Two centuries later women still fighting for their rights
The women movement in Uganda is a struggle that started from the time of colonialism to the post-independence period.
By Brian Mayanja
The women movement in Uganda is a struggle that started from the time of colonialism to the post-independence period. As the country was agitating for independence in the 1950s, the women activists were also demanding for equal rights. In the past, it was only men or boys who where in public offices and in important decision making positions. It is inconsequential to talk about the women movement, when one ignores the role of the first prominent women activists, who spearheaded this cause of liberating a rural woman.
They included Rhoda Kalema, Pumla Kisosonkole, Eseza Makumbi and Rebecca Mulira. This group helped to advocate for girls’ education, women’s involvement in business and owning family property like land. To show their commitment for their struggle, the women involved sent a memorandum to the Kabaka’s Lukiiko, attacking the inheritance laws. In his book, Women& Politics in Uganda, Aili Maria Tripp explains that in 1956, Kalema and her group formed Namirembe Young Wives Association within the mothers’ union, to reform the family law.
According to Tripp, the group was formed, after a young Muganda widow woman reported to them that she had been left helpless, together with her young children. She was deprived of her land, property and cows.
Kalema’s group was concerned about the widow, which prompted them to study the marriage law and take action on how to help the widow. Basing on this case, Kalema’s group realised that many women were going through the same problems and they needed assistance.
In 1964, two years after independence, another group was formed to challenge Uganda People’s Congress and Democratic Party, accusing the two political parties for not being committed to promote women leaders. This resulted into setting up of the Kalema Commission in the same year to investigate the status of women.
Is the movement still relevant?
When the NRM Government took power in 1986, women emancipation was top on its agenda. So many women joined politics especially at local level and others joined Parliament. Among them were Miria Matembe, Winnie Byayima, director Oxfam International, Janat Mukwaya, a former minister, Gertrude Njuba, a presidential advisor, Specioza, a former Vice President and many others.
Matembe says the struggle for women liberation was there before independence, although the political environment was not conducive. “When the NRM Government took power, many women civil societies were born, championing women’s rights,” she adds.
In the making of 1995 Constitution, Matembe says the gender sensitive issues were catered for and discussed extensively. “Because of the enthusiasm of the CA delegates women’s rights, were enshrined in the Constitution,” she explains.
Matembe, however, says the NRM Government failed to implement some of the women’s programmes. She also says women have not achieved in the affirmative action, arguing that men front it to exploit women in politics. “Some of us who are bold enough were thrown out of Parliament because we could not accept to be used.
They brought weak ones who are ready to support anything,” she says. But Angella Kigonya, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) disagrees with Matembe saying the affirmative action has helped many women to compete with men in all sectors.
She says empowering women should not be looked at only at the politics level, but also in business and education. “We have very many powerful women importing goods from China and other countries. They own buildings in this city. Being economically self-reliant is part of affirmaaffirmative action, which I think we have achieved,” Kigonya says.
The role of men in the women’s achievement
According to Matembe, the gender equality is a struggle for men and women. She says once a woman is empowered, it is a family to benefit. “The women movement is a struggle for partnership. Men must be involved in this struggle.
When I was in Parliament, we worked with men to fight bad laws,” she says. But these days Matembe says, men are not playing the great role as far as addressing gender issues are concerned.“I think majority joined politics to get employed. We are losing them in this struggle,” she says. Kigonya disagrees with Matembe saying even women lack the ambition to serve in various positions, arguing that they want to contest for the same seat more than one term.
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Monica Amoding listens to Rhoda Kalema at a workshop
“Women positions in politics are meant to moral boost others. But you find female MPs serving the same constituency for over 20 years, why they leave those seats for a female university graduate,” Kigonya argues. Today as the World is celebrating Women’s day, Ugandan women are still facing a wide range of challenges, including discrimination at work, low social status, lack of economic muscle, and greater risk of HIV/AIDS infection. Many girls and young women still sell themselves in sex trade sex for economic survival
Rural women left behind
Jane Nakalembe, 60, lived happily with her husband Musitafa Matovu in Mukono for decades. The couple practiced farming to put food on the table for over a dozen children. Before Nakalembe got married to Matovu, the later had already fathered children with other women. But Nakalembe never mistreated her step children, like many step mothers do. She woke up every morning in the cold and dashed to till the land. She also walked a long distance to fetch water from the well when her children were at school.
Matovu’s children did not go beyond primary school because he was unable to raise fees and yet Universal Secondary Education (USE) had not yet been introduced. Since Nakalembe’s family was big, sometimes she struggled to find food. She would go with her children to attend village weddings and last funeral rites where they devoured good food. Nakalembe became very popular at village functions that whenever she missed out, her absence was noticed by almost everyone.
On clocking 18-years of age, Matovu’s sons left the village and migrated to the city to find better opportunities while many of the girls got married before becoming adults. But the boys who left the village never looked back on reaching town. Even when life was hard and turned them into paupers, they saw no reason to return home. Recently, Matovu fell sick and died.
That is when many of them first made a return to the village to attend his burial But as soon as the last nail was hammered into Matovu’s casket, a war over his property ensued. Sharing of property in Buganda is usually done at the last funeral rites, but Matovu’s children were impatient.
After taking their share of Matovu’s property, they turned the heat to their stepmother, Nakalembe and stopped her from cultivating anywhere on their land. They also asked her to vacate their late father’s house and find another man to marry or return to her parents’ home. Nakalembe being broke and illiterate suffered silently running to no one for help. She even feared to go to the area LC for help.
Soon, Nakalembe ran out of food and resorted to begging from her neighbours. Her step children continued harassing her until when she succumbed to the pressure and fled from her late husband’s home. Nakalembe’s mother is an elderly widow, living in Nakisunga, Mukono and struggles to find food, some days going without a meal.
Nakalembe has become an extra-baggage for her mother, but just like many other mothers, she is not about to send her daughter away.Away from Nakalembe, another woman was camping at City Hall, asking city authorities to arrest her husband who had chased her away from home.
The unidentified woman claimed she returned home late from a SACCO meeting and her husband turned her away accusing her of having been with her lovers. Compared to Nakalembe, this woman knew where to run for help. But still the two still lag behind. But women in urban centers are more liberated. Recently, a group of women in Kampala took to the streets protesting against men who were undressing women in minskirts.
The women Parliamentarians also joined them to condemn the habit of undressing women. None of the rural woman joined. Today, women in Uganda have joined the rest of the world to celebrate the International Women’s Day in commemoration of the achievements registered in the recent decades by women. In Uganda, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government says it liberated women from the kitchen where they had been left by the previous regimes.
True, there are prominent women occupying big offices, including that of the Speaker of Parliament. There are also female ministers, chief executive officers, like Jenifer Musisi, female judges and academicians. But there is also strong evidence that most of the liberated women are concentrated in urban centers, leaving liberation thin on ground for the rural woman.
Government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo says nearly all women have been empowered in participatory democracy and that rural women are not exceptional. “Rural women are the majority in SACCOS and make over 80% of the vendors working in rural markets,” Ofwono said. He added that the habit of women battering has also significantly gone down because husbands cannot now not beat their wives and walk away with it.
Former Kampala Mayor Sarah Muwonge Nkonge blames the existing gap between the rural and urban woman on unemployment and poverty in the rural areas. “Many rural women have nothing to do for a living hence remaining behind,” she said.
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The plight of the rural woman is still real, despite the woman
emancipation drive
Nkonge noted that it’s also hard for the few liberated woman to pull their colleagues. “The backlog of women to pull in rural area is too big for prominent women,” she noted.
Nkonge further blamed men for keeping rural women in the sorry state. She noted that under normal circumstances, men would be pulling their wives but that many are not. “Men are poor and leave the responsibility of looking after the families to women.
Some men even grab the little their wives have saved and take for Waragi, leaving them poorer and hopeless,” she said. Nkonge said there is need to empower female youth to prepare them for big offices, although she noted ageing women were not retiring for youth to replace them.
Where should abused women go for help?
The war is not yet lost for people who perpetuate women’s rights. Police spokesperson Judith Nabakoba told Saturday Vision that women whose rights are violated by either their father or step children should report their cases to village councils.
Nabakoba added that such cases should be handled by the chairpersons of women affairs on village councils and the village chairpersons. But that in case of village councils failing to dispose of the cases, they should refer them to the police posts in their respective Sub Counties.
She added that Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs could also be consulted because they play the supportive role to victims of domestic violence. Nabakoba noted that every Sub County has got a CDO
Community library lifting women out of poverty, giving literacy skills
By George Bita
Excited villagers line up the murram path singing with joy as visitors converge at Nambi Community Resource Centre (NCRC). Some grab sweaters from children and head-scarves which they tie around their waists to dance to the rhythms.
The chanting reverberates across the Kagoma valley attracting the attention of the quiet neighbourhood. For the seven years, the communal facility has been in existence, the locals had not witnessed an event of this nature hence the excitement. When the 61 representatives of over 50 communally managed resource centres across the country finish their registration, they enjoy a lunch meal prepared by village women. The Uganda Community Libraries Association that brings together 55 communitybased libraries across Uganda has since its inauguration in 2007, held three annual conferences.
Hence it somehow explains the ecstatic response of members of NCRC in Jinja district who now have an opportunity to host the fourth annual conference at their rural location in Igombe village. This centre was opened by Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga on February 4, 2007.
According to Justin Kiyimba, the NCRC director, the Nambi Resource Women’s Group that benefits from the library mainly adult literacy classes and handicraft making skills chose to do the catering work for the conference. “This gesture helped the women to sharpen their catering skills as well as boost their group’s account with money which would have been spent on hotel-provided food,” he says. Prof. Kate Pary, the UgCLA board chairperson said that good record-keeping was instrumental in getting and keeping international donors affiliated to individual libraries.
“Do you have year planners or calenders, sign-in sheets and evaluation forms that are up to date?”
Pary asks saying that these are some of the key indicators of a well-run library. She observed that UgCLA serves as a mediating organisation that ensures that the international links are not misused for selfish goals. Pary urged librarians to make individual facilities more user-friendly with both the educated and non-educated benefitting. “I am impressed with NCRC where all the villagers find a sense of belonging. Those who cannot read get skills in handicrafts or even do catering and provide meals,” Pary said.
She advised the members to write books in their local languages that may help attract those who cannot use English as a mode of communication. Victoria Ssekitoleko, former agriculture minister praised the librarians for struggling to enforce a reading culture nationwide.
“It is impressive that you are not limiting yourselves to archaic book reading practices but also using ICT and e-learning to enforce knowledge gathering,” Ssekitoleko said. As the visitors left for home, their socioeconomic impact on the small village of Igombe and NCRC in particular remained evident and may persist for years to come
