Fort Portal city women leaders, the business community as well as dwellers have conducted Ekyooto dialogue session with men.

The ekyooto session which was held at Boma Grounds on Thursday, was part of the buildup activities for the city's belated Women’s Day celebrations for Friday, April 5, 2024.

Ekyooto is a Runyoro-Rutooro word that means a fireplace.

Ekyooto session is a norm that was widely practiced by forefathers at family and clan levels.

Back then, family heads or clan leaders would be the ones to chair the ekyooto session that would be characterised by traditional dances, storytelling, and quizzes alongside accompaniments of lots of eats and drinks.

It was around this fireplace that all family matters, issues and affairs of the day would be discussed.

Ekyooto, therefore, served as a command centre where instructions on how to behave were issued.

Some of the traditional performances during the Ekyooto dialogue session ahead of the belated Women's Day celebrations for Fort Portal

During the dialogue, both men and women exchanged ideas on how issues ranging from domestic violence, gender, unfair division of labour in homes and sexual harassment, among others at the family level.

Tracy Komuntale, a female councillor in Fort Portal, said the battering of women is on the rise.

“Women are still being battered by their husbands in homes and research shows that even in the well-to-do families, wives are being beaten by their husbands,” Komuntale said.

According to Komuntale, poverty is no longer an excuse for domestic violence in most homes.

Fort Portal deputy mayor Betty Mujungu blamed the increasing domestic violence on drug and substance abuse.

“It is very unfortunate that husbands return home when they are high on various drugs and substances. Such men even have no time to dialogue with their wives” deputy mayor Mujungu said.

Joseph Mugisa, one of the men who participated in the dialogue accused women of relegating their cardinal role to house helpers in homes.

“Women today have left the house helps to be in charge of family affairs, something which angers the husbands. At the end of the day, men see their wives as irrelevant in their homes,” Mugisa said.

Jafar Kagaba called for mutual respect between wives and husbands for harmony to prevail in homes.

“The practice of disrespecting husbands in homes is mostly common among women who are financially empowered and independent,” Kagaba said.

He explained that instead of complementing their husbands, a number of financially empowered women choose to do otherwise.

Men tipped

Rose Bakasara, a businesswoman and opinion leader in Fort Portal, advised men to always have enough time with family as a strategy towards addressing domestic violence.

Bakasara said while most wives may not communicate verbally while angered by their husbands, their (wives) actions usually breed violence in homes once not paid attention to.

“As a husband in a home, you should strive to understand and read the mood in which your wife is. Once you sense anything that is unusual, sit down with your wife and resolve it as fast as possible before it escalates,” Bakasara said.

Government programmes

Linda Irene Mugisa, the City Woman Member of Parliament, cautioned both couples against neglecting their duties in child upbringing.

“For a better home, society and nation at large there must be a shared responsibility in a home between both parents,” MP Linda said.

She noted that while women have over time been victims of domestic violence, a new trend shows that a section of husbands are currently being battered by their wives in their homes.

“Unfortunately, most of the men who are victims of domestic violence even fear to seek justice,” MP Linda said.

Using culture and tradition to address GBV

Alice Basemera from the Kogere Foundation Uganda said the revival of good cultural and traditional practices is the way to go in fighting against gender-based violence (GBV).

Baserera is optimistic that working together with the Toro Kingdom chiefs at clan and county levels the rising trend of GBV can be reversed.

“The good thing is that our society still values culture. All we need to do now is to empower the kingdom chiefs and clan leaders to be able to spearhead the revival of the good cultural practices in the fight against GBV,” Basemera said.

She added that the revival of ekyooto evening sessions at the family level is fundamental in the fight against domestic violence.

“To be able to live in peace and harmony, families must be able to once again congregate and plan together as a unit. The young generation still needs to be taught and advised on how to respect and value their culture,” Basemera said.

She has called for partnerships with the government to revive the useful cultural practices in society.