Our Voice of Africa”: It Is Less Tive
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first word still face challenges of access to information, reproductive and maternal health, and edu- cation (Erken ); “female poverty” aects many women in sub-Saharan Africa. As such, there is a need for a voice that represents this complex constituency of women. For this purpose, the nonliberative voice seen in, among others, Shakuntala Hawoldar’s poem To Be a Woman (Chipasula and Chipasula : ) is less than produc- “Our Voice of Africa”: It Is Less tive. is is because for Hawoldar to “be a Than Our Voice Without a woman, [is to be] a shadow without form. Woman’s Voice Wombing meaningless men in the endless chain of need; [t]o be worn on rainy days, by Amanda Tumusiime like colorless old shoes.” Such a voice would (re)produce women’s subjectivities that are In her poem Our Voice (Chipasula and irredeemably grounded in the essentialized Chipasula : –) Noémia de Sou- position of women as victims of an all-power- sa (–) speaks about “our voice of ful, omniscient, and omnipresent patriarchy Africa” as that voice that is liberative; that that regulates their mobility and choices. voice which opens “up new ways” and “lights Trapped in this (mainly domestic) space, up remorse … and burns glimmers of hope the kind of voice women would contribute 1 Lilian Nabulime in the dark souls of desperate people” who to the collective African voice would be an Feminist (2017) Stump of a coffee tree; 45 cm x 60 cm x 50 cm cry out for emancipation from “slavery.” expression of agony, continuous abuse, and exploitation. Artist’s collection at voice which creates new possibilities by Photo: courtesy of the artist awakening a “cyclone of knowledge.” at e better voice, in my view, is that voice which can persistently and eectively produced by the woman in Amina Saïd’s Lilian Nabulime is a female contemporary represent the aspirations of “millions of voices My Woman’s Transparence (Chipasula and Ugandan artist. She has used art to situate that shout, shout and shout!” for freedom and Chipasula : –). Her subjectivity is not and speak about women’s experiences shaped self-actualization. conned; she is situated in a world of unlim- by HIV/AIDs. She recently returned to these Implicit in Noémia’s poem is the contention ited possibilities (cast against “the whole sea experiences in her exhibition Dreams and that there is a particular kind of voice which as its mirror”) from which she can inuence Consequences: Makerere Campus Girls’ Views situates Africans into “speaking positions” tastes and decisions and advocate for unity of Womanhood and HIV/AIDS () hosted (Simbao et al. : ) from which they using her powerful voice, which “plays echo at the Institute of Heritage Conservation collectively generate knowledge, challenge to its thunder and to its murmurs.” and Research at Makerere University. e hegemonic exploitation, and resist oppression. Such a voice would allow women to exhibition coincided with the debate, in the is is the voice that can overcome the power address the wider issues aecting Africans. print and electronic media, on Stella Nyanzi’s structures laid by the north against the south; By taking such a stance women like Pres- activism and the government’s highhand- structures that have for decades muted our col- ident Ellen Johnson Serleaf of Liberia and ed reactions to it. Of particular interest to lective voice as Africans. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Mutha Nabulime was that, while in the middle of her However, for this voice to remain fresh Maathai (–) of Kenya have made ordeal, Nyanzi remained steadfast, making a (like Noémia’s “due of the bush”) and signicant contributions to their countries. case that went beyond her personal interests rise above patriarchal interests (based on ey participated in the shaping of their to demand action on things that aect the Noémia’s “selshness of men”) it must include nation-states (Tripp ); they took a stand lives of many women and girls in Uganda. In the voices of women. Women constitute over for not just their rights but those of others the process Nyanzi was “liberating herself and half of both world and African populations; as well (including the environment, in the also liberating others.” Uganda’s population is . women and case of Maathai). In Uganda, Stella Nyanzi Paying homage to Stella Nyanzi’s liberative . men (National Planning Authority is embroiled in a bitter ght with Makerere voice, Nabulime produced her sculpture Fem- ). Women provide the labor that sustains University and the government of Uganda. inist (Fig. ). Stella Nyanzi, Wangari Mutha the continent’s agricultural economy. Yet, She has, however, gone beyond ghting Maathai, and Ellen Johnson Serleaf, among although through armative action programs for personal privileges (including career other elite women activists, have adopted many women are enjoying better lives, the development and oce space) to raise gov- a dress code based on textiles printed with majority of women in the developing world ernance questions (Kakande ). She has used graphic language to challenge Uganda’s “African” motifs, matching headgears, and Amanda Tumusiime is a senior lecturer at president, Yoweri Museveni, and his wife locs to assert themselves as African, feminist Makerere University and senior research asso- and minister for education Janet Kataaha activists. In Feminist Nabulime refers to this ciate at Rhodes University. She is an African Museveni, on their inability to honor a self-identication and the self-actualization Studies Association presidential fellow and a campaign promise to give sanitary pads to that comes with it. She literally turned a Fulbright African research scholar, as well as school-going girls. As a result Nyanzi joined coee stump upside down to benet from a fellow of the Next Generation of African Ac- a global conversation on women’s repro- the natural arrangement of its roots, which ademics and fellow for the American Council ductive rights through an activist campaign she preserves in an interlocking coiure. e for the Learned Societies. She is a painter, art dubbed “conscious menstruation” for which inversion, however, was also metaphorical. historian with an interest in contemporary Af- she has been jailed. She is currently in court It tted well with her strategy to invert the rican art, and women’s rights activist. tumu- battling a state-sponsored attempt to declare patriarchal power economy that dominates [email protected] her insane and thus permanently silence her, women in Uganda. She argues that she made using an outdated colonial law. the work to celebrate women like Stella VOL. 51, NO.2 SUMMER 2018 african arts Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/afar_a_00398 by guest on 25 September 2021 | Nyanzi who “place the woman’s voice beyond greatest good for a polis. Mamdani. 2017. “Commentaries on Professor Sylvia the narrow connes set around women’s lives 4 e argument that Nyanzi was ghting for Tamale’s Inaugural Lecture, Nudity, Protest and the personal privilege has been emphasized in Bezabeh, Law in Uganda, School of Law, Makerere University.” by the patriarchal society.” Ossome, and Mamdani (2017). It is, however, not MISR Working Papers No. 28. In sum, Africa needs a collective voice to agreed. For example, Sylvia Tamale argues that Nyanzi Chipasula, Stella, and Frank Mkalawile Chipasula. speak about exploitation, challenge marginal- was appropriating culture to express dissent. She 1995. e Heinemann Book of African Women’s Poetry. ization, and resist oppression. However, if this did not oend any written law; her rights need to be Heinemann African Writers Series. London: Pearson protected (Tamale 2016). voice is to service a common good and qual- Education. ify as truly “our voice of Africa,” then its tone 5 Controversy surrounds the issue of menstruation has to be modied to accommodate liberative in Uganda; it is shrouded with taboos and stigma. Erken, Arthur (ed.). 2017. e State of the World Popu- Consequently, the education of some girls is aected lation. New York: UNFPA. voices of women. Short of this, our voice of because they have to spend a number of days every Kakaire, Sulaiman. 2017. “Nuwagaba: ‘Mental Africa will continue to reect the same old month at home during menstruation. Some have Disability’ or Victim of Institutional Abuse?” e noises made by Noémia’s “criminals” and abandoned school altogether. Observer Online, 1 December. http://observer.ug/news/ 6 Soa Sandari denes this notion as the “pro- selsh men, especially the power-hungry headlines/56265-nuwagaba-mental-disability-or-vic- found awakening that is possible when we embrace political male elite who have ruled many Afri- tim-of-institutional-abuse.html can states since independence. our monthly bleeding with deep awareness and self-love.” See her posts on How to Make the Most Kakande, Angelo. 2017. “On Collin Sekajugo’s e Out of Your Menstruation: http://soasundari.com/ Fist of Stella Nyanzi: Exhibition and the Gendered Notes the-power-of-conscious-menstruation/ Power Economy in Uganda.” In Moses Serubiri (ed.), 1 Here I am not limiting African-ness to an essen- 7 Called e Mental Health Treatment Act, Concerning Nuditude, pp. 47–59. www.academia. tialized racial category. enacted in 1938, this law allows the state to compulso- edu/31698134/BULLET_ConCerning-nuditude. 2 e voice in Katrina Rungano’s e Woman rily arrest, detain, and try any person for being insane. National Planning Authority. 2015. Second National can be cited here as an example. Rungano produced Once proved guilty, the aected person is committed Development Plan 2015/16–2019/20 (NDPII). a young woman who had lost sense of pride; her to an institution for treatment. However, this law Kampala. “body was weary and [her] heart tired” because of has been abused; the state uses it to silence critiques the gender-based violence and exploitation she faced (Kakaire 2017).