[QUOTE] To mark International Women’s Day last week, East African newspapers had stories about “women of steel,” “top most influential” women, “women achievers,” and other stories like that. I am drawn to an earlier period when the only things women could be was pioneers; and the first this or first that.
In parts of Uganda, for example, even as late as the early 1970s women were forbidden to eat chicken and eggs. So when we were kids we used to hear stories, told with horror, about the first woman to eat eggs.
To this day, in many parts of Africa, women are still not allowed to ride bicycles. It is considered an abomination and a subversion of female virtue.
Now, if in the 1950s and 60s you had a home where the girls ate eggs and also rode bicycles, only a mad young man would seek a wife from there.
One of Africa’s pioneer feminists and “communist” was Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, a fierce freedom fighter. Hers is a most fascinating story. She became bogeywoman of the political and cultural establishment. While she inspired many young women, she mortified others. It was the worst insult to some young girls to be told they were like, or would become like, Funmilayo. Funmilayo also became the first Nigerian woman to do the “unthinkable” – to drive a car and ride a bicycle. This was before the Second World War. She endured countless police beatings, and arrests.
Not surprisingly, from her heroic womb came forth one of the most rebellious, brave, exciting, and radical musicians and men to walk this fair Earth; Fela Ransome-Kuti.
Think for a moment of Uganda’s Sarah Nyendwoha Ntiro, who was the first woman in East and Central Africa to graduate from university. Women like Ntiro confronted very different prejudices than the ones they face today.
Today if a woman shows up with her degree to ask for work, the male manager does not ask her, “What do you want here?”
In 2006 Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became the first woman to be democratically elected president in Africa.
Just less than 10 years earlier there had not been a female who had run for president in Africa. In 1997, minister for Water Charity Ngilu became the first woman to run for president in a multiparty election in Kenya — and Africa as well.
In parts of Uganda, for example, even as late as the early 1970s women were forbidden to eat chicken and eggs. So when we were kids we used to hear stories, told with horror, about the first woman to eat eggs.
To this day, in many parts of Africa, women are still not allowed to ride bicycles. It is considered an abomination and a subversion of female virtue.
Now, if in the 1950s and 60s you had a home where the girls ate eggs and also rode bicycles, only a mad young man would seek a wife from there.
One of Africa’s pioneer feminists and “communist” was Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, a fierce freedom fighter. Hers is a most fascinating story. She became bogeywoman of the political and cultural establishment. While she inspired many young women, she mortified others. It was the worst insult to some young girls to be told they were like, or would become like, Funmilayo. Funmilayo also became the first Nigerian woman to do the “unthinkable” – to drive a car and ride a bicycle. This was before the Second World War. She endured countless police beatings, and arrests.
Not surprisingly, from her heroic womb came forth one of the most rebellious, brave, exciting, and radical musicians and men to walk this fair Earth; Fela Ransome-Kuti.
Think for a moment of Uganda’s Sarah Nyendwoha Ntiro, who was the first woman in East and Central Africa to graduate from university. Women like Ntiro confronted very different prejudices than the ones they face today.
Today if a woman shows up with her degree to ask for work, the male manager does not ask her, “What do you want here?”
In 2006 Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became the first woman to be democratically elected president in Africa.
Just less than 10 years earlier there had not been a female who had run for president in Africa. In 1997, minister for Water Charity Ngilu became the first woman to run for president in a multiparty election in Kenya — and Africa as well.
Today, it seems the normal thing that a professional woman should wear a trouser suit to work. Well, until the late 1960s most women in East Africa wearing trousers were in foreign magazines. Strange, though, that the mini — which shows more than the bishop would approve of — was more tolerated, than trousers.
In Uganda, shortly after military dictator Idi Amin took power in a coup in 1971 he banned wigs, minis, along with political parties and Parliament. Jane Maviri, a young woman of 17, defied the dictator. She “banged” on her mini and took to the streets. She was arrested. On July 5, 1972 she was found guilty of being “idle and disorderly.” Maviri was a hero, but no one remembers her.
Hopefully, on a future International Women’s Day, we shall fully acknowledge the debt we owe to women like Maviri and Funmilayo.
They stood up to be counted in a very lonely and dangerous period for activists.
By CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO
Posted Monday, March 14 2011 at 00:00
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group’s executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com [UNQUOTE]
In Uganda, shortly after military dictator Idi Amin took power in a coup in 1971 he banned wigs, minis, along with political parties and Parliament. Jane Maviri, a young woman of 17, defied the dictator. She “banged” on her mini and took to the streets. She was arrested. On July 5, 1972 she was found guilty of being “idle and disorderly.” Maviri was a hero, but no one remembers her.
Hopefully, on a future International Women’s Day, we shall fully acknowledge the debt we owe to women like Maviri and Funmilayo.
They stood up to be counted in a very lonely and dangerous period for activists.
By CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO
Posted Monday, March 14 2011 at 00:00
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group’s executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com [UNQUOTE]
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