African women work to change way of life

Ashley Slovinski

Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: News

"If we can save the women of Africa, we can save Africa," former Johannesburg CNN bureau chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault proclaimed.

An eager crowd listened to this "new news" in the Quinlan Life Science Auditorium on Feb. 27.

Hunter-Gault spoke about "African Women on the Move." Although a large number of refugees have migrated in recent years from genocide-ridden nations such as Uganda, the movement Hunter-Gault talked about is the social and political changes brought about by women in Africa to improve the way of life on their continent.

Betsy Ehemenway, director of Loyola's Women's Studies Program, introduced Hunter-Gault, giving the audience a brief history of her journalistic career. "I grew up in a time when seeing women on the nightly news was unusual, but I saw this calm, poised African American woman who got there by a lot of determination," Ehemenway said.

Hunter-Gault was one of the first two black students to attend the University of Georgia and has written for many publications, including The New Yorker and The New York Times, earning multiple awards including Journalist of the Year from the National Association of Black Journalists.

She has also written two books: a memoir, In My Place, and New News out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance.

After thanking those who sponsored the event, she dove right into the main reason for being there that evening.

She talked of "a second wind of change blowing over Africa" - the first being the end of colonialism - and that this change was because of women. South African women are on the move both politically and economically, according to Hunter-Gault, and this change influences other African nations. In 1994, Uganda elected Africa's first female vice president and in 2005 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia, making her the first female president of an African nation.

"The power of women [in Africa] is accelerating," Hunter-Gault said. The women are trying to reach a 50-50 gender representation within African governments to fight issues such as femicide and rape as weapons of war. While many countries are behind in developing this goal, countries such as Rwanda and South Africa are coming close. Despite the progress, however, she said African women "still have miles to go before they can reach parity with the men."

African women are also finding it hard to move forward due to "a relentless spiral of poverty and disease and because they become victims of war," Hunter-Gault said. Women who are victims of war are raped, and their sexual organs are either mutilated or destroyed. Between 2006 and 2007, there were 13,000 survivors recorded, 4,200 of whom were children.

"These are the only known ones, however," she said.

The U.N. has deemed the genocide in the Sudan "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."

However, "no amount of criticism has done enough to stop the carnage or to convince the government of Sudan to step in," Hunter-Gault said. "There is no way to know how many millions of women are being victimized. Too many are silenced or too traumatized to speak."

Women are not just victims of war; many are falling victim to HIV/AIDS as well. Of all adults in Sub-Saharan Africa, 59 percent are women, and one male to every three females is infected with AIDS in South Africa. One out of every three pregnant women is HIV positive. "This is the worst epidemic in current history, and South Africa is the worst disaster area," Hunter-Gault said.

There are two bright lights, she said. Research has shown that male circumcision can reduce a man's risk of infection by 50 to 60 percent. And although there are few vaccines to protect women, there is one that consists of triple therapy early on in pregnancy, which "may change the prediction of 10 million AIDS orphans in South Africa alone," according to Hunter-Gault.

"African women are in the forefront of the fight against AIDS," Hunter-Gault said. Women are starting orphanages that have never been a part of the African way of life but are now becoming a necessity. Women are also in the forefront of the medical field to find what is needed to fight the disease.

"I am convinced that solutions will come out of Africa from projects such as these, led by caring, determined women," she said.

She stressed that Africa cannot do it alone.

"Villages are rural centers connected only by roads, which are impossible to travel during the rainy season and are not much better during the dry seasons," Hunter-Gault said. She said that the African governments need international help to rebuild roads, bridges and infrastructures "destroyed by man and his war."

Africa is also in desperate need of a better educational system, she said. "If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation."

She also called for more than just humanitarian approaches from the international community. "It is important and necessary in uniting to confront new kinds of enemies: terrorism of human rights abuse, terrorism of disease, terrorism of a lack of education and terrorism of poverty and hopelessness," Hunter-Gault said.

She said that the women of Africa are "determined to crush the conditions that keep them from their full freedom." She also called all women to action, including those in America, to join with the women of Africa to pave the way.

She encourages students to get involved by writing about the crisis and providing others with the necessary information to join organizations dedicated to similar causes. She suggested that students could also start letter-writing campaigns, call local TV stations and organize groups such as Invisible Conflicts to raise awareness throughout their campus and communities.

© Copyright 2009 The Phoenix

Article Link