According to a symposium report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Liberian women have identified the enhancement of national security as a key area of focus in the reconstruction of Liberia alongside the revitalization of the economy, strengthening governance and the rule of law, and the rehabilitation of the infrastructure.

The Bishop of Central Tanganyika, the Rt Revd Godfrey Mdimi Mhogolo, has said that the issue of homosexuality was not fundamental to the Christian faith. “We share the sufferings and hurts of the people we serve...We also work for the hope of glory in trying to transform the lives of our people, regardless of their colour, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and social status”, he added.

Rising levels of rape and sexual exploitation of women and teenage girls in Liberia have sparked concern by both the government and women's rights groups. Despite a peace agreement in 2003, these types of violent abuse were still common, according to Lois Bruthus, head of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL), a leading advocacy group.

Considering all of Nigeria’s problems it is unfortunate that the National Assembly has the audacity to welcome the homophobic bill presented to it by the Presidency to punish lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites (LGBTs) . But it is a shame that the National Assembly went along to give a precious time to giving consideration to this obnoxious Bill despite the fact that there are many other issues that demand urgent national attention.

Part of the expectation of the Bill is to punish severely whoever is canvassing for same sex marriage, promoting it, sponsoring it or taking part in the marriage either in Nigeria or abroad and to punish severely LGBTs who exhibit their sexuality with punishment of up to five years in the prison. I have no doubt that issues surrounding sexual affairs should be left for individuals and theologians to decide upon with the state setting only the guidelines on how it should be conducted.

For instance, though I have got the right to marry any girl of my choice, the state in as much as they are morally obligated to respect this my choice, should be able to provide me with a guideline on how this should be done to avoid infringing on the fundamental human right of the girl I so much desire to marry. In this case the state is expected to come up with regulations on how this should be conducted. For instance the state in a bid to safeguard the right of the girl child to teenager is morally justified to come up with a law that would prevent me from marrying that girl if she is below 18 years and should also punish me if I contravene this law.

In the same vein two same sex adults who agreed to have sex, should not be punished for their choice but should be protected by the state since the main locus of the sex is a prior agreement and consent between two of them. The state can only punish this form of relationship in the event of rape or when one has a carnal knowledge of his same sexual partner who is below the age of consent for sex in the state or having carnal knowledge of someone without their consent.

A nation like Nigeria is made up of various interest groups ranging from religious, commercial, ethnic, sexual and many other groups and therefore the state is under obligation to protect all these interests and especially to ensure that the minorities are not unduly victimised. The state should also protect the interest of religions but should not allow religious groups to impose their beliefs upon those who agreed not to believe in anything or do not share their beliefs. The state should also go a step further to uphold that right if I choose to be an atheist. Religion and religious matters should be made to be a very private and personal issue and the state should be ready to protect me from whoever wants to infringe on this my fundamental human right.

The argument the National Assembly advanced forward in going forward with the Bill is that being a LGBT is not part of Nigerian culture. These we have heard over and over again but how does one explain that even though this is not part of Nigeria culture, we still have gays, bisexuals and lesbians in different parts of the country and in every aspect of its life including the Executive, Legislative and Judicial arms of the Government, churches and in a nutshell everywhere. What then could be referred to as Nigerian culture? Maybe corruption is?

In the middle of the 1980’s when the first case of HIV and AIDS was reported in Nigeria, the first reaction of the then Government and of course the nation was to completely deny its existence claiming that it was a Whiteman’s disease. Before we could know it, the so- called Whiteman’s disease had affected about 3.5 million Nigerians and continues to wreak havoc on our young population. But the most agonising part of the whole drama is that despite huge human resources we have both here and abroad, no single person has had the audacity to sue the Federal Government for the initial denial that led to this present day AIDS and HIV epidemic in the nation. It is also a shame that this single episode has not taught Nigerians a good lesson. Bearing then in mind the bitter lesson we are learning from our initial responses to the HIV and AIDS epidemic, it is a shame that no single Nigerian has mustered the courage to challenge both the Presidency and the National Assembly on the effect their homophobic stand would have on the future of the nation, especially as it relates to the war against HIV and AIDS.

The impact of this proposed legislation on the LGBTI community is that many LGBTs would have their fundamental human rights trampled upon simply because they are gays, lesbians or bisexuals. Many of them could lose their lives in the future either by being attacked by homophobic people or by committing suicide since their lifestyle does not have any form of protection under the law. But the most agonising part is that the current fight against HIV and AIDS is likely to be a complete failure, if nothing is done to accommodate gays, lesbians and bisexuals under the law. Let me illustrate this in a very simple term, a bisexual who indulges in sexual intercourse with both men and women is likely to end up transferring the virus from his male partner to unsuspecting female partner.

Research conducted in countries with a very strong homophobic attitude, noted that it is only a microcosm of gays, lesbians and bisexuals that are ever identified or known due to their strong tendency to deny their sexuality throughout their entire life for fear of public opprobrium towards them. In addition, due to high levels of illiteracy and ignorance in homophobic and third world countries, many gays, lesbians and bisexuals have a strong culture of unprotected sex amongst themselves. This is partly because they believe that same sex love can never transmit Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The implication of this is that so far they are forced to live in the closet putting themselves and others at risk.

There is no point in denying the reality that the nation is not yet ready for same sex marriage or civil partnership but to completely deny the existence of gay life and culture in Nigeria or use stringent measures and laws against them would never help the situation but would only go a long way to aggravate the already bad situation. By the way how are we convinced that putting them in prison for five years would return them non gays or lesbians at the end of their incarceration? On the contrary the Government should at least be working towards creating a conducive environment for LGBTs by providing them with legal protection under the law.

It is the function of the Government to break down all the walls of barriers and discrimination that still exist in the nation by emphasising what people can contribute towards the nation building rather than who they are. And for Nigerians who do not see anything wrong in discriminating against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transvestites, they should also not be offended or shocked when they are denied employment based on their ethnic group, religion or any other stereotype.

A number of Nigeria’s religious leaders headed by the Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Rev. Peter Jasper Akinola, have continued to inculcate the minds of their congregations with a fascist victimisation, annihilation and hatred against LGBTs. Akinola by spearheading this has positioned himself as the most holy one but he forgets one thing, that his life style may not be compatible with his office. The question we must ask ourselves here is how is Akinola and his cohorts living up to the expectation of their model, Jesus Christ.

The essence of this article is therefore never to cast aspersions on religion or anybody representing it but to point out that things are not going the way they should go. And for those who are going to crucify me for the stand I have taken, I have just one message for them. I do not care for I am a staunch believer in that yet to come Nigeria and world where and when individuals should no more be classified based on their colour, race, ethnic group, religion, creed, belief or sexual orientation but on what they can contribute to the development of the nation and the entire human race.

And the quickest way to break all these artificial boundaries and barriers is by creating a Commission that should be charged with the power to severely punish any individual, group or establishment engaged in promoting any form of discrimination. This Commission could be called Commission For Equality or Equal Opportunity Commission or whatever name we chose at the end of the day. It should have a tribunal status with the responsibility of trying and bringing to justice those promoting these discriminations and hatred.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Farah’s second trilogy, Blood in the Sun, is made up of three works (two of which I know to be excellent) Maps, Secrets and Gifts. Obviously, this is an author interested in concepts. Generally, his works are amazingly lyrical, incorporating such unconventional elements as the use of first, second and third person narrative voices for the same character in the same novel, and the vivid and yet vague recounting of dreams whose meanings are not easy to decipher. The supernatural plays a significant role, but instead of overwhelming us, it draws us deeper into the narrative. I can imagine that many a reader has been found absorbed in this book with furrowed brow, engaging with the musical quality of the language, at the same time trying to find meaning within the text.

Maps tells the story of a Somali orphan raised by an Ethiopian maid in the highly contested Ogaden region in the Horn of Africa. The question of the map is an intriguing one and important to us all, especially to those of us who have to deal with issues of representation in heterogenous places that need to be made homogenous because of the political structures it is assumed we must strive towards. For democracy sake, different groups of people enclosed within such arbitrarily drawn boundaries as our colonial masters left us with, must find enough commonality to regard themselves as a nation, or at least as a state. But what is most fascinating to me is the recurrent imagery of blood in this text. The macrolevel concept of national identity, especially relevant to the Ogaden whose national identity has alternated between Ethiopian and Somali, is played out in the familial arena. And so blood becomes important. Blood shed is crucial. Bloodlines even more so. And then there Misra, the protagonist’s foster mother, who reads his future in blood…and I am still deciding where to go with that.

Gifts is equally fascinating, if not more so for those who want to extrapolate Farah’s Somali context to cover Africa as a whole. Gifts presents even stronger characters (if this is possible), and I say this because they are characters who remain with me even after I have put the book down, even after I have read other works including Farah’s Links. This narrative is a love story that is completely not sappy. It is a love story in which the act of giving and consequently of receiving are very controversial. Duniya is leery of gifts offered by anyone because she recognizes the power dynamics at play. And yet in her love affair with Bosaaso, one must compromise, because the game of courtship cannot be divorced from the act of giving. It is highly ironic that the power dynamics of benevolence are played out in the arena of courtship, because this novel is really about the “courtship” of Africa by the West and the so-called Asian giants. And so weaving the story around Duniya’s dysfunctional family which includes her children from two previous marriages and an abandoned foundling which her daughter brings home, we see the shamed face of Africa lurking in the wings, arms outstretched, cupped beneath those of our benefactors, our “development aid” givers. They give and we receive, and our “love” affair begins. Issues of dependence, of misuse of “aid” to prop up corrupt, unpopular governments, arise in the setting of a war-ravaged Somalia, a raped continent.

I’m yet to read the final book in the trilogy, but be assured that I will track it down and I will add it to the millions of books and characters and authors, their creators, swimming around in my head. But let me say that one cannot write about Farah without acknowledging his unique take on women, especially as a male, African author. He has apparently received mail addressed to Ms. Farah, Mrs. Farah etc. for who would think that a man would have such a unique understanding of women, of their power, of the hypocritical social tenets that condemn trivialities and gloss over crucial questions of the woman’s place in Somalia, in Africa, in the world!

* Annie Quarcoopome is a student of Comparative Literature at Williams College in the US. She is also a contributor to Black Looks Blog.

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

The Gender and Trade Network in Africa (GENTA) write an open letter to President Mbeki of South Africa criticising his failure to address gender issues in his economic development and poverty alleviation policies.

Dear Mr. President,

We as African women awaited your speech with interest and with open minds. We hoped that you would speak to our aspirations and make significant pronouncements on interventions intended to advance our citizenship as South African women during the mid term of this government. When you spoke of the ‘stench of living’ we could relate because many of us live with this stench. What sounded like a robust recommitment to tangible poverty eradication was weighed down by the market driven imperatives obscured by a pretty but ultimately empty rhetoric. An excellent opportunity to leave an outstanding legacy to the women and men of this country has been lost.

There is no doubt that the economy is growing. There is also no doubt that South Africa is an environment attractive to investors. However this growth is not translating into improved lives for the majority of people in this country especially women who are largely the least skilled, the lowest paid and the ones whose labour is the easiest to barter to foreign investors. It is extremely worrying that in the same breath President you speak of eradicating poverty and then suggest that a more flexible investment environment is needed to make doing business easier. In real terms this means consigning women to poorly paid, often risky employment conditions, with no union protection to produce profits that will be repatriated overseas. Your constant use of the “two economies” partition reflects the need by the state to accommodate both the demands of business for a non-interventionist state with the explicit requirement for state led intervention to tackle the burgeoning needs of the economically excluded.

Women are explicitly mentioned only once during the State of the Nation Address and that is in the context of indigent women. In mentioning this particular group of women, you have not in any way suggested any mechanism of enabling them to participate significantly in the economy and make the quantum leap from the so-called second to the first economy. If government persists in its own propaganda, enabling this dualism will certainly cause deepening poverty and destitution as the ‘first’ economy continually ejects those superfluous to its requirements. Moreover objectifying our poverty serves no function other than to further dehumanise women.

Much has been said in this speech about strengthening SMEs. In so doing it is important to address the supply side constraints, the financial environment particularly to access to credit, small business mentoring, child care, skills development and the many other factors which inhibit women’s ability to fully benefit from the opportunities available. Fluctuations in capital flows and cyclical instability disadvantage women more than men. There is a strong case for re-regulation of capital of international capital flows, especially portfolio flows. This is because they are 'gendered' institutions and structures. That is, they are institutions created, dominated and controlled by men. Institutions like DTI are therefore being shaped by a particular gender and class of people. They are expressions and vehicles of the preferred vision aspirations and assumptions of this particular group in South Africa. This occasion would be an opportunity to articulate the aspirations of citizens across gender, income and class lines.

The speech thus ignores the question of gender issues in economic development. It is not simply one of economic or social problems. It involves social relations of gender and the problems of deconstructing the ideology of gender relations, which includes a redistribution of power. Access to basic services are lauded as meeting Millennium Development Goals. The President states that access to water follows a rights approach in this country. Mr. Mbeki you fail to mention that millions of the most vulnerable people in this country –most of whom are women - still have to contend with water and electricity cut-offs, many of which are not legal. The rights based paradigm would not force the most economically vulnerable to pay for services that they cannot afford. The rights based paradigm would ensure that water, sanitation and electricity were readily available by subsidising the most impoverished households and charging the ‘haves’ greater amounts. This is the difference between poverty alleviation and poverty eradication. Poverty eradication requires a radical and consistent re-alignment and redistribution of resources across sectors and a complete shift in thinking. If we are to see the evidence of Ubuntu, this requires considering and rescinding the negative consequences of state policy on the most vulnerable particularly women. It is not comfortable and it requires more profound and accelerated impetus than government has hitherto shown. Is this a shift that you and the government are willing to make?

The speech speaks vociferously about increasing the personnel numbers and capacity in the criminal justice machinery, mentions violent crime in passing and highlights poaching, cash in transit heists and animal trafficking. More puzzling is the omission of rape and gender based violence. Given the ongoing reports of these crimes, this is reprehensible. In a country with the highest incidence of rape in the world it is a shameful lapse. We recognise the sterling efforts of many police, judges, prosecutors, district surgeons and other public servants. However no mention is made of the collusion of some criminal justice personnel in allowing certain dockets to go ‘missing', the trauma that many women and children face when they give evidence, the non-responsiveness and insensitivity of police in dealing with domestic violence. Equally worrying is that the speech mentions nothing abut the trafficking of women and children in and out of South Africa yet this is a global crisis. Considering all this, should we conclude that poaching is a higher priority than rape or human trafficking or domestic violence?

Social welfarism is a laudable component of State policy, particularly when there are such deep schisms and social inequalities. However it is disingenuous to present a speech full of promises as though the status quo is a result of forces other than Government policy of the last 13 years. GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution economic strategy) and now ASGISA (Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa) are objects of contestation not only because their origins are not clear but because they do not offer a clear social contract with the nation. Despite the fact that the GEAR failed to meet its targets on most of its goals, including increased levels of local and foreign investment and employment creation, government for its part continues to hail the success of GEAR based on the attainment of two narrow indicators which are the reduction of the budget deficit, and the reduction in inflation. ASGISA has so far failed to address these contradictions and has so far kept women invisible from the policy constructs and processes. Moreover you have not told the nation that many of the 500,000 new jobs that have been created are short term or temporary and that these figures include self employed people in the informal sector. And most critically for African women, you have not told us how many of these jobs are for women who comprise the biggest group of unemployed people.

In defining a common national identity it is critical to be cognisant of the totality of the nation. The character of the Nation State, Mr. President, is linked to the manner in which the state relates to all in those within Her borders. It is connected to the nationhood that enables, that protects and that nurtures. As citizens we must challenge the role of the state as protector, provider, enabler and defender especially when this role is all but vacated. We must as women interrogate the nationhood that ignores us or replicates all that is reactionary, patriarchal, gender blind and hostile to our development in the name of ‘growth’ , of ‘investment’ or hidden under a gender desk. The greatest irony is that the resumption of the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations reduces the role and notion of the State to a moot point and rescinds any progressive domestic policy cutting across access to and provision of services, agriculture, investment policy, intellectual property rights and non agricultural market access.

This multilateralism promotes a supra state accountable to none and yet keeping all in its grip. Added to this is the threat of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which many of our neighbours are being bludgeoned into by the European Union with indecent haste and almost sinister opaqueness. There are inevitable consequences on South Africa through dumping and trade diversion. In all this, Mr. President, we urge you to remember that in order to remove ‘the stench of living ’ nationhood must restore our dignity, must enforce an authentic pro Africa agenda, must promote intra Africa trade which does not replicate colonial relationships. Nationhood in this era requires courageous leadership, Mr. President, which enables social cohesion without threats to dissenters, which makes us all feel safe physically, economically, socially and financially without selling our interests to foreign capital and which can relate to the mighty women in this country as more than vote fodder.

* For more information contact GENTA on: Liepollo Lebohang Pheko [084
881 9327] or Mohau Nthisana Pheko [082 670 2505]

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Solidarity for African Women’s Right (SOAWR) Public forum in collaboration with the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) was held on 25 January 2007 in Conference Room 4 of the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It had the following objectives: 1) To popularise the protocol on the rights of women in Africa 2) Discuss some of the provisions of the protocol in the context of Ethiopia 3)To provide space for interaction with the participants to contribute ideas and actionable recommendations towards the struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa and Ethiopia in particular 4) Launch “Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa". Representatives of UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, members of the public and the press attended the forum. The full report is available here.

South African men are becoming more willing to take action against the growing problem of domestic and sexual violence against women, a recent study has found. A survey of 945 men in the greater Johannesburg area at the end of 2006 by Sonke Gender Justice (SGJ), an HIV/AIDS, gender and human rights nongovernmental organisation, found that 50.1 percent of respondents felt they should be doing more to end gender-based violence.

This paper summarises the outcomes of a workshop to discuss gender and climate change-related research, and its role and use in women's and gender-related advocacy in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.

The AU Protocol on women's rights has breathed new life into the feminist movement in Africa and centralised the issue of women’s rights on the continent. But Janah Ncube says African women cannot afford to be complacent if implementation of the protocol is to be achieved in the near future.

The protocol is a vehicle/mechanism that is now creating the appropriate legal environment to enable equity and equality to be realised for the African woman. It is the evidence of our winning the fight for women’s rights in Africa and it shows that it is only a matter of time before we completely win the fight. The Niger set back was overt evidence and testimony to the progressiveness of the protocol as an offensive assault against patriarchy. The fact that they considered and debated the protocol and realised that if they ratify it they would lose patriarchal privileges and desecrate patriarchal structures is affirmation that the women’s movement has developed as a tool, an instrument designed to challenge and pull down the strongholds of patriarchy. What we need to work on now is ensuring that the Protocol is implemented. So we must mobilise our governments, institutions and peoples to ensure that they are implementing it and making demands on the protocol.

Indeed we saw the protocol breathing life back into the African Feminist movement as many began to coalesce around its drafting, its adoption, its ratification. It again triggered conversations on sensitive and taboo issues which for this continent where difficult to converse about. It revitalised the long forgotten issues of women’s basic human rights which have been for a long time not realised and had been left to the dustbin of history. Most importantly, it put women’s human rights back into the centre of the continent’s agenda.

Cynics and critics will argue that the protocol is only a legal instrument but is in its-self not tangible rights. Indeed many countries have laws and policies that grant women’s rights but have not appropriated those rights. Do legal instruments deliver equity or equality? My response to that is that they do set a basis and a standard and their existence is an admittance that there has been a wrong which through the instrument is being made right. And wherever there is rule of law and a just legal system then any woman whose rights are denied and/or violated can make claim and get those rights.

We have to be realistic about the challenges that will face the implementation of the protocol. Challenges of structure, adequate resources to ensure delivery and most importantly political will to see this protocol benefiting African women. We must not be satisfied by the existence of the protocol, we must refuse to be comforted by its ratification. Instead we must be stubborn, have tenacity, be bold, be courageous and keep on with the agenda. The agenda was not the protocol, the agenda is African women enjoying their human rights. The protocol is one of the vehicles that can deliver that.

Until there is not one girl child afraid of her father molesting her, until there is not one woman afraid of her husband’s kicks we can not say we have won the fight. Until our decision makers in all sectors, spheres, levels are gender sensitive and have equal representation of women and men then we can not rest. It may not be a fast process but we can ensure that it is a sure process that will deliver African women not just their rights but their dignity.

Three things we must do; mobilise the African woman; let her be aware of the protocol as an instrument to engage her communities about her rights and let her make demands based on the protocol. We must target the rural woman who is in the majority and also target the urban woman who many times is ignorant of these civic issues. We must build a strong feminist movement across the continent; it has delivered the protocol and without it the protocol will lose its momentum and force.

The women’s movement must confront and engage with the broader politics; time to talk to women alone is over, its preaching to the choir, we must start to ‘evangelise’ preach to those who do not know/understand the issues we articulate about women’s human rights. This of course means confronting one’s own personal beliefs, things at home, in our work places, the institutions we engage with in our daily lives and indeed our governments. These things are very political and so we must be political actors. Our political legitimacy and clout increases when we engage with politics in all issues that affect our lives and communities and not only the ones that concern women’s issues.

* Janah Ncube is Gender Thematic Manager at The Agency for Co-operation & Research in Development. Ms Ncube is also a contributing author to “Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The Struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa” published by Fahamu – Networks for Social Justice. Copies of the book can be purchased through the Fahamu.org website.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Journalists interested in human rights can apply to attend a course on gender equality in September in South Africa. Organized by the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, the course will cover the latest gender developments and their implications for African women. Application deadline is August 3.

African LGBTI Human Rights Defenders Warn Public against Participation in Campaigns Concerning LGBTI Issues in Africa Led by Peter Tatchell and Outrage! In order to prevent Peter Tatchell and Outrage! from causing further damage through their unfounded campaigns and press releases, we issue this public statement of warning.

Women should desist from pulling each other down and strive for unity to enable them to work together and attain development in various economic spheres, the Minister of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Oppah Muchinguri, has said.

This review concerns the extent to which gender is integrated into the work of twenty freedom of expression and media development organisations supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). One of the major findings of the review reveals that virtually all organisations reviewed cited gender as an important consideration in media for development and freedom of expression work.

In developing country universities women staff are under-represented in senior teaching and management positions. Enrolment of female undergraduates is increasing but far too few are studying science and technology subjects. Research and action are needed to identify the factors that slow or promote gender equity and identify examples of replicable good practice.

Thanks to an ambitious organising campaign by women throughout the country, women’s participation is on the increase in unions. This is the first report on a very promising campaign.

Though women are the largest group of entrepreneurs in South Africa, black women still face unequal access to finance. This fact sheet describes some of the barriers they face and identifies actions required by government and financial institutions to ensure that women can access credit and business development services.

Gender Links, the lead agency for the policy arm of the Media Action Plan on HIV/AIDS and Gender coordinated by the Southern African Editor's Forum (SAEF), seeks a dynamic individual to fill the post of HIV/AIDS, Gender and the Media Manager as soon as possible.

In line with the UNDP Corporate Gender Action Plan and to promote the achievement of MDGs, UNDP/Angola is making efforts to ensure gender is integrated at all levels of its operations and programme. The Country Office has just adopted a new strategy for programme and operations, which emphasizes the need to incorporate gender and capacity development in all its programmes, as drivers for development.

The Women's Leadership Scholarship Programme (formerly the Native Leadership Scholarship) is accepting applications from women grassroots leaders, organisers and activists from the global south and/or from indigenous groups, who wish to pursue non-doctoral graduate studies in human rights, sustainable development, and public health at accredited institutions worldwide.