"...an entire community, or at least the designated decision makers, can have a stake in girls’ vaginas. That’s why elders can charge a higher bride price if the girl is 'unspoiled.'"
"Female circumcision, domestic violence, honor killings, acid burnings, dowry deaths…all the violence comes down to the vagina, and the control of it."
I am officially stepping away for the corporate Western mainstream news media space.
A thread.
I've been a journalist since I was 16 years old. I'm now 37. I have seen face-to-face that mainstream media outlets continue to perpetuate negative narratives about Africa. It's a narrative that highlights war, disease and disaster.
Re-telling this narrative to the global audience has not helped Africa. In fact, it often does the opposite.
The women of the Mau Mau uprising (the 1st post–war armed liberation struggle on the African continent)that gave rise to Kenya's independence,are often forgotten.
Muthoni wa Kirima joined the fight against the British at age 20 as a spy and rose up the ranks.She's 90 yrs old.
The British forces suppressed the Mau Mau uprising: burning fields of crops, poisoning rivers, dropping bombs.
Muthoni was wounded on two occasions but was never caught.
Muthoni describes her hair as her "history."It's been locked ever since she joined the Mau Mau in Kenya's Aberdare Forest (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site)to fight the British colonizers.
Locked hair became associated with the Mau Mau,tagged by the Brits as terrorists/savages.
On Feb 4, 1999, a young West African man named #AmadouDiallo was standing in front of his New York City apartment when 4 cops shot him 41 times, thinking Diallo had a gun - he was only carrying his wallet.
The 4 cops were all found not guilty.
His mother, Kadiatou Diallo, flew to New York from her home in Guinea when she heard that her son was killed.
Married at the age of 13, Kadiatou was pregnant with Amadou at age 16. They had a close bond. He wanted to go to America to study computer science. She supported his aspirations and helped him go to America.
"As China and Russia compete in what is effectively a new scramble for Africa, African countries should come to the realisation that it is in the continent’s interests to negotiate fairer agreements..."
@dailymaverick Brookings explains China and Russia's growing influence on the emerging economies of developing nations explained this way:
@dailymaverick China’s influence is often described as a form of economic colonisation, adding to the debt burden of developing nations through massive infrastructure projects, project financing and investments in the extractive industries.
To the African men who say women belong in the home/the kitchen:
"What is not traditional is restricting [African] women to the kitchen. The African woman is a miracle of versatility. Mother, cultivator, market woman, negotiator."
- Ali Mazrui
“Women all over Africa are at least as central to the economy as men, and certainly more so than most Western women. Who says nature intended women to be just homemakers? Certainly not indigenous Africa.”
- Ali Mazrui speaking on traditional/indigenous societies in Africa
There is a false belief across Africa - largely perpetuated by men - that African tradition calls for women to be restricted to home, specifically the kitchen.
But there is so much research that contradicts this. This belief was introduced to Africa by the Arabs and Westerners.
Attention on the extremist group #BokoHaram is dwindling. Some may feel the topic isn't "sexy" anymore.
But there's still a conflict raging in the Lake Chad area. People are still getting killed. Women are still getting kidnapped.
For those who are unfamiliar with Boko Haram and what's going on in northeast Nigeria/Lake Chad region, I recommend following Abdulkareem Haruna's reporting on @PremiumTimesng