among the Presidential candidates on the ballots. Neither will the poor have anyone who identifies with their situation on those ballots. Additionally there will be fewer women to choose from among the parliamentary candidates to represent the people. Every time I think about it I wonder why despite there being more women than men in Ghana, they have never had anything close to majority in political leadership.

An electioneering period however is a fine opportunity for us to make the necessary changes that will strengthen our democratic as well as developmental processes. It is in light of this that I hope that we will reflect and strategize to improve the situation.

It is bad enough that none of our political parties have considered a woman as their presidential candidate in the coming election, but I hope no party will participate in the election this December without selecting a woman as their vice President. Women in Ghana have demonstrated that they are more than qualified for the job. There are many Ghanaian women (like Betty Mould Iddrisu) that are as visionary and as charismatic (if not more) as any other political leader we have had since Kwame Nkrumah. I have encountered many women (like the late Hawa Yakubu) who are powerful and strong. And of course, many (like Joyce Aryee), who are as experienced and able like any man we can find for the job.

INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

Ghana is not alone in the marginalization of women in the political processes. The Millennium Declaration emphasizes the importance of democratic governance to the achievement of development and just peace, placing particular stress on the importance of ensuring more inclusive political processes that allow genuine participation by all citizens. The Beijing Platform for Action also emphasizes that “women’s equal participation in decision making is not only a demand for justice or democracy, but can also be seen as a necessary condition for women’s interests to be taken into account...” The Platform accordingly proposed two important strategies to: “ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in all power structures and decision making”; and “increase women’s capacity to participate in decision making and leadership”.

Some countries, before and after Beijing have elected women to their highest office. Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister of Great Britain three times. Other countries that have elected women presidents include Liberia, Argentina, Iceland, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Finland, Ireland and Chile.

Nevertheless, there rages a global debate, over women’s political participation and representation. This ongoing discourse includes extensive studies and analysis in support of varied theories and approaches that comprise intrinsic and instrumentalist arguments. Some argue for equal participation of women in politics from the human rights perspective, that women constitute half of the world population and therefore, they should have equal (proportional) representation in our democracies. Instrumentalists on the other hand argue for greater participation of women on the grounds that men and women are different, that women have different approaches, vision and concepts of politics owning to their sex and their gender roles, with the assumption that women will bring a special “women values” to politics. Even without reaching an intellectual consensus on the merits and demerits of various arguments, I believe proponents of varied arguments and theories will agree on this one thing, women must be included in politics at all levels (from the high office of President to the local government assemblies).

In Ghana, gender barriers are not taken as seriously as other social ones like religion and ethnicity. The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe, because some still fall prey to the stereotype that it is not a women's place to be the Leader of the country; because a few old men have been allowed to dominate the process for so long that society thinks it is their right to do so and exclude everyone else; because of entrenched structural and functional socio-political factors that perpetuate the exclusion of women; and because sometimes women simply choose not to fight for it.

All of this can change. One of my most important observations, as a Campaign Strategist for a black presidential candidate here in the United States, is that people are far less prejudiced than we think they are, irrespective of race and equally irrespective of gender. This is not to deny the existence of prejudice, but contrarily to popular assumption, I have not encountered anyone, regardless of race or gender who are against having a black or woman president respectively. No doubt there are men and women in Ghana today who may be against the idea of a woman President, but they are a tiny minority. On one of my recent visits home, I listened to a phone-in program on Joy FM discussing if and which Ghanaian women could be President, the phone lines were jammed with men and women, who did not only think that Ghana was ready for a woman President, but who readily suggested or endorsed capable women for the job. From my recollection, some of the women highly recommended for the job were Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Emma Mitchel, Joyce Aryee and the late Hawa Yakubu.

NATIONAL CONTEXT

After emerging from colonialism some 50-plus years ago, Ghana went through an unprecedented history of military coups, counter coups and attempted coups. Ghanaians however resolved to return to constitutional democracy through the April 28 1992 referendum, followed by subsequent elections including the first and historic democratic change of government effected by a general, free and fair election in 2001, a democracy we have continued to enjoy uninterrupted since then. These achievements are great steps in our forward march for democracy, nevertheless, there still remain serious challenges to this process. Like in too many other countries in the world, the limited and unequal representation of women in political leadership remains one of those challenges, but there also exists opportunities that we can exploit.

A 2003 WISE study by Dake & Herlands: Data on Women in Leadership in Ghana, highlighted that in general, women exercise little power in political, economic, and social institutions in Ghana. It particularly highlighted that women are woefully underrepresented in political leadership positions relative to their participation at the middle and bottom levels in society. Even though anecdotal evidence indicates gross inequity in representation of women in leadership positions, the statistics of the survey are shocking.

There have been some significant changes since this survey was conducted in 2003 including the appointment of a woman as one of the five Chief Officers of the State (the appointment of Ghana’s current Chief Justice Ms. Georgina T. Wood). There is also a less than 2% increase in the number of women in parliament to about 11% compared to 9% in the last house. Nevertheless, these statistics remain a fair, quantitative reflection of the inequity in Ghana’s political leadership.

These changes have occurred largely due to the tireless efforts of women’s rights advocates and women’s organizations. Abantu for Development and the Women’s Manifesto Coalition for instance, have not only been aggressively pushing for women’s involvement, but have been empowering women to get involved in politics at various levels. I am particularly impressed with the strategic approach to increasing women’s representation in local governments. I recently joined one such effort to provide campaign strategy training to women candidates who were vying for seats in the local government elections for the Northern regions of Ghana and was inspired to learn that some of these women now serve in their local assemblies. This shows that things can and do change.

THE WOMEN’S MANIFESTO OF GHANA

The women’ manifesto of Ghana is a political document that sets out critical issues of concern to Ghanaian women with clear demands for addressing them. The manifesto covers areas such as Women in Politics, Decision making and Public Life, Women's Economic Empowerment and Women, Human Rights and the Law among others, clearly laying out the issues and demands that can guide government’s efforts. The manifesto states “In spite of the pivotal role Ghanaian women play … they do not occupy key decision-making positions in any of the sectors of economic, political and social life. They are relegated to the background as far as public decision-making is concerned. This is because no concrete policy measures are in place to ensure that the structural inequalities between women and men are taken into account in promoting participation in policy decisions."

The document outlines some concrete action demands to address this. Two of these are: “That political parties ensure that by the year 2008, there is at least 50% representation of women in party executive and other decision-making structures" and “That by the year 2008 at least 50% of appointees to public offices, such as boards of corporations and institutions and the higher echelons of the bureaucracies, are women”.

DECEMBER 2008 ELECTIONS

One of the best things about elections and change of governments is the opportunity it presents to citizens to get involved in processes that affect them and the opportunity it offers for change or for correcting wrongs. 2008 particularly gives Ghanaians an unprecedented opportunity to chose not only between NPP and NDC (both of which they have tried and tested), but if they so wish, opt for a third option- CPP. Exciting!

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

As we approach December and the elections, I invite political parties, government, the media and civil society as a whole to consider and take some of the following steps to promote the greater participation of women.

It should begin with ensuring that all the political parties choose woman vice-presidential candidates. This demand is not only for democracy sake, but also for respect and recognition of the capabilities, dignity and rights of Ghanaian women. Additionally, we will be honoring our commitments and obligations as a country under international instruments to promote gender equity, Not to mention the strategic goodwill that such step could generate for our country internationally as we have witnessed on Liberia and in Nigeria (when a woman served as the country’s Finance Minister).

It must be noted that that it is ultimately the responsibility of government to spearhead efforts to ensure equal representation. The role of civil society is to compliment this effort. We must however be quick to recognize from the history of such struggles that, change hardly occurs without a strong demand and fight, be it for the right to vote, for independence or other basic rights. Frederick Douglas puts it in the best possible way “…power concedes nothing without demand, it never has and it never will.”

Political parties must show greater commitment to the issue of gender equity by deliberately supporting and increasing the number of female candidates especially for the parliamentary elections; ensuring that women play more visible official roles as well as increasing women’s representation on committees and in other official party structures. Finally, they must ensure speakers who address all political rallies and platforms include women.

The media remains the most visible platform for highlighting political issues. And I want to urge the Ghanaian media to continue to highlight and make women more visible in this year’s elections. Photos from the grassroots should not only show women laying their cloths down for the men to walk over. Their struggles, their views and efforts must be highlighted.

Imperatively, advocates of gender equality in Ghana will need to be aggressive, strategic and unequivocal in their demands on government and the political parties to do the right thing, while at the same time providing the necessary moral, technical and resource support for women candidates. The movement must strategically sustain the momentum generated from the election processes to ensure that the pressure is brought to bear on post-election appointments. Being mindful of the practical realities that the change we seek will not happen in one election, but will require long term commitment and struggle, we should continue to call upon all Ghanaians of good will to voice and provide their strongest support for women candidates.

We can start with some of these simple steps above. For example, while we could argue that it will be laborious to legislatively award quotas for equal representation, nothing can prevent the President from ensuring gender balance in his appointments. And some unacceptable acts like the President handpicking 103 men against a woeful 6 women as DCE revealed in the 2003 survey should not be tolerated by anyone. Let’s start from doing the simple things and we will get there.

In conclusion, I want to state that we as a people cannot claim to be committed to the principles and ideals of democracy and the universal values of equality, but deny any groups equal opportunities for involvement. The continuous limited participation of women in our political process is detrimental to the progress of Ghana. For some, it may be too difficult an issue to tackle, yet difficulties must be overcome and not swept under the carpet. There is no question that the full and active participation of women in leadership is a pre-requisite for positive change and development in Ghana and in Africa.

*Mawuli Dake is an African human rights and social justice advocate, strategist and consultant. He currently serves as a Campaign Strategist for a US presidential candidate.

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