Waking the Sleeping Giant

She needed bags for her dried tealeaves and spices, to sell at the market the next day.  Without the plastic bags, she had no way to distribute her goods to make money for food, and pay back her small loan.  
"If I could just go into town, it wouldn't take that long.  I wish my husband were here so he could take me," she said to no one. 
She was not allowed off the property without him, or his permission, regardless. The day wore on and her husband did not return.  I need those bags.     Silence.     I'm going.  I'm going to town.  She gathered her Tshillings, and tucked them in her kanga before she lost her nerve. Glancing around the room she picked up a basket, and strolled nonchalantly to the edge of the property as though she were going to collect a basket full of produce from the garden.  As she neared the edge of the land, she looked right and left to see if anyone had taken notice of her.  No one was near.  Her heart was pounding out of her chest as she dropped the basket and took off like a rocket running down the road as fast as she could, not realizing this made her much more a spectacle. As she ran, her blood pounded like a hammer in her head.  After a while she calmed slightly and began to feel... liberated.  
"I'm out. I'm off the property all by myself! I'm free!" 
She swallowed huge gulps of air that went all the way down to the bottom of her lungs. Euphoria came over her, and soon she was running with a light step. 
"If I can do this I can do anything!"  
She turned the corner, sailed into the market, and with a big smile on her face ordered the bags.  She bargained down the price, just as she had watched her husband do before, wished them all a wonderful day, and skipped out of the store.  Halfway home unsettling thoughts began to come over her.  Her steps slowed, and she wondered if he would be home when she got there. Fear gripped her heart as she stared at the ground before her.  If he were inside the house she would get the beating of a lifetime. Would the owners of the store tell him she came in without him?  What if one of his friends had seen her on the road?  Why didn't she think this through? Her steps slowed to a crawl, as she was overcome with regret.  
"I will pay for this now." 
She arrived home ready to accept the consequences.  She stood outside the door and listened.  Nothing.  Peering in, she realized the house was empty, and breathed a tentative sigh of relief. She was safe for now.

I have a theory on how to fix what ails Africa.  It would remove the need for aid from the outside world; it would feed the children, and would end corruption in the governments, which hoard the financial resources.  I am not presumptuous enough to think that I could come here and in a few short months devise a plan to correct all the problems Africa has experienced for the last five hundred years.  No, this is not something I’ve had any part in creating, but it is happening, little by little thanks to people who care. I call it: Waking the Sleeping Giant.  It is one third of the population, which has been relegated to silence and in effect, has been asleep: African women. 

I’ve touched on this topic before, that of the oppression of African women. Culture says this is the way it is, period.  Their traditions and beliefs are so ingrained in their lifestyle that they go unquestioned. And whom would they ask for the answers anyway? They believe that the husband should have ultimate control and say, in every aspect of their lives.  I recently read an article, in which the author had done a survey of East African women.  Forty-five percent of them thought they deserved to be beaten if they burned the food.  If women don’t know how to read, or have very little contact outside of their bubble, how would they gain any knowledge to know anything different? You don’t know what you don’t know.  And can we really be angry with the men, because they don’t know any other way either.  This is how it was in their home growing up. If the women were happy in this lifestyle, and it was healthy, then no one should come and try to change it, or stir things up.  But they are not content.  It is an unnecessarily difficult life, simply because that is the way it has always been.  Many Maasai and Muslim women are especially miserable because on top of it all, their husbands have several wives. Rejection, resentment, jealousy, and longing, all play a part in being one of many wives.  Just because it is the tradition, doesn’t mean they are happy about it, or agree.  No one asks a young woman’s opinion when her marriage is arranged. Despite these traditions though, the women of Tanzania are strong, hard working, and indomitable.  They carve out a life for their families from nothing.  They take what life hands them, with grace and humility. They are incredibly resourceful and generous. They take in children who are orphaned by AIDS though they can barely feed their own.  And even though they don’t have one, somehow you will walk away with the shirt off their back. If this determination were turned toward a nation, it would be unstoppable. The continent has squandered one of its greatest resources, and if women were empowered, the face of Africa would be different.

The answer, as always, is education.  Women must be shown that another possibility exists. If they understand or experience even one small glimmer of hope, they hold onto it like a precious jewel.  The education of men would best come from the women themselves bringing them along in a compelling way, not to lord over them this new found empowerment, but to say, this is better for everyone.  The woman in the earlier story began to earn money, and express her own ideas, consequently earning respect from her husband.  She no longer asks permission to leave and her daughter now will not either, when she is married.

If a woman knows that she can chose to have a life where she reaches her potential, a life fulfilled, she will choose it every time.  If you develop a man, you change a family, for he is provider.  If you develop a woman, you change the family, then the village, the town, and the country, for a woman is a teacher, and a nurturer. She will not withhold, but will share what she has learned with other women.  She will teach the children and the grandchildren. She will wake up as the veil of unknowing is lifted from her eyes, and all of Africa will be changed. She will say to them,
 “I will not be silent.  I have something to offer the world for I am a valuable human being.”

   

Thanks to Jenn for some of these photos