Feminist Dialogue unpacks African feminism

By Brenda Zulu

The Southern Africa Social Forum (SASF) yesterday unpacked an African feminist ideology during the gender cluster which presented an ugly picture of domestic violence in the sub-region.

Sara Longwe a gender activist shared the feminist principles which was about the attainment of gender equality and asked participants to answer the questions on what they understand by feminism and how people translated it action in Southern Africa.

It was explained that the global Feminist Dialogue (FD) has been present at other social forum and that it was important for Southern Africa to also discuss issues which they can share at the coming World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi, Kenya.

The main objective of the FDs was to provide a space for open discussion on feminist principles and ways of working on issues of globalisation, militarism and fundametalism prior to WSF. It was also mobilise feminists so that other social forum activists embrace femnists principles in their respective areas of operation at local, national and regional social fora.

It was also observed that organisations that deal in gender based violence issues in Malawi have impacted mostly at awreness level and not much at behavioural change. Presenting a research conducted by the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in 2005, Nicky Ndovi said there was a high prevalence of violence in communities.

“This indicates that meaningful transformation has not yet started to take place in mindsets guided by traditions in which men dominate women in the politcial, cultural, and economic spheres,” said Ndovi.

She called on everyone to organise themselves for a war of liberation on the different forms of violence that this study identifed as retrogressive in the light of human rights, gender equality and social transformation but also hazdous for a part of the society which was always looked down upon, not only as inferior and unequal to men, but also viewed as children.

Society for Advancement of Women (SAW) however presented real life moving testimonies of gender based violence by allowing women whom have so far sought help from them to share their plight.

In one case a woman was thrown out of her matrimonial home after she was allegded to have thrown radio cassette tapes in a pit latrine toilet. In the second case the woman with five kids was thrown out after the husband impregnanted her maid.

SAW leagal officer Eddah Ngwira reiterated that domestic violence cases where alarming and wondered what interventions could be done in order to curb the problem.