Women’s Rights in Africa Archive
Redistributed Marriage
Posted by jimheck in Charity, Culture, Economy, Perceptions of Africa, Women's Rights in Africa on October 11, 2012
We should be incensed by the privileged often American tourist to rural Africa who characterizes want and poverty as some kind of pristine Garden of Eden that should just be left alone. After her “first visit to Kenya,” a recent American tourist asked in her blog: “The Maasai culture and traditions are pure, so why [...]
The ERA is in Africa
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Culture, Women's Rights in Africa on April 9, 2012
Many societies in Africa are daring to challenge the oppression of women in a way that if even partially successful will leave America in their dust. Both the young Kenyan and South African constitutions mandate up to a third of public positions be filled by women and many of the other African countries are not [...]
Giants of Gender Equality
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Culture, Women's Rights in Africa on January 30, 2012
Did you hear about women’s boxing coming to the Olympics? Did you hear about women businesspeople becoming village elders in Kenya? Issues today are global, and it’s fascinating to see their actual quantitative positions relative to the developed and developing world. Wealth inequality, for example, seems to be gaining much greater traction in the developed [...]
Wangari Maathai
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Environment, Women's Rights in Africa on October 3, 2011
Wangari Maathai was known above all for planting trees, and last week she will be cremated since she insisted she not be buried in a wooden coffin. Few people carry such a presence in life that it continues into their death. Many discounted Maathai’s 2004 Peace Prize as the Nobel Committee’s trend towards politicizing peace, [...]
The Frustrating Resilience of Early Marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa
Posted by jimheck in Politics, Women's Rights in Africa on April 10, 2010
By Conor Godfrey This week the Swedish ambassador to Tanzania, Mr. Staffan Herrstrom, spoke to the Tanzanian daily The Citizen about early and/or forced marriage in Tanzanian society. He spoke poignantly about his conversations with girls and young women across Tanzania, and outlined some of the social repercussions of forcing girls to wed at such [...]