NEW AFRICAN WOMAN Why women are wasted IN MAY this year senior women in the to under-developed countries in the with the Secretariat's Education Division to African civil service will be joining a Commonwealth, the Women and Develop- ensure that women's interests in this field trainers-in-training course in Britain ment Unit was set up in the are protected. designed to develop their skills in Commonwealth Secretariat in 1980 and The unit is also co-operating with the organisation and communication. The financed by the Commonwealth govern- Secretariat's Medical Division and has two course is the result of the energetic work of ments. main aims, both concerned with water. The the Commonwealth Women and Develop- As a majority of women in Africa are first is to establish regular supplies of pure ment Unit and was set up in the knowledge engaged in agricultural production, the water to all villages and towns and enable that unless women in the Third World are Women and Development Unit works women to become more closely involved in involved in planning development they will closely with the Secretariat's Food water supply and environmental projects. not be fully integrated into any national Production and Rural Development The second is to warn mothers of the danger economic growth. Division (FPRD) on a number of of using infant food formulae with impure Women carry out some of the most action-oriented research projects. water and to explain the benefits of breast important functions within a society. Eighty One is being carried out in Tanzania at feeding. per cent of agricultural work (the backbone the moment. Tanzanian women felt that too of most African economies) is done by much of their time and energy was being Breast feeding women. At the same time they produce, spent on growing and cooking food. So it Zimbabwe was host to a joint raise and educate families, operating as was suggested that the women grow Commonwealth Secretariat, WHO (World health-workers, teachers and nutritionists winged beans in their shambas to see Health Organisation) and UNICEF in their own right. African women do most whether they grew and cooked faster than workshop in January this year. The of the subsistence farming as well as work other varieties. It was found that not only workshop intended to implement the in the informal sector. did the winged beans achieve both these international WHO code on the marketing The development of any country depends ends, but that certain parts of them could be of breastmilk substitutes. largely on the household contributions and turned into firewood. However, one final In the field of law, the unit is co-operating the economic production of women in each test has yet to be completed - to check how with the Secretariat's Legal Division, family. Many of the jobs these women do families respond to the taste of the new preparing papers on the implications of would be considered skilled or semi-skilled bean. family law for African women. Attempts if carried out by men in formal employment, In addition the unit is carrying out a are being made to change the land rights yet their contribution is not even included survey in the Gambia and Zimbabwe to find which in some countries still fall to the men in the Gross National Product of their out how to supply useful technology to even though an increasing number of them countries. Not only is women's work rated as minimise the amount of energy used by are leaving the rural areas to work in the economically unproductive labour but they women in villages on fetching water and towns while women stay behind and do all are rarely consulted when any development fuel and on growing, preparing and cooking the subsistence farming. Women cannot be programmes are being considered, even on staple foods. expected to feed their families if they have the areas ofworkmost closely associated with Two-thirds of adult women in the no rights to land. them. under-developed countries in the Common- These are just some of the Development Contrary to what many people think, wealth are illiterate. The Ministers of Unit's objectives. Adjustments and new women in the rural areas of Africa do know Health in African countries have paid a programmes are being made as the needs of what they want and give positive great deal of attention to non-formal the women change. Though the unit is still suggestions when consulted. The participa- education, and the unit is working closely in its infancy - it will take longer than two tion of women in the decisions which affect years to improve women's position in their lives and the tasks they perform is Overworked and underpaid - women do eighty percent of Africa's farming the Third World - it has made consider- essential. Without their consultation able progress. The unit was repre- positive development objectives will not be sented at the Heads of Commonwealth attained, not least because in disenfranchis- Conference held in New Zealand in 1981. It ing that half of the population who are in has not only had the support of all charge of the young means that a valuable Commonwealth governments and indepen- teaching potential is wasted. dent bodies, but has also been recognised at policy making levels. Women's decade But the most positive result of the unit's It was in the hope of bringing to light work has been the reaction of women these problems and improving the position themselves, particularly in Africa. Not only of women as a whole that the United have they put forward positive suggestions Nation's Decade for Women was launched for development, but they have responded in 1976. with enthusiasm to the workshops "Equality, development and peace" may organised by the unit. Those women who be the slogan for the decade, but three years have attended and learned have also taken before it ends, women are still overworked the initiative and set up their own and underpaid; their abilities wasted permanent workshops. The unit has through prejudice and ignorance. provided training manuals to assist these In response, and with particular attention women. Rizu Hamid 48 New African July 1983 SPORT AKEEM, THE US BASKETBALL DREAM A Nigerian student is rapidly carving out a niche for himself in the tough competitive world of American basketball Akeem Olajuwon has been causing sensation after sensation in the inter collegiate basketball tourneys and greater things are in store for . him. New African's Sports correspondent in Houston reports. A TALL young Nigerian student is driving them Lewis realised he had a potential match winner wild on the basketball courts in the United in the tall, awkward Nigerian but his first year States. Akeem Abdul Olajuwon, a 20 year old with the Houston Cougars was anything but business student has become the darling of the spectacular. He played for only a few minutes Houston Cougars basketball team and a during each game and he averaged a very national celebrity. The unknown Akeem modest 8.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Olajuwon has metamorphosed into "Akeem He was good and useful but he was not a star. The Dream" - with professional basketball A chance meeting with Moses Malone was to scouts lining up to try and get him to sign on. change all that. Malone is generally regarded as Akeem's dramatic rise to the top makes the best basketball player in the United States. fascinating reading: He had never contemplated At that time Malone played professionally with basketball seriously while at school in Nigeria. the Houston Rockets. He met Akeem at the Well-coordinated and athletic, the youngster Fonde recreation centre gym - where some of has set his sights on achieving prominence in the best players work out - and a firm friendship Akeem sinks another basket for the football. He was already a useful goalkeeper was struck. Moses took Akeem under his wing Cougars when he was discovered by Richard Mills, and began teaching him all the skills that coach of the Nigerian basketball national team. come only after years at the top at professional Akeem picked up the game fairly quickly and level. one year later was playing for the tough Muslim The young Nigerian's game improved out of Teachers College and the even tougher all recognition. Soon he was dominating all the Nigerian national team. During the seventh games he played in. The Houston Cougars' African Junior championships, Akeem was supporters raved about him, the national spotted by Chris Pond who worked in the US newspapers inevitably mentioned him in the State Department and had also coached sports columns and opponents spoke of him basketball in the Central African Republic. with awe and respect. Akeem the Dream had Pond had directed several African runners arrived. and athletes to the University of Houston's track Talking about Akeem Olajuwon's last season, team. The Houston coach, Guy Lewis was a Ray Patterson, the general manager of Houston good friend of Pond's and Pond has been Rockets said: "This is one of the greatest keeping a weather eye open for potential sports performances I have ever seen." Despite all the stars while he was in Africa. frenzy he excites in the US, Akeem's one fear is Pond told Lewis that he had found a great that people at home in Nigeria might dismiss his prospect for the university's basketball side. achievements as trifling. ROTHMANS CUP DYNAMOS FOR POWER THE first Rothmans Cup African amateur ranks to the Zambian FA first international soccer tournament, played at division in only three years.