Justice Maitum, Namagunga Old Girls and 2016 International Women's Day

By Sam Akaki 

Another International Women's Day is here, with another lofty theme - "Step It Up for Gender Equality". But which of these past 12 themes, if any, has made an iota of improvement in the life of [that] ordinary woman in your family, village or county?

2015, "Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity"; 2014, "Equality for women is progress for all"; 2013, "Time for action to end violence against women"; 2012, "Empower Rural Women - End Hunger and Poverty"; 2011, "Equal access to education, training and science and technology"; 2010, "Equal rights, equal opportunities".

2009, "Women and men united to end violence against women and girls"; 2008, "Investing in Women and Girls"; 2007, "Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls", 2006, "Women in decision-making"; 2005, "Gender Equality Beyond 2005"; 2004, "Women and HIV/AIDS".

In our Maruzi county, as in all Ugandan counties, the vast majority of women would regard those themes as a catalogue of cruel jokes. They have never had the right to own land or to decide if, when and how many children they should have. As a result, a vicious cycle of hunger, poverty, physical and sexual violence and HIV/AIDS are the trademark of their miserable existence.

Against this grim background, this, like all past International Women's Day celebration has nothing to do with our starving rural women dragging their skeletal frames looking for some leaves for their children to eat. It is a leisure parade for the well-heeled, well-fed urban women keen to show off their fancy dresses and make self-serving speeches.

That is why we are dedicating this International Women's Day to retired High Court Judge, Justice Mary Maitum, other Namagunga Old Girls and St Mary's Namagunga for their exceptional role in empowering rural women. Let us elaborate.

It was not the International Women's Day, first launched in 1975, which started women's empowerment. But it was St Mary's Namagunga, which had spurred the efforts to emancipate Ugandan women through education almost half a century earlier.

It is noteworthy that St Mary's Namagunga's agenda for empowering women has been anchored on three concrete pillars: academic education, physical education and crucially, spiritual education.

It is this three-dimensional education system, which has enabled the school to produce more world-class professionals than any other Girls' Secondary school. Its alumni include university professors, engineers, lawyers and medical doctors, one of them Specioza Wandira Kazibwe became vice-president.

At a personal level, to appreciate why most these women are a paragon of virtue, you have to be lucky enough to have a grandmother, mother, auntie, sister, sister in-law, platonic friend, girl friend, or a wife, who was educated at St Mary's Namagunga.

We were lucky to meet and know Justice Maitum in Nairobi in 1975. Even as twenty-something and reckless civil Aviation cadet officers, we found Mary Maitum's non-judgemental and non-discriminatory qualities instantly sobering. For example, she regularly invited us to her house to join highly placed Ugandan and Kenyan professionals.

Whatever the occasion, she effortlessly played the role of a certified hostess, chef and entertainer rolled together. It was during one such occasion when she introduced us to the unforgettable classic film, ‘The Forsyth Saga'.

Thanks to her Namagunga-born commitment to peace, Justice Maitum turned her homes in Nairobi, Kampala and Akokoro  into ‘Demilitarised Zones' where the feuding Oyima clansmen could meet and relax, forgetting their political differences for once. She has always treated this correspondent and others with her three inimitable principles: "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil." 

Confirming peace credentials, recently, Justice Maitum spoke at a pre-general election ‘Uganda Women's Situation Room' and called for peace, arguing, rightly that "violence in this country does not help anybody, retards developments, causes a lot of enmity".

But St Mary's Namagunga's excellent education system has had some terrible unintended consequences for some of the Old Girls. Having been prepared to live in a world governed by the Ten Commandments, these innocent Old Girls came into the real world and found devils incarnated.

Some married savages who beat their wives shapeless. Others married bed-hoppers, who infected and killed or left them permanently maimed by HIV/AIDS. And still others were used for "sampling" and left on the shelves.

However, not all St Namagunga Old Girls are a paragon of virtue. After all, the school recruits a microcosm of Ugandan society, which includes unreformable social outlaws. Such outlaws have not respected moral boundaries, even for their fellow Namagunga Old Girls.  They have intentionally broken planned weddings, and destroyed or nearly destroyed marriages, leaving the unfortunate women heart-broken.

Yet, this International Women's Day is meaningless unless we acknowledge the profound debt that we owe to the vast majority Namagunga Old Girls for their outstanding contributions to women's empowerment; and put the poverty-trapped rural women at the front of our minds.

For all Old Namagunga Girls, we pray, may God bless you? And to Justice Maitum and Mr Maitum, "if we do meet again, we shall smile. If not, then this parting was well made. Therefore, forever and forever, farewell", (William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar).

Writer is a former FDC international envoy to the UK and European Union, also former independent Parliamentary Candidate in the UK, now executive director — Africa-European relations.