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For the past years, the Ghana’s enlightenment movement have shown that rational choices are essential to how Africans distinguish and argue about their culture in relation to their progress. The enlightenment campaigners have identified cultural challenges – from the impact of witchcraft to developing policies from within the African culture – and raised their consequences should Africans continue to integrate their cultural values into their formal development process.
The ‘City Forum on Culture and Development,’ a multi-sectorial undertaking that took place recently and was opened by Prof. Kofi Awoonor, chair of Ghana’s Council of State, at the Accra International Conference Centre, demonstrates the influence of the enlightenment movement on national thinking. More so the fact that the City of Accra, Ghana’s Ministry of Trade and Industries, Arterial Network, UNESCO, Goethe-Institut, Agenda 21 and Accra Arts and Culture Network participated in the culture-progress seminar. Continue reading “The First Lady and The Pregnant African Women”
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Nobel Prize Winner
Monrovia (Liberia) – In about two weeks after she won the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, Forbes Magazine, one of the most influential business publications in the United States, named President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia as the most “powerful woman on the African continent.” The Magazine, in its maiden Africa issue, lists the Liberian leader among 20 women influential women in the continent.
According to the first issue of Forbes Africa Magazine, which went on sale October 1, President Sirleaf tops the list of most powerful African women, with Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Malawi’s Vice President Joyce Banda in second and third place, respectively.
The list includes 11 women from South Africa alone.
The magazine says about its No. 1 pick: “Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected in 2005 Liberia’s 24th president and Africa’s first woman president. Prior to her election, she worked for the World Bank and Citibank. She is a member of the prestigious Council of Women Leaders. In October 2010, she signed into law a Freedom of Information bill.”
The parent Forbes Magazine is famous worldwide for its lists, which make headlines, spring surprises and provoke debates. Its Africa edition promises to maintain this rich tradition by researching and creating its own lists.
According to Forbes Africa, its methodology for selecting its Top 20 list involved weighing up the size of the economy, market capitalization of companies or the personal wealth of the candidates, as well as researching Google hits, YouTube appearances, plus Facebook and Twitter followers.
It weighted the findings and ranked the tally to come up with the order of the list.
President Johnson Sirleaf is followed, on the Forbes Africa list by: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance of Nigeria; Joyce Banda, Vice President of Malawi; Gill Marcus, Governor, Reserve Bank of South Africa; Joice Mujuru, Vice President of Zimbabwe; Diezani Allison-Madueke, Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources; Isabel Dos Santos, Angolan Businesswoman; Maria Ramos, CEO of ABSA, a South African subsidiary of British Barclays Bank; Mamphela Ramphele, CEO, Circle Capital Partners, South Africa, and former Director of the World Bank; Linah Mohohlo, Governor, Bank of Botswana; and Nicky-Newton King, Future CEO, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, South Africa.
Also on the Top 20 list are: Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize Laureate and Founder of the Greenbelt Movement of Kenya, who passed away in September; Siza Mzimela, CEO of South African Airways; Nonkululeko Nyembezi Heita, CEO of ArcelorMittal South Africa; Graça Machel, Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, South Africa; Pinky Moholi, CEO, Telkom, South Africa; Hynd Bouhia, former Director General, Casablanca Stock Exchange, Morocco; Bridgette Radebe, Chairman, Mmakau Mining, South Africa; Irene Charnley, Non-Executive Director, MTN Group & CEO Smile Telecommunications, South Africa; and Monlha Hlahla, CEO of Airports Company South Africa (ACSA).
The women had led the non-violent struggle for women's political rights, said the committee
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women – Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.
They were recognised for their “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.
Mrs Sirleaf is Africa’s first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a peace activist and Ms Karman is a leading figure in Yemen’s pro-democracy movement.
Announcing the prize in Oslo, Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said: “We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developements at all levels of society.”
“It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s hope that the prize… will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent.”
Mrs Karman heads the Yemeni organisation Women Journalists without Chains and has been jailed several times over her campaigns for press freedom and her opposition to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
She was recognised for playing a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights in Yemen during the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings “in the most trying circumstances”.
Ms Karman, a mother of three, told the Associated Press she was dedicating the prize “to the youth of revolution in Yemen and the Yemeni people”.
She is the first Arab women to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Mr Jagland said the oppression of women was “the most important issue” in the Arab world.
He said awarding the prize to Ms Karman was “giving the signal that if it [the Arab Spring] is to succeed with efforts to make democracy, it has to include women”.
Ms Sirleaf, 72, was elected to office in 2005, following the end of Liberia’s 14-year civil war. She had said she would only run for one term, but is standing for re-election next week.
Ms Gbowee was a leading critic of the violence of the civil war, mobilising women across ethnic and religious lines in peace activism – in part through implementing a “sex strike” – and encouraging them to participate in elections.
“She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war,” said the award citation.
The women will share the $1.5m (£1m) prize money.
The BBC’s World Affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says that the Nobel Peace Prize originally recognised those who had already achieved peace, but that its scope has broadened in recent years to encourage those working towards peace and acknowledge work in progress.
Empowered women in control of household decisions could be losing out on sex, says a new study out of Johns Hopkins University.
Published in the Journal of Sex in October, the researchers asked women about the last date of sexual intercourse as well as who had the final say on decisions ranging from healthcare to household purchases.
According to the Telegraph, the researchers surveyed women from six African countries who reported the more decisions made, the less physical intimacy they shared with their partners.
“The more decisions a woman reported making on her own, as compared to through joint decision-making, the less likely she was to have sex and the longer it was since she last had sexual intercourse,” said lead researcher Michelle Hindin.
The findings showed more dominant and assertive women had approximately 100 times less sex.
But the researchers also noted that this isn’t necessarily incidental for them — it could also be women taking control of their sexual preferences, the Daily Mail reported.
“Understanding how women’s position in the household influences their sexual activity may be an essential piece in protecting the sexual rights of women and helping them to achieve a sexual life that is both safe and pleasurable,” co-author Carie Muntifering told Health24.com.
The location of the women studied may also have played a role, though. Most recently, a study by Florida State University’s Roy Baumeister argued that more equality would lead to more sex. He pointed to a study surveying over 300,000 people from 37 countries which found that countries with a higher gender equality had more casual sex and more sexual partners. In nations with less equality between the sexes, the opposite was true.
Cases of men who have been sexually abused by women are common in the country and hardly a week passes without such a report being made in the media.
The motives of these women are not known, but there is speculation that they may be doing this for ritual purposes.
Indecently assaulting
“We appeal to members of the public to pass any information to the police regarding three women who have gone on a spree of kidnapping and indecently assaulting young men around town,” Harare police boss Angeline Guvamombe said in a statement.
“The women drive in posh cars and offer their unsuspecting victims lifts before spraying some liquid substance on their faces.
“Once the victim is drowsy, he is taken to a secluded place or house where he is forced to have sex,” said Ms Guvamombe. “I want to warn these criminals that their days are numbered,” she added.
On Monday, the Herald reported that two men were kidnapped last week and forced to have sex with women at gunpoint.
In one of the incidents, a 30-year-old man was kidnapped by three women and forced to have sex with them for five days.
In some cases, the women use protection and collect the men’s sperm, leading to speculation that they were in the activity for ritual purposes.
At times, the women are helped by armed men.
Since the strange rape cases began sometime last year, no one has been arrested.
Police have said the women cannot be charged with rape because Zimbabwean law does not recognise that women can rape men.
But they will be charged with indecent assault, which carries a lesser sentenc
Almost every minute of every day in different parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a woman is raped. So says a new study published by the American Journal of Public Health, the AJPH. The study says the incidence of sexual assault is 26 times higher than United Nations figures.
Jocelyne Sambira reports.
Duration: 2’36”
The study examined detailed household data gathered from women between the ages of 15 and 49 living in the DR Congo.
The data shows that 400,000 women are raped every year in the Congo which translates to over a thousand raped every day, 48 raped every hour and four raped every five minutes.
Margot Wallström, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said the report helps to better understand the problem.
“This brings more clarity to the phenomenon of sexual violence. It also confirms what we know from before and that is sexual violence is grossly underreported.”
The rate of sexual violence quoted in the new study is significantly higher than the previous estimate of 16,000 rapes reported in one year by the UN.
Wallström explained the discrepancy between the two reports.
“We do make a distinction between conflict-related sexual violence – how it is being used as a kind of weapon of war and what is also studied here – which is intimate partner sexual violence and domestic violence. And finally I would say that there is a difference in the way we count because the United Nations also has to verify these figures. When we report, we also should do it in such a way that we can do follow-up, that there is assistance to be given to the victims.”
But the expert on sexual violence also believes it’s time to move beyond the numbers.
“As much as we want to describe the magnitude of the problem, it must take us beyond counting the number of rapes for example. It must bring us into how we can prevent it. How we can do peacekeeping better.”
More important though are the people behind the figures. Margot Wallstom again:
“I remember this young woman who I met in Walikale and she said that she had been taken out of her home the night before she was getting married and had been gang raped and her whole future destroyed in a way. And she was not only devastated but she was also angry. I could feel that that she was also furious that this could be done to her. And she said that a dead rat is worth more than a woman who has been raped.”
Hip — Hip hop music was regarded as a man’s thing. Today, women rap and sometimes do it better than their male competitors.
American rapper Da Brat
It all started as early as the 1980’s when African-American diva, MC Lyte emerged as the first lady rapper. She was then signed to an upcoming label, ‘Def Jam’. Then her hip-hop journey began.
She paved way for other sensational female hip-hop stars including Da Brat, Foxy Brown and Queen Latifah plus the super EVE in 2001.
Rwandan singers adopted the hip-hop genre as late as 2007 when ‘Gangster G’ recorded her first rap song. She was joined by Ado Pacifique (Paccy) in 2009 and then newcomers, like Young Grace, El-Poeta in 2010.
At 21 years Paccy inspires a growing number of younger rappers. One special thing about her is that she has a delightful singing voice, yet she prefers to sing in less smooth hip-hop, as a loyalty to the gender equality movement.
“I couldn’t utilize politics to preach equality because I am not a politician. That’s why I use my talent to try and inspire as many other women as I possibly can,” she says.
Joyce Namande, commonly known as Kitty is also an upcoming singer and she is a fan of rapper Paccy. She is proud of how Rwandan girls rap.
“Though I sing R&B, I love hip-hop more than anything,” she says. “I am inspired to work harder in my R&B by women rappers who have a successful hip-hop career.”
Sebahire Severan (Seb’s), an audio music producer says that he promotes women musicians in his ‘One Way Studio’, because he believes in women empowerment.
He explains: “Women have what it takes to speak to the public through their songs. That is why I give priority to women and encourage them to take up music as a career.”
Seb’s recorded songs for free, for many female upcoming rappers.
Paccy also uses hip-hop to spread practical message including the ‘equality talk’. Unlike other music styles like Pop and Rock, Paccy says the message carried by hip-hop songs is easier to deliver. She exploits rap to maximum.
She is sometimes accused of using complicated lyrics. She defends herself by saying that the ‘complicated’ components are real life problems which some listeners are never willing to listen to.
“Sometimes people enjoy party or love songs. When you sing the sour reality of real life, only a few are willing to take in your message,” she says. “As someone dedicated to delivering message, I am not scared of losing out on party or love songs.”
She however keeps a distance from explicit or controversial lyrics in her songs. This is one reason why her music is never too mature for young ones and never too young for mature ears.
Apart from the choice of lyrics and the competition from male rappers, the “Umunsi Umwe” singer still finds it hard to join the trust of her fans.
Hip hop artists worldwide have a bad reputation. Some have criminal records for unlicensed guns, drug deals, murders and thefts. Even an innocent woman who joins the industry is regarded as a bad character because of the terrible reputation rappers have.
Like any other rapper, Paccy often finds it hard to inform her listeners through music because rap stars are branded criminals.
In a society with cultural values, a girl rapper doing hullabaloo on radio does not communicate easily to older listeners.
Female rappers have to perform better than men to make. They are not society’s regular feminine female which brings them to confrontation with families or even boyfriends.
Paccy recently gave birth to a baby girl. She will need time and energy to get back to the top spot in the rap industry. Her optimistic personality and determination will get her back on her feet.
So far, the tough rapper is considered successful because most of her songs are appreciated by music lovers. This deems her as capable of breaking the male dominance in hip-hop.
She often quotes seasoned writer and republican politician, Clare Boothe Luce’s, ‘Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.”
