Tanzanian Travels
by Sarah-Beth Watkins

Sarah Beth, second from the right, with, from left, Maeve Taylor (Banúlacht), Fatma Alloo (TAMWA) and Gemma Akilimali (TGNP), at the TGNP Gender Festival (see below).

Key issues for African women and actions for solidarity were shared with the eight women who travelled to Tanzania as part of a learning exchange organised by Banulacht. Following an intensive itinerary, the women met with the Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme, Kivulini Women’s Rights Organisation and other projects to discuss their programmes, share their experiences and be shown the reality of African women’s lives. The aim of the exchange was realised through meetings with women’s groups, economic empowerment projects and policy workers.

Travelling to the North of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar meant a hectic trip with 8 flights over 13 days but it truly gave an eye opening view of the struggles African women face, the society they are hoping to change and the transformation that has already begun through the hard work of the African feminist movement.

This year saw the 8th Gender Festival organised by TGNP and entitled ‘African Feminist Struggles in the Context of Globalisation’. The festival is a collective event for sharing skills, experience and capacity. It features plenary discussions, an African feminist night, workshops, presentation of case studies, artistic performances, celebration and networking. Sixteen workshops were held over 4 days to look at key issues, linked by the over-arching theme of gender. Discussions were held on bodily integrity, water rights, struggles over natural resources, HIV, gender based violence, corruption and much more. And the sessions ended with participants making demands of their government. Not the softer recommendations that we might offer but challenging demands and a call for immediate response and action. Petitions were signed and later presented to the respective ministers.

Demonstration by Gender Festival Participants

We had an idea of the poverty and struggles African women face but the Gender Festival also showed us their strength. It was the group’s first experience of being in Tanzania and meeting with women working for women’s empowerment. Mary Rushimbi of TGNP said, ‘We are not all victims. We are very good doers. Yes, there is trouble in Africa but there is also organising.’

The women are strong and they are vocal. I watched as women grabbed the microphones to tell the audience that rural women demand an education, that women must be involved in the national economy, that combating patriarchy is a must, that women will no longer sit by and watch large transnational companies destroy their environment through the pillaging of Tanzania’s own natural resources – the list goes on but what shocked us even more was that men too were making these demands.

A young man stood up and told the crowd that he believed women to be an important part of society and that patriarchy must end. He was followed by a male university teacher who added that women can also be patriarchal and oppressive of their own gender. Women present agreed and also spoke of men suffering from patriarchy.
This was gender being discussed in a way that those of us who work in women-only spaces found challenging. Men were as vocal here as women. Did this put women and their issues in the shade? Or was there more of a balance here than we had expected? Was gender equality really working? It took a visit to rural Mwanza for us to realise that women were still being oppressed and abused. The balance was still far from being equal.

We were incredibly lucky to make contact with Maimuna Kanyamala of Kivulini Women's Rights Organisation, who was studying at the Developmetn Studies Centre in Kimmage, Dublin. Maimuna facilitated a session on Tanzania culture during the first part of our orientation course, and then organised a programme for us in Mwanza, near Lake Victoria. The eight women from Ireland divided into pairs and spent a day with four different organisations in and around Mwanza. The following day the whole group, women from Ireland and the representatives of the Mwanza organisations participated in a reflection session facilitated by Maimuna.
Sarah Beth WAtkins with Maimuna Kanyamala

Kivulini Women’s Rights Organisation is based in Mwanza, in the North of Tanzania, on the banks of Lake Victoria. Kivulini’s vision is to have a community that is free from domestic violence and where women’s rights are respected and valued. Jo Lambe and myself spent two days with the Kivulini project finding out from the inside what life for women in Mwanza is really like.

It’s not a pretty story. High on a hill above the project sits the local hospital, recently bought out by an American company, and now charging such high health care fees that none of the women can afford it.
Women's Group in Mwanza

Kivulini tries to combat this lack of affordable care by teaching women about medicinal plants, showing them how to prepare aloe and neem oil for aids related skin conditions, to use basil tea for a tonic and to prepare artemesia to improve stomach function. Their work doesn’t stop there. They teach child domestic labourers the skill of sewing so that they can set up their own business. They operate a legal aid centre which deals with cases of rape and abuse. They support rural women’s projects and work endlessly to empower women to claim their human rights.

Take the Buyumbo group we visited in the Nyamadoke village. These are elderly women living in constant fear of being condemned as witches. Women who cook over charcoal stoves for most of their lives end up with red bloodshot eyes. Red eyes are seen as the sign of a witch. And witches are disposed of with machetes. Maimuna from the Kivulini project told us that one outreach group of 15 was reduced to 9 on her last visit, the women having ‘disappeared’. Yet these women welcome us with open arms and bright, happy smiles, showing us their tribal dances and laughing at our attempts to speak Swahili. The sense of community spirit is so strong and the spirit of being an African woman remains unbroken.
Buyumbo Women's Group

Kivulini aims to help in as many ways as it can. Just down the dirt track from these women is a project that produces candle lamp oil from the jatropha nut. This burns clearly and with minimal smoke, women who use it can avoid red eye. This oil might just save their lives. But Kivulini knows that there is more to change than just the physical requirements of Mwanza people. Women will still be called witches if perceptions of older women are not changed. Women’s awareness of themselves as second class citizens has to change but in a world where the raping of young girls and the killing of older women is common, marriage and the security of being protected by a male breadwinner helps to create the subordinate role and positioning of women. 56% of African women believe that their man has a right to beat them.

Kivulini see challenges ahead. They want to change the way women think of themselves as lesser people. They are challenging the effects of globalisation, in particular foreign investment, displacement and access to water. Young girls are suffering from early pregnancies and can no longer avail of education. Kivulini wants to change this and believes that there should be free education at primary and secondary level. They aim to make that a reality. Extracting oil from beans to make soap: income generating project run by Kivulini<

This project showed us both the horrors and the happiness of women’s life in rural Tanzania. The women and their projects are fighting for change. We questioned what we could do to help. Was it about buying shoes for bare footed children? Should our own organisations donate something? Our immediate reaction was the quick fix but women in Africa don’t need sticking plasters, they need long-term solutions. Gemma, from TGNP, summed up that, ‘International policies are affecting us negatively. We look at you, our Northern sisters, to support us with your critical voice’.


Meeting the Ambassador

Banúlacht Exchange Group with the Irish Ambassador to Tanzania, Anne Barrington, centre, and Irish Aid personnel, Lucy Merere, and William Carlos.

The new ambassador of the Irish Embassy in Tanzania, Anne Barrington, invited us to a lunch to discuss our trip to Tanzania and give us the opportunity to feedback on the projects we had seen. We used the time to link what we had seen to the need for long term funding for projects, to underline the need for a firm response to gender based violence and to impress upon the ambassador the situation of women in the north of the country and in more rural areas.