Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
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International Day Against Homophobia
Esther Adhiambo
2011-05-19, Issue 530
cc N J‘I challenge every one of us to at least talk to one person you know about homosexuality. I’m not asking you to come
out, just yet, even I am struggling with that. But just try and
communicate our fears and insecurities as a minority group,’ writes Kenyan sister Esther Adhiambo, in a piece marking International Day Against Homophobia on 17 May.
My love
For David Kato and Eudy Simelane
Musa Okwonga
2011-05-19, Issue 530
Musa Okwonga performed his poem 'My love' at a memorial service for murdered Ugandan LGBTI activist David Kato on May 18. Originally written for Eudy Simelane, the South African lesbian footballer who was gang-raped and murdered, the poem also features in the forthcoming 'African Sexualities: A reader', published by Pambazuka Press. Watch the animated version of 'My love' here.
Justice for the LGBTI community in Kenya
Gullit Makobe
2011-05-10, Issue 528
cc N J‘Before I became a Human Rights Defender, I had to safe guard my living space in a closet. I knew I was safe – nothing could or would harm me – I felt untouchable. I had a place to call home, and I held on to it never jeopardizing the privileges. But all that changed when my family learnt about my sexual identity,’ writes Gullit Makobe.
Protect our children: Stopping the sexual abuse of children
Patricia Daley
2011-04-20, Issue 526
cc L WJust as we must condemn homophobia and support ‘the rights of consenting individuals to privacy in their sexual relations’, we must also grant far greater attention to the sexual abuse of children, argues Patricia Daley.
Strides in gender parity in peril
Tanzania’s general elections 2010
Salma Maoulidi
2010-10-28, Issue 502
cc L KSalma Maoulidi looks at the future of Tanzania’s 50-50 Campaign as the country prepares for a general election. The campaign is meant to bring gender parity in parliament. Maoulidi argues the process is stalling as female politicians get caught up in a game where there is no women’s agenda and where women and women’s issues are largely absent from political debates.
16 demands to end violence against women
Salma Maoulidi
2009-12-23, Issue 463
cc Wikimedia CommonsAnnual campaign ‘16 Days of Violence Against Women’ has raised the profile of violence against women through Tanzania’s local media, Salma Maoulidi writes in this week’s Pambazuka News, but there’s no guarantee that greater visibility of the issues will change attitudes and spark political to stop violence against women. Raising alarm over the ‘intolerable multi-dimensional culture of violence’ that women experience, Maoulidi makes a series of sixteen demands ‘to underscore fundamentals in changing an ideology and deeply seated culture of violence against women’.
Zimbabwe ratifies SADC Protocol on Gender and Development
Rozaria Memorial Trust
2009-11-19, Issue 458
cc SokwaneleZimbabwe has ratified the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, a regional instrument for advancing gender equality and women's rights. It is the second country after Namibia to ratify the protocol.
AU women and gender experts adopt key instruments
African Press Organization
2009-11-19, Issue 458
cc M A UAfrican Union (AU) experts on women and gender affairs will submit their recommendations to establish the African Union Women’s Trust Fund feasibility study, the African Union Commission Gender Action Plan, and the Roadmap for the African Women’s Decade: 2010-2020 to ministers in charge of gender and women’s affairs on 21 November. In order to disseminate and monitor the implementation of the Action Plan the meeting proposed using faith-based groups, imams, and the media to sensitise and transmit messages to women and society at large.
Women’s rights: Looking back or moving forward?
The Beijing Platform for Action in Africa
Mary Wandia
2009-11-19, Issue 458
cc S CDespite the wide adoption of protocols for gender equality across Africa, ‘violations of women’s human rights have reached epidemic proportions,’ Mary Wandia writes in Pambazuka News, ‘and unless we adopt a multi-sectoral approach in the implementation and monitoring of regional and international commitments, we shall continue to marginalise half of the continent’s population.’ With the Beijing +15 Africa Review meeting underway in Banjul, Wandia asks whether Africa’s ministers for gender and women will ‘rise up to the challenge’.
16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence
25 November – 10 December 2009
POWA
2009-11-19, Issue 458
People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA), based in South Africa, has put together a programme of action for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, from 25 November to 10 December.
Why we shouldn’t need Beijing +15
Morissanda Kouyaté
2009-11-19, Issue 458
cc Tom Maruko‘The idea behind “Beijing” was not to get together every five years and count the victims of gender discrimination and violence’, Morissanda Kouyaté writes in Pambazuka News. ‘It was intended to be – and remains – a campaign to end these problems. A lack of will remains a key obstacle to achieving this – not just political will, but at all levels, to consider women as equal members of society, enjoying all inalienable rights accorded to men.’
Kenya: Peace and security imperatives for women
Gender dimensions in the electoral process
Carole Ageng’o
2009-11-19, Issue 458
cc TeseumCarole Ageng’o takes a closer look at the interplay between gender relations and conflict in the three phases of Kenya’s electoral process – pre-election, election and post-election. Highlighting the barriers women face to participating in each phase despite international standards and regional instruments for protection of the rights of women, Ageng’o argues that entrenched social roles have ‘made it difficult for men and women to share power, privilege and status on the basis of equality'. A change in prevailing gender relations, Ageng’o suggests, is key to ‘empowering communities torn apart by war to build peace from below’.
Do Kenyans kiss?
An afternoon of candid conversation
Phanice Shamalla
2009-11-05, Issue 456
cc C NordahlIn this week’s Pambazuka News, Phanice Shamalia reports on ‘Sexually Speaking’, a lively discussion among 30 Kenyan women hosted by Storymoja as part of its monthly Women in Leadership forum. After ‘an afternoon of candid conversation’ on how various issues of our lives affect our sexuality’, Shamalia writes, participants concluded that it ‘is possible to have a healthier sex life, a confident sex life, and an educated sex life. One step is by attending sessions such as this one, with informed, opinionated women who are willing to share their knowledge.’
It's time to secure the rights of women in Africa
Solidarity for African Women's Rights
2009-06-25, Issue 439
This special issue of Pambazuka complements the work of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) coalition in advocating the ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Through a series of five articles, it highlights key human rights issues currently affecting women on the continent, putting them within the context of the debates happening at the 13th African Union Summit. The theme for the summit, held from 24 June to 3 July 2009, is ‘Investing in agriculture for economic growth and development’.
The special issue puts the women’s agenda within the theme of the summit, as well as highlighting other violations against women that need to be addressed by African leaders. It is a call on all African Union member states to ratify, domesticate and implement the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women as it provides a framework for the protection of women in Africa.
Global downturn: What now for African women?
Women's rights and the world financial meltdown
Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi
A call to action: Implement the Africa Women's Rights Protocol
Norah Matovu Winyi
Promoting women's land rights at the 13th AU Summit
Lyn Ossome
Safeguarding women’s rights will boost food security
Mary Wandia
Denied the right to a dignified life:
The forgotten women of Africa
Anushka Sehmi
Sustainable development for all
Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP)
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc Katie Freeland: klf photographyEfforts to increase domestic revenue and reduce dependency on foreign donors and the allocation of substantial resources to education and health are among the aspects of the new budget welcomed by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme's (TGNP) budget analysis task team. Critical of plans to privatise water and the government's prioritisation of large-scale producers over peasant and small-holder farmers in its response to the economic crisis, TGNP has called for more measures to ensure that the budget 'adequately serves the majority of Tanzanians, especially poor and marginalised women, children, and the disabled'.
Promoting women's land rights at the 13th AU summit
Lyn Ossome
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc MaristellaWith Sirte, Lybia, hosting the 13th African Union summit this week, Lyn Ossome of Solidarity for African Women's Rights (SOAWR) challenges African heads of state to keep women's land rights on the developmental agenda. At a time of marked global economic difficulty, women remain acutely vulnerable to unstable food prices and restricted access to land, meaning that African governments must now more than ever challenge discriminatory laws and customs, Ossome argues. If the AU's summit is offer progress, Ossome contends, African heads of state must make strong commitments to policies favourable to women's empowerment such as subsidising non-industrial agriculture and securing women's land tenure.
The fallacies of identity politics
Audrey Mbugua
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc Liz HenryDeeply concerned about the profound discrimination experienced by Kenya's transgender community, Audrey Mbugua berates Kenyan society for its unjust treatment of a marginalised group. Rather than creating 'transgender rights' per se, Mbugua calls upon the country to view transgender people as human beings like any other group. Deeply scathing of Kenya's entrenched 'trans-phobia' and the divisive nature of different groups' competing for recognition, the author implores those marginalised to see themselves as part of a wider struggle for justice that transcends identity politics.
Beyond mere 'brotherhood' and 'sisterhood'
Godwin Murunga
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc J FrancisIn a response to 'Kenyan men should zip up and grow up' in last week's Pambazuka, Godwin Murunga charges that Wandia Njoya's letter smacks of intellectual laziness. Suggesting that Njoya's argument ignores entirely the attitudinal gains in gender relations made over previous years, Murunga emphasises that it is highly misleading to cast all men as equal recipients of 'patriarchal dividends'. Stressing that the problem of 'flawed masculinity' is in some respects actively fuelled by women themselves, Murunga underlines the inherent destructiveness of short-sighted generalisations.
Peace is a mere illusion when rape continues
Stephen Lewis
2008-09-10, Issue 395
Here is an unassailable truth: if sexual violence is not addressed during the course of a conflict, then sexual violence will haunt the post-conflict period, and make of the ostensible peace a mockery for half the population....
Lost in a haystack: gender equality in aid effectiveness
Florence E. Etta
2008-08-26, Issue 394
Early in September 2008 the world will hold another one of its mega gatherings in Accra Ghana - the third high level forum on aid effectiveness. World leaders will convene to append their priceless signatures to a document now popularly called the tr...
Violence against women in Africa: from discrimination to impunity
A call for ratification and implementation of the Maputo Protocol
2008-08-07, Issue 392
African Women’s Day gives us the opportunity to remember that gender-based violence is one of the most serious and widespread violations of the basic rights of women, particularly on the African continent. Gender discrimination is both one of the causes and an aggravating factor of the consequences of violence against women, thus contributing to the perpetuation of impunity of such cases....
Enforcement of the Sexual Offences Act in Kenya
Anne Kithaka
2008-08-05, Issue 392
INTRODUCTION Is the criminal justice system in Kenya well equipped to protect women from gender-based violence? This a critical question because in July this year, the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) is celebra...
From frameworks and norms on SGBV to action
FAWE in Sierra Leone
Eileen Hanciles
2008-07-14, Issue 388
FAWE is a Pan- African organization with operations in thirty-five countries in Africa. FAWE Sierra Leone was started in 1995, at the height of the civil war. One of the Chapter’s many emergency intervention which was borne from the determination of women to restore dignity to other women and girls is the programme of assistance to victims of gender –based violence in internally displaced camps, returnees and juveniles in domestic settings. In February 1999, after the allied forces regained control of the capital, it was reported that a number of FAWE school students were raped while the rebels were retreating. As some of these victims had already been subjected to rape in their areas of origin, FAWE decided to address the issue of rape once and for all, break the silence and create a culture that says no to violence against women.
The role of Parliament in ending Impunity on SGBV in Sierra Leone
Bernadette Lahai
2008-07-14, Issue 388
As a gender activist and secondly, as a Parliamentarian, I will provide an understanding of the Sierra Leone Parliament by highlighting its work thus far in relation to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). I will give a situational analysis of the prevalence and incidence of sexual and gender-based violence in Sierra Leone before, during and after the war and its consequences on women, girls and society at large. This will be followed by responses of government bodies at ending sexual and gender-based violence. I will then give an insight into the laws of Sierra Leone as far as they relate to sexual and gender-based violence. The role of the Sierra Leone Parliament in addressing sexual and gender-based violence will be next described, followed by a discussion on how Parliament partnered with CSO in this regard and end by making suggestions for the way forward for effective strategies to address impunity in Africa.
Women, water and sanitation: going the extra mile
Catherine Irura
2008-06-10, Issue 379
This year's African Union Summit, 24th June to 1st July 2008, will be on ‘Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation’. What should African leaders take into account when thinking about how to meet these goals and those of The African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa? Catherine Irura tackes this question.
Gender perspective on water and sanitation
Roselynn Musa
2008-06-10, Issue 379
What does gender have to do with issues of sanitation and water? Roselyenn Musa gives us a multi-faceted gender perspectives that consider the role of African governments, gender awareness and water privatization amongst others. The upcoming mid-year African Union (AU) summit of heads of state and government
Gender and water, and sanitation in Mozambique
SOAWR
2008-06-10, Issue 379
Using Mozambique as a case study, the author looks at gender in water and sanitation. Is patriarchy standing in the way of sanitation and better health? What should be done about it? Water and Sanitation are critical elements in a sustainable livelihood strategy
Burundi: Access to water is a human right
Concilie Gahungere
2008-06-10, Issue 379
If women had control over water as resource "they would be better placed to manage its use, especially in agriculture, which is the principal economic activity in Burundi, and is controlled by women." Concilie Gahungere looks at access to water in relation to gender using Burundi as a case study.
Peace with sexual violence is still war!
Stephen Lewis
2008-06-05, Issue 378
When my co-Director of AIDS-Free World, Paula Donovan, visited in November, and observed that the war being waged against women “may well be the most savage display of misogyny ever orchestrated in a conflict zone”, she was right. Terrible, unspeakable things have been done to the women of DR Congo, writes Stephen Lewis. It isn’t enough to stop the shooting when the raping continues apace. The only worthwhile armistice restores peace for the entire population, male and female. There can be no satisfaction in claiming a truce or a peace treaty which is soaked in the carnage of the women of the land. If all the peacekeepers were women, and the men of a country were under pervasive sexual assault, do you think the women would simply observe the carnage?
Double jeopardy of women migrants
Romi Fuller
2008-06-05, Issue 378
Although often overlooked amidst the shocking images and stories emanating from the xenophobic attacks of the last two weeks, there is a gendered face of xenophobia, says Romi Fuller. Foreign women face the double jeopardy of belonging to and being at the intersection of two groups so vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and violence. This something the country must consider as it moves towards healing and responding to the needs of the injured and displaced.