In her editorial for the first edition of BUWA, editor Alice Kanengoni describes a typical domestic scene: women in the kitchen preparing a meal, men in front of the television or at a table playing games. I was reminded of the funerals; weddings etc that I’ve attended where the men are either around the fire or in the house waiting for a meal, drinks, and the women are doing the work. Women themselves view their rightful places in society as being by the fire or the stove, cooking and serving.

As an adult woman, I wonder at my mother’s strength and energy in my childhood; she worked full time, just like my father did, her job was just as demanding as my fathers, and yet at the end of her work day she came home to cook, clean and help with homework. My father came home to his favourite chair, television, snacks dinner and a drink.

I remember whenever I was untidy or refused to cook, or did some other unwomanly thing she would start her reprimand with “musikana akanaka ano…” (a good girl does..). When I asked her why I had to be a good girl she would reply that it’s part of our traditions, how would I be married if I couldn’t keep house? My mother is a highly educated woman, smarter than anyone I know, and a strong willed, independent thinker.  But for her, who she is at work, and who she is at home are two different and very separate people.

In her article for BUWA, titled Contemporary African Feminism, Professor Patricia McFadden writes:

In very general terms, feminism as a radical thinking/ conceptual tradition has deliberately ruptured the boundaries of conventional, often reactionary knowledge production everywhere it has been practised, and has challenged conventional as an ideological practice, by arguing for a politics of transformation and of daily life.

She goes on to say:

Feminism is the rejection of and struggle against Patriarchy (as a system and set of structures and ideologies that privilege men and allot them various forms of power in all societies) and is also the celebration of freedom for women everywhere. As Stevi Jackson and Jackie Jones (1998) put it: ” Feminist theory seeks to analyse the conditions which shape women’s lives and to explore cultural understandings of what it means to be a woman.”

For many women in Africa, feminism is something that we practise outside our homes and our families. Our cultural understanding of womanhood is sometimes in direct conflict what we say in meetings about gender equity and social justice for women. Patriarchy is something we fight at work or in the streets.  At home not only do women accept it, they also seek to perpetuate it but granting privilege to their sons and insisting that their daughters become domesticated in the traditions of their mothers, grand mothers and great grand mothers. I think many African women, like my mother and even myself have struggled, or are struggling with the notions of being an African woman, a feminist and an African Feminist. We struggle to translate an academic concept into reality in our own lives, and often end up living two lives in compromise.

From PlusNews:

Risky sex does not equal HIV risk – study

JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwean women reported significantly less risky sexual behaviour than their counterparts in Tanzania, despite being almost four times more likely to be HIV-infected, a comparative study has found.

Researchers from the Universities of Zimbabwe and Oslo in Norway disseminated data from pregnant women who visited antenatal clinics in Moshi, Tanzania, and in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, between 2002 and 2004. The women answered questions about their sexual behaviour, medical history and socio-demographic background and were tested for HIV and several other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

HIV prevalence among the Zimbabwean women was nearly 26 percent against about 7 percent among the Tanzanian women. Risk of infection rose with age for women in both countries up until the 25 to 29 age group, after which it started to decline for the Tanzanian women but continued to rise for the Zimbabweans. The Zimbabwean women also had somewhat higher rates of STIs, but this may have been the result of more of the women being HIV-positive and more susceptible to such infections.

In the Journal of the International AIDS Society, the researchers described the “unexpected phenomenon” revealed by the data gathered on the women’s sexual behaviour. On virtually every indicator, the Tanzanian women reported more risky behaviour from having had a casual sexual partner in the last 12 months to early sexual debut to being in a polygamous relationship. They also reported much higher levels of alcohol consumption, another behaviour that has been linked to increased sexual risk-taking.

The authors can only speculate about the explanation for this “paradox”. Perhaps by the time the survey was done, women in Zimbabwe had lowered their sexual risk-taking in response to an epidemic that had already claimed so many lives; or maybe they under-reported their sexual risk-taking because such behaviours by women are considered socially unacceptable in Zimbabwe.

Numerous studies have failed to provide definitive answers as to why HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa varies so widely, with some countries recording infection rates of less than 2 percent and others recording rates of more than 20 percent.

It has long been assumed that different norms relating to sexual risk-taking from one country to another played an important role, but the recent findings suggest that other factors may be more important. The result has implications for the design of HIV prevention programmes, especially those aimed at sexual behaviour change.

The male partners of the Tanzanian women were much more likely to be circumcised, but the effect of male circumcision was not apparent in the study findings.

One possible explanation for the severity of Zimbabwe’s HIV problem compared with Tanzania’s, write the authors, is the role that non-sexual transmission of HIV may have played in the early years of Zimbabwe’s epidemic. They cite a 1990s study which found a 2.1 percent HIV prevalence among 933 women with no reported sexual experience.

“Early in the epidemic, syringes weren’t sterilized properly,” said lead author of the study, Munyaradzi Mapingure, from the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe. “We’re not blaming anyone, because people probably weren’t aware of it, but people who grew up in Zimbabwe in the 1970s were put in a queue and vaccinated with one needle.”

The theory that large-scale non-sexual transmission of HIV can explain severe epidemics like Zimbabwe’s is “very controversial”, admitted Mapingure, but “something we have to bring into the discussion”.

“Most HIV prevention programmes are failing because they focus on sexual behaviour,” he told IRIN/PlusNews over the telephone from Harare. “We need to look at the whole sexualization of HIV.”

During the weekend my single girlfriends and I were discussing the perils of dating in Zimbabwe. One girlfriend said that married men propositioned her regularly at work. Others had regular girlfriends on the side. We were shocked. What happened to love and the sanctity of marriage?

Of course some men will argue that this is Africa and monogamy is a European construct, that our culture permits polygamy, that women out number men, and their millions of years old biological imperative, that should have become extinct with the Neanderthals, to populate the earth is difficult to ignore. The religious might even quote God’s “Go forth and multiply”, and who can argue with God?

Surfing the Internet a few days ago I came across a dating forum on classifieds.co.zw. Among the men and women, whose pain and loneliness was palpable in the text of their personal ads, were a few married but available men:

Married but willing to explore: am married but would want to spice my life a bit with someone similar probably share experiences and passion but just a discreet relationship no strings attached (nsa)

Lets have fun NSA period! :… I am a funny dude who loves older open minded NSA ladies, who are funny to hang out and go out with …. email or call me on weekends only

With arrogance and assumed impunity both of these have posted their names, phone numbers and even pictures. They are well educated. One even works in development, where one would assume he should be more enlightened than the average man.

Love is hard, sex is easy. But at a time when HIV/AIDS exists because no one thinks it can happen to them isn’t a no strings attached non-relationship risking too much? It’s not just men who should be held responsible its women too. It is impossible to cheat without a willing partner. The men, who propositioned my friend, knew she knew they were married. I’m sure it wasn’t the first time they had thought to have a little fun with the pretty young thing in the office, and by extension experience has taught them that it doesn’t matter, pretty young things don’t care whether they are married or not.

Following on from a blog earlier this year about the YIDEZ campaign against Zimbabwe’s national youth service programme, we received this report from ZLHR sharing youths groups’ opinions on national youth service.

At a recent debate in Gweru, organised by the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (CISOMM), students and youth groups called for the outright abolishment of the National Youth Training Programme, arguing persuasively against it from a number of informed angles.

The debate, entitled With consideration for the provisions of the GPA, of what service is the National Youth Training Programme currently to Zimbabwe? brought together a dynamic, young panel to engage in a frank and provocative discussion on a topic that spoke directly to the concerns and interests of the student-filled crowd. In a packed room at the Midlands Hotel in Gweru on 25 November, the crowd – many of whom were students or youth leaders themselves – had the opportunity to hear first-hand from a graduate of Dadaya Training Camp, the Students’ Union President of Midlands State University, and a local lawyer and human rights activist.

In defence of the programme, the ‘graduate’ said it could be a platform for youth to collectively articulate and find solutions for the challenges they face, while it promoted nation-building in the youth by instilling the values of discipline, historicism, and non-violence. However, he acknowledged that it had been taken over by partisan agendas and that there was a serious problem of violence, mistreatment and politicisation. Exemplifying its non-compliance with the GPA, he said that stated objectives such as increasing HIV/Aids awareness in the youth were problematic when one considered the numerous rapes that took place in the camps.

The youth and other participants freely expressed their vigorous dislike of the programme and called for its abolishment. One argued that you cannot teach a young person about patriotism, citing the examples of the liberation movement forming in 1970s and the students’ struggles of ’87. They said that the camps were an abusive of youth, not empowering; they pointed to the deprivation of schools and colleges from funding, and also to increased violence and intolerance, and finally, the lack of consultation with the youth that might have seen emerge a service that was transparent and inclusive.

The forthrightness and willingness to engage on the part of the graduate was highly appreciated by all the crowd, although they took a different view. This is the nature of democracy. However, sadly, he testified that the time was not yet right to be able to engage on a greater level. We still have a long way to go.

The City of Harare is currently preparing the 2011 city budget. The below letter from the Harare Residents’ Trust outlines where you can review the budget and how to contribute your comments on it.

Dear Resident,

This letter serves to advise you that on 30 November 2010, and at Town House, around 4.30pm, the City of Harare, through the Finance and Development Committee Chairperson Ruth Rufaro Kavunika, tabled the 2011 City Budget before the full council meeting. This means that you as a resident have to take appropriate action to safeguard your financial interests in the coming year. The City of Harare has proposed increases in water rates, rentals and seeks to maintain the rates of clinic charges at 2010 levels, among others. There are several other proposals that you need to be aware of. You have to plan ahead, and the budget is the best policy statement to guide you.

The Harare Residents’ Trust advises you to take time to go and inspect the proposed budget at Town House, and all District Offices immediately. In terms of the Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter 29:15), once you have inspected the proposed budget, it is your right to make necessary comments on the budget, either rejecting/opposing the proposed charges or accepting them.

If you object to the budget, it is your responsibility to write your objection letter addressed to the Town Clerk, at Town House, specifying your reasons for rejecting the proposals, indicating your physical home address within the 30-day stipulated period. You are safe and it is within your rights to do so. Once thirty (30) objections are lodged, the City of Harare has to revise the proposals downwards before finally approving the budget.

This is the only major opportunity to the citizen to comment on the budget, otherwise if you do not use your right at law to make objections or inspect the budget, you have no one but yourself to blame when the budget is implemented beginning January 2011. The City will simply implement the high rates if you do not raise your voice.

When you write your objections, make two copies, which have to be both stamped at Town House, to serve as evidence that you submitted them. Submit the other copy to the HRT as a record so that at the end of the 30-day period of inspection, the organisation can also verify that nothing outside the law is done by the council, since there is no water tight method of verification and adjudication that safeguards the interests of residents.

The HRT will keep you informed on the budget making process until it is finally approved. Thank you for being a responsible citizen.

You can reach the Harare Residents’ Trust on 0712-500402, 0774-354201 or 0772-869294 or email hretrust [at] yahoo [dot] com

A press release by the Alliance Francaise:

Karohano Dance Extravaganza with Alliance Francaise

Dance is a language that is universal, it communicates to the senses without the need for words. This year, to end it with a healthy dose of dance delights, Alliance Francaise de Harare is proud to present to you the Karohano Dance Extravaganza on the 15th December 2010 at the 7 Arts (7.30pm)

Karohano is a spectacular fusion of dance, technology and satire from South Africa and Madagascar.  ‘Karohano’, meaning ‘pieces’ in Sesotho, is a collaborative dance piece representing three male dancers from Madagascar and South Africa. It is a fusion of video technology and urban dance energy, revealing aspects of African male identity, political satire and ironic gestures, all this using the body as a medium.  Being a very culturally rooted genre, it is a collaboration between two South African dancers and one dancer from Madagascar.  This piece has been awarded first prize during the International Dance Festival “Danse l’Afrique danse” in Tunis.  For the social philosophers, lovers of true art and the intellectual minds, this will be the icing on the cake, seeing as it is a very absorbing experience with a definitive new flavour to the mind.  The Karohano Dance Extravaganza is arguably the most important dance event to happen this year.  Cancel all other appointments and activities, this here, its the event to attend.

The schedule is as follows, the show will be opened by a local dance company called “Essence of Women” who performed at HIFA this year! After that, “Inzalo” itself will present two mind-blowing pieces.  The first of which, is one titled ‘Collision’ – a solo piece by the South African dancer Moeketsi Koena.  Following this is the Karohano piece itself.

Just to give a brief history lesson, Karohano was created and showcased in Madagascar in 2006 at the Itrotra festival, after two South African dancers toured Madagascar.  Then later braced the stages of South Africa in the Annual Dance Umbrella in 2007.  Later in 2007, Karohano was reworked and performed at Market Theatre Laboratory and around Soweto schools.  In 2008 it won the first prize for the 7th choreographic encounters for Dance L’Afrique Dance, in Tunisia as said before.  Added to all this, they have a dance video which was directed by Jeannette Genslov and it was showcased in different dance films across the world.

They believe that dance is not just a mere response to music and rhythm, but is movement oratory with unquestionable educational elements.  They should know, because their high profile performances are too numerous to mention in entirety having been in countries of different cultures all across the globe.  They also are involved in philanthropic work in various communities, which shows how much they believe helping in any way one can as it always makes a difference, no matter how small.

Karohano
15th December at 7Arts, 7.30pm
C/C: 10 $

Tickets available at Alliance Francaise, 328 Herbert Chitepo Avenue, Harare