By Charles Mustapha Kayoka
Indeed fighting poverty, especially among women in rural area,
requires a multi-pronged approach. Any efforts that seek to alleviate
poverty using only one method, let us say, the economic approach of
giving women loans and related assistance is unlikely to yield
successful results.
For it is important for gender activists to realize that when we
discuss women's powerlessness we need to recognized their existence is
a crushing intersection of factors of oppression; that only from that
understanding shall we be able to design effective strategies for
their liberation.
Important still is the need for understanding of what women themselves
indicate as their priority factor of oppression to be tackled and
eliminated. Talking to women of Ugogoni hamlet in Kongwa district
recently they indicated, for instance, that it was true that the
economic factor presented a daunting challenge and that their
existence was made difficult for their inability to make ends meet.
It was not true, they indicated, that they did not work hard. The main
problem was lack of market for their farm produces and the fact that
they were living in poverty. Poverty, the said, made local market of
their products unable to find buyers.
"Almost all women in the village do one thing or another for
generating financial income, but it is the lack of market that fail
us. At times we make local brew, but we still cannot sell it at a
profit. People are just poor,'' indicated Naomi Maswaga (50), a
resident at Ugogoni. She said it was difficult to tell when they would
sell the only cash-crop- groundnuts.
"During harvesting we sell it at a very cheap price. At this period of
the year everyone is bankrupt and they cannot afford to buy groundnuts
at a higher price. It is like living in a circle,'' she laments.
However, for Naomi and other women, poverty and lack of market for
their farm produce are not as big problems.
For them it is the unequal gender relationships at the family level
that poses greater challenge and draws them back to endless poverty.
If one spoke of children, or orphans, for instance, it has become an
automatic responsibility for women. Both young and older men do not
see it as part of their responsibility, ''but when the children
already grow up they will come to claim them, and without any sense of
gratitude.'' In her opinion, this is exploitation of women's labour
and meagre resources. But it is also the sexual oppression and
exploitation of women which feminist have always talked about.
Referring to her won experience Naomi said when she separated from her
husband, who later died, members of her husbands family never assisted
her with the children up keep, apart from the fact that they
confiscated all family property.
''But when children grew up to full beings, paternal relatives came to
dispossess me of the same. And we have no way of protecting ourselves
and redressing the situation located in rural areas as we are.''
Elizabeth Mololo (36) is not happy with men's self-given exclusive
right to control family property ''despite the fact that we all
contributed to their production.''
That when a woman with such a husband protests she will be told to
"shut for these are not your property. I married you with money paid
to your family.''
And he may use the property jointly gained with the wife to marry
another wife and 'without seeking and prior consent from me.''
Elizabeth demands equal right to the control of family property and
that when a husband wants to dispose of some of the property there
should be consultation between the couples. ''And I want to physically
see the article he bought out of it, for it becomes our joint
possession as well. But men would not tell what they have done with
the money.''
"In my case, I lived like a slave for my partner never involved me in
anything. He would take things out of the house and sell them. I was
working very hard on our joint farm but always remained poor,''said
Agness Mtwale (21), who was married at a very early age by a man who
impregnated her out of wedlock.
Her partner decided to marry a second wife out of property they
produced together and when she protested her husband asked her to
leave the house.
"He actually forced me out of the house as if I haven't had a baby
with him. He even asked me to take the child with me. And he does not
contribute towards the baby's up keep.'' The women said things become
worse for the woman if she can't produce a marriage certificate.
Although laws of the land demand that the woman should share the
property jointly acquired with her partner even if their joint stay is
as short as only three months, women in rural areas are not aware of
that. But the main problem is that both the policy, the reconciliation
councils and primary courts still make decisions that favour
patriarchy.
"I lived with my husband for several years in Mburahati Dar-es-Salaam,
and I had two children with him. When we broke apart, and he later
died, both my children and I were not allowed by the family to own
them since I could not produce marriage certificate,'' explains Naomi
who exiled herself to Kongwa from Dar-es-Salaam after she was
divorced. Her years of stay with her husband are not taken as a proof
of a couple who jointly acquired the property.
A woman is not even sure whether she should get children or remain
without one. Either way it does not make men happy. Sikujua Elias (32)
was ''kicked'' away by her partner she lived with at Vingunguti in
Dar-es-Salaam for her inability to get children quickly.
"We started life together with this man. After some time we managed to
raise enough money for our joint business. I got only one kid then, he
was not happy. He sacked me and decided to go to his home region,
Kilimanjaro, to marry another woman who he said would bear him many
children,'' said Sikujua who decided to go back to Kongwa after that.
At Kongwa she befriended another man. ''Things turned against me once
again when I become pregnant. The man said he was not prepared for the
child and he kicked me as well. Indeed, you cannot tell what do men
want.'' Sikujua says she is not going to be married again. ''I don't
see any reason for me getting married'' says Josina Machimo (23). She
is of the view that marriage can never be a viable existential
alternative for a girl.
"That is why I want to find a job or any engagement that will give me
my own money and property. I am not ready to live in a relationship
that makes me poor and subjects me to endless oppression.'' It is
clear to some of us that it is not that women, particularly in rural
areas are not aware that they live in an oppressive marital
relationship.
The problem has always been getting a proper forum in which to explain
their sorry situation. But this all comes down to the fact that in
such a state of affairs giving women financial loans, wanted as they
may be, will not effect any recourse to happier life for their bully
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